PC HARDWARE

Yes, computer being assembled even by you makes computers nowadays affordable. But you’re maybe wondering, how can I assemble my own computer? In this case, computer knowledge most especially on the PC’s hardware aspect is needed to be able for you to assemble or customize your desire PC. For beginners, let me first give you an idea about computer hardware.

A computer set includes a variety of components; one of the most important of these is the System Units.

It houses your motherboard, video card, hard disk, optical disc drive, and other internal parts of your computer.

1. Motherboard – the most important components of the computer. At one point or another, every other component connects to the motherboard. It is the largest board of the computer system. Typically, the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots and controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive. Collectively, all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard’s chipset.

2. CPU (Central Processing Unit) – The CPU is the computer’s brain. This device does all of the processing within the computer. The popular CPU manufacturers are AMD, Intel, Cyrix and Motorola. CPU speeds are calculated in terms of megahertz, this is known as the clock speed.

3. RAM – Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of computer data storage. Today it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow the stored data to be accessed in any order, i.e. at random. The word random thus refers to the fact that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data. The word RAM is mostly associated with volatile types of memory (such as DRAM memory modules), where the information is lost after the power is switched off. However, many other types of memory are RAM as well (i.e. Random Access Memory), including most types of ROM and a kind of flash memory called NOR-Flash.

4. Power Supply Unit – (Computer PSU) is the component that supplies power to a computer. More specifically, a power supply is typically designed to convert 100-120 V (North America and Japan) or 220-240 V (Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) AC power from the mains to usable low-voltage DC power for the internal components of the computer. Some power supplies have a switch to change between 230 V and 115 V. Other models have automatic sensors that switch input voltage automatically, or are able to accept any voltage between those limits. The most common computer power supplies are built to conform to the ATX form factor. The most recent specification of the ATX standard is version 2.2, released in 2004. This enables different power supplies to be interchangeable with different components inside the computer. ATX power supplies also are designed to turn on and off using a signal from the motherboard (PS-ON wire, which can be shorted to ground to turn on the PSU outside the computer), and provide support for modern functions such as the standby mode available in many computers.

5. Video Card – a board that plugs into a personal computer, into the motherboard to be precise, to give it display capabilities. The display capabilities of a computer, however, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video card) and the display monitor. A monochrome monitor, for example, cannot display color no matter how powerful the video adapter. Modern video adapters contain memory, so adapters contain memory, so that the computer’s RAM is not used for storing displays. In addition, most adapters have their own graphics coprocessor for performing graphics calculations. These adapters often called Graphics Accelerators. Video Card is also called video adapter, video board, video display board, graphics card and graphics adapter.

Today there are motherboards with built-in video card. Although video graphics of this built-in video card is not so powerful as compared to a high-end video card, still produces desirable graphics. Advantage of this built-in video card is that it lessens your cost because it is already installed in the motherboard, however, it uses some of the memory of your computer’s RAM and that it’s disadvantage.

6. Hard Disk – a hard disk stores the files and programs in your computer. It is permanently connected to your computer. Today an ordinary hard disk can store up to 80 gigabytes of information.

7. Optical Disc Drive – an optical disc drive (ODD) is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves near the light spectrum as part of the process of reading and writing data. It is a computer's peripheral device that stores data on optical discs. Some drives can only read from discs, but commonly drives are both readers and recorders. Recorders are sometimes called burners or writers. Common media and technology families include CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc.

8. 3 ½ Floppy Disk Drive – is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible ("floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be confused with "fixed disk drive", which is another term for a hard disk drive.

The monitor, printer, keyboard, mouse, external speaker, AVR / UPS and external modem are other components of a computer aside from the System Unit. To be able to assemble or upgrade your own PC, computer hardware knowledge particularly in the System Unit is more important to acknowledge.

Source: wikipedia.org