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| I think we all now what a computer is approximately. Most people will say it is a device with a lot of electronic devices in it where you can play games on, surf on the internet with, burn DVD’s with, download music with and do some office work on like e-mailing, making letters, making calculations, etc. Okay, that’s quite a good explanation isn’t it? But I want to give a bit more information about what it actually is and how it works. I also want you to have a look inside of it and explain what the components inside of it do, how they work and what they look like. I think everyone has a view of how a computer looks like and that that view is something like in the picture below. |
Let me give a short explanation of each component inside of it to help you understand how a computer works and how the components work together and what the functionality of each component is.
After reading this page and the pages with the detailed description you will be able to understand how a computer works and how it is build up.
1. Motherboard
The motherboard is the main part. The motherboard is the board where all other components are attached to. A motherboard is also called system board or main board.
For a detailed description, see the motherboard page.
2. Power supply
The power supply is a very important component. Without one the computer will not work. The right power supply takes care that the computer performs optimal. The power supply transforms the voltage of the power point to different voltages which the computer needs to be able to work.
The power of a power supply is given in Watt (W). This is the maximum power the power supply can give to the computer. Using the Watt indication you can check if your power supply is powerful enough for your computer and all the devices in it.
There are different types of power supplies. The wattage is different for each power supply. Also not every power supply has the same connectors. The most older power supplies have a wattage of 200 Watt and a few connectors like an ATX connector to connect to the motherboard, a few IDE connectors and a floppy drive connector. The newer power supplies are more powerful with a higher wattage and have more connectors like the connectors above and a few SATA connectors, CPU connectors, etc.
For a detailed description, see the power supply page.
3. Processor (CPU)
The processor is together with the memory and the motherboard the most important part of a computer. The processor is also called CPU, which stands for Central Processing Unit. The processor handles all processes the user wants in the right order.To connect a processor to the motherboard you put the processor with the pins down into the CPU socket.
For a detailed description, see the processor page.
4. Memory (RAM)
The memory (RAM) is a together with the processor the hart of a computer. Without the memory it will not work. The memory are like in the picture above. These memory modules are attached to the motherboard in the memory slots.There are several types of memory. The type of memory you need depends on the type of computer you use and which motherboard is in it.
For a detailed description, see the memory page.
5. Hard disk
A hard disk is the place where your data will be stored and where the operating system like Windows XP or Windows Vista is installed on. Every computer has a hard disk to store the data. There are several different types of hard disks. Not every hard disk works on the same speed. Also the technique can be different and therefore also the connectors can be different.As I said before there are several speeds and several types. Below there is a list op types and speeds.There are IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB and FIREWIRE hard disks but inside the computer there are only IDE, SATA or SCSI hard disks.
For a detailed description, see the hard disk page.
6. Video card
A video card is a card to show everything on the monitor. I think this is the most important part for you if you are a fanatic gamer. The quality of the view on the monitor is dependent on the type of video card you use in your computer.
If you want to purchase a new video card you should answer questions like: for what do you need the video card? Are you a fanatic gamer? Are you just surfing the internet? Do you need to make technical drawings like CAD drawings? Such questions can be practical before buying a new video card.
For a detailed description, see the video card page.
7. Sound card
As the name already says, a sound card is a card which takes care of the sound. Without a sound card you can not play your music. There are several types of sound cards. In the basic office computers the sound cards are mostly onboard, which means that these are not a card as shown in the pictures above but the sound is integrated on the motherboard.
Then there are several types of cards as shown above which are very different. There are 5.1 surround sound cards, 7.1 surround cards etc. etc.
For a detailed description, see the sound card page.
8. CD/DVD drive
On the market there are many different types of CD and DVD drives available. For example there are DVD drives which can read and write DVD’s and CD’s, there are DVD drives called combo drives which can read DVD’s and read and write CD’s. Further more there are CD drives which can only read CD’s and there are CD drives which can read and write CD’s but they both can not read DVD’s. Like this there are several possibilities.
Then these are also different types of connections for the CD or DVD drives. There are drives which have a IDE connector but there are also drives with a SATA connector. The IDE drives are the normal connectors which are common used for these drives. The SATA connectors are the newer and faster connectors which provide faster speeds during reading or writing a disc.
For a detailed description, see the CD/DVD page.
9. Floppy drive
A floppy drive is a drive to read and write from/to floppy disks. These drives are in almost every computer. Floppy drives are used for years and years and still they will be used often. Of course not that much as a couple of years ago but these will be used often. Several years ago floppies were used to move data but these days the floppy as storage media has been replaced by the USB stick. But a floppy disk is often being used as a boot disk. For example as a boot disk for Symantec Ghost or Windows 98.
For a detailed description, see the floppy drive page.
10. Network card
A network card is a card to connect to a network and the internet. A network card is often integrated on the motherboard but, as shown in the picture above, there are also network cards in form of a PCI card. These cards can be attached to the motherboard using an available PCI slot. There are several types of network cards which all have their own speed. The speeds can be different from 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps. This depends on the type of network card.
For a detailed description, see the network card page.
Summary
Now I hope you know how a computer is build up and how it works approximately and what the components inside the computer look like. There are several other devices you can attach to a computer but the parts in the picture above are the main parts in a computer. Devices you can attach to a computer are printers, scanners, USB sticks, digital camera’s etc. etc.
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