parts of a pc

A Look inside a PC:

A Look inside a PC Ecomp 7100 Janet Martel

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After thousands of emails, a myriad of documents, hours of video games and waves of internet searching, it was time to let an old family friend go to its final recycling resting ground. However, before we say good-bye why not take a peek inside.

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Our friend: A CRT, a tower housing all the innards, a keyboard and a mouse

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Main Menu Click the link for more information The front of the Tower The Back of the Tower Inside the Tower Monitor References

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Monitor The monitor screen displays information in visual forms, using text and graphics. There are two basic types of monitors: CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors and LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors. Both can produce sharp images, but LCD monitors are much thinner and lighter due to the development of TFT (Thin Film Transistor) screens. It is now rare to see a PC bundled with a CRT monitor. Larger screens can run at higher resolutions. However, unlike CRTs which can display a range of resolutions, most TFTs are designed to work at one specific resolution. changing resolutions can result in a display that is not as sharp. Another consideration with TFTs is the viewing angle. Move too far away from a "square on" position and the screen may become more difficult to read. This varies from monitor to monitor (Practical PC Online) Back to Main Menu CRT LCD

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The DVD drive can do anything that the CD drive can do and it can also read data from a DVD. Many DVD drives can record data on a DVD. The drive can also be used to view DVD movies ( Parts of a Computer) . The CD drive uses lasers to read data from a CD. CD drives can also be used to play music CD’s CD drives that can record data on CD’ s are know as writable CD drives or CD burners ( Parts of a Computer) F loppy disk drive (FDD) : this was the primary way of adding data to a computer until the CD drive became popular ( How Floppy Disk Drives Work) Back to Main Menu

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Ports These are plugs and sockets on a computer used to connect devices to the computer. At one time, the main ports were serial and parallel but they have been mostly replaced by USB ports. Ports can be used to connect printer, scanners, a mouse, modems, external hard drives and various other peripheral devices. Click here to find out more about ports . Power Supply Click here to find out more about the power supply . Back to Main Menu Back of the Tower

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A B C A Click on a letter for a description of the type of port Types of Ports Return to Back of the Tower

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Power Supply Unit: PSW While manufacturers are trying to reduce the amount of power individual computer components need, it is still important to have an efficient PSU to keep the system stable. PSU are rated at 250W to 600W and above. A power supply might be enough to power a computers current configuration, but if expansion parts are added the power supply may need to be modified. All power supplies have a fan to cool the system. Some fans are quieter than others and this might be a consideration when buying a computer . Return to Back of the Tower

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Parallel Port Sends 8 bits of data (1 byte) at a time. These 8 bits are transmitted parallel to each other . In the 1980’s, IBM engineers developed a cable that would connect a 25-pin connector on the computer to a 36-pin connector on a Centronics printer. This configuration was adopted by other printer manufacturers and it become the industry standard. Today, a USB connector is the most common printer/computer connection ( How Parallel Ports Work) Back to types of ports

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Serial Port Sends 8 bits of data (1 byte) at a time. These 8 bits are transmitted serially (all in a single row) . A 9 pins or 25 pins connector that was originally designed to connect a modem to a computer. The most basic of computer connectors Most modern computers have done away with this port and are now using a USB port (How Serial Ports Work) Back to types of ports

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USB Universal Serial Bus An industry standard for short-distance data transfer Can supply electric power across the cable to devices without their own power source. Both wired and wireless versions exist (What is a USB Port) Back to types of ports

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Inside the Tower Click the link below for more information Memory Card Mother Board Graphics Card Hard Drive CPU Main Menu

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Graphic Cards Also known as video cards or video adapters Responsible for generating the images that are displayed on the monitor. The display can be in a range of resolutions. Common ones are 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024, 1680 x 1050 and higher, There are other resolutions, too. The display can use a range of colors from 16 or 256 right up to 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit which supports millions of colors The greater the resolution, the more memory the card requires Back to inside the tower

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Located under the fan is the CPU: Central Processing Unit http://www.hardware.windowsreinstall.com The processor or CPU controls the computer. It executes instructions and transports data through the computer system. The speed of the CPU is determined by an internal quartz crystal. When the crystal is subjected to an electrical current, it sends pulses called peaks. The processor’s speed corresponds to the number of pulses per seconds or hertz (Hz). Thus, a 200 MHz computer has a clock that sends 200,000,000 pulses per second. The processor performs an action that corresponds to an instruction with each peak (kioskea.net) Back to inside of tower

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Hard disk drive Stores large information A rigid platter or stack of platters with a magnetic surface. The platters spin as the drive records data. Some newer hard drives have no moving parts because they are flash-based (How PCs Work) Primary means of storage for the computer Holds most all of the computers programs and files. Located inside the system case (Parts of a Computer) Back to inside of tower

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RAM: Random Access Memory A computer can access any part of this memory. Unlike a backup tape system, where a large amount of tape must be read until arriving at the desired spot, a computer can directly access any part of this memory. The contents of this memory are lost as soon as the power supply is turned off. There are 2 main types of RAM: static and dynamic. Static RAM (SRAM) maintains its contents for as long as power is supplied. Dynamic RAM (DRAM) retains data for only a few milliseconds. Back to inside of tower

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Motherboard Inside the case of the computer is a large circuit board to which all of the other internal components connect. It is known as the motherboard and houses many of the main computer components including the BIOS(Basic Input/Output System), the CPU, and the cache. The motherboard includes slots for plugging in memory(RAM) and expansion slots for plugging in devices such as sound and video cards ( Practical Computing for the Rest of Us) Back to inside of tower

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References Harris, T. (2011). How CD burners work . Retrieved from How Stuff Works website: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/‌cd-burner.htm Parts of a computer . (2011). Retrieved March 17, 2011, from Microsoft website: http://windows.microsoft.com/‌en-US/‌windows-vista/‌Parts- of-a-computer Processor . (2009). Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://en.kioskea.net/‌contents/‌pc/‌processeur.php3 Tyson, J. (2011). How PCs Work . Retrieved March 16, 2011, from How Stuff Works website: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/‌pc1.htm Tyson, J. (2011). How Serial Ports Work . Retrieved March 17, 2011, from How Stuff Works website: http://www.howstuffworks.com/‌serial- port.htm What are all the parts of my computer? (2011). Retrieved March 17, 2011, from Practical PC Online website: http://www.practicalpc.co.uk/‌computing/‌what/‌ parts.htm#memory Back to Main Menu