Question by Goo Look: About being a computer hardware engineer?
I’m pretty interested in working with/installing computer hardware for example, PSU, GPU, motherboards.
Do computer hardware engineers do that, what do they do, how much do they earn and what does it take to become one?
Best answer:
Answer by J3RSH
computer engineers do a lot of that! Probably not as much installing but more inventing, improving, expanding etc., there are a lot of different fields for computer engineers, but they are mostly focused on developing better technology for specific tasks, for example a computer engineer who focuses more on the medical side of things would look into making better technology specifically for medical uses.
There are different levels of title that you can receive, but generally it is just 4 years of higher education for a bachelors in computer engineering. the profits are varying on where you live, the type of engineering you do, and how much experience you have, but usually start of no less than ,000 annual income.
hope this helps! this is what i am currently in college for, and i can tell you that it is a lot of work! but if it is really something you want to do, then do it!
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
With what you’re talking about you’d probably be more into being a general technician or working at a computer store like MSY or Centrecom. Working at shops like that you’d need to build computers and identify hardware etc.
Being a hardware engineer is all about designing and creating new CPU’s, video cards, motherboards etc (depending on what company you work for).
This Intel TV commercial (although it is supposed to be funny) is a good indication of what designing a new CPU is like. So many formulas and maths problems to remember! XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZ1Qg-k3Xc
Computer engineers (not to be confused with software engineers or computer scientists!) DESIGN hardware for computer systems. It is basically like applied electronics engineering; you work a LOT with chips and digital circuits and have to have an indepth knowledge of the physics behind what’s happening in order to design good circuitry. There is a lot of advanced mathematics, physics and electronic engineering involved.
You will have to get a computer engineering degree and then get lots of work experience interning or doing co-op jobs before you would get in with an engineering firm. There is lots of work available though! Everything and everyone needs computer chips these days, so you wouldn’t ever be without a job. Since engineering is a very mentally demanding job, it will take a lot of hard academic work to get there. You have to have a real love of your topic to be a good engineer. (My boyfriend is in his third year of Computer Engineering)
This isn’t really what you described though – you seem more interested in the higher-level application and manipulation than the design. Perhaps you should consider a computer science career, specializing in hardware systems? There would still be lots of opportunities for you to work inside machines… doing repairs, upgrades and testing, for example. In a very simplistic way, computer engineering is the creation of circuitry and computer science is using it.
If you wanted to do repairs and that sort of thing, you wouldn’t necessarily need a degree. But you would need to gain some solid knowledge and a lot of experience. You could work for a repair shop or work in an IT department of a large company, and service their machines.
People who install things into computers are either assembly-line workers (new computers) or repair technicians (computers already owned by people). People who design PSUs, GPUs and motherboard are engineers. You need at least a 4 year electrical engineering degree.