Introduction to PC Components

Here you will learn computer hardware tutorials introduction, basic pc components, networking
devices, ram, vga, monitor and printer etc. Computer hardware is the physical part of the computer
including the digital circuits inside the computer as opposed to the software that carry out the
computing instructions. The hardware of a computer is unlikely to change frequently unless due to the
crash or for upgrading them. The devices that is capable of storing, executing system instructions and
controlling other logical outputs.

Hardware comprises all of the physical part of the computer such as Monitor, CPU, motherboard,
ram, CD-Rom, printer, scanner, hard disk, flash drive (AKA pen drive), processor, pci buses, floppy
disk, power supply, VGA card, sound card, network interface card, peripherals, joystick, mouse,
keyboard, foot pedal, computer fan, camera, headset and others.

On the other hard software is a logical part of a computer and is used to carry out the instructions,
storing, executing and developing other software programs. A typical PC consists of a case or
chassis in the desktop or tower case and these components.

Motherboard
• CPU
• Computer Fan
• RAM
• BIOS
• Digital Circuitry
• Computer Fan
• PCI Slots

PC Buses
• PCI
• USB
• Hyper-transport
• AGP
• ISA
• EISA
• VLB

Media
• CD-Rom
• DVD-Rom
• Combo box
• Joystick
• BD-Rom drive

Internal storage
• Hard disk (ATA & SATA)
• Data array controller
• Floppy disk

Other Peripheral Devices

• Mouse
• Modems
• Digital Camera
• Sound, Video Cards
• Printer

Output Devices
• Printer

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• Scanner
• Monitor
• Speakers
• Headset
• Video output devices

CPU (Central Processing Unit): CPU or central processing unit relates to a specific or processor.
The performance of the computer is determined by the CPU chip (processor speed) and the other
computer circuitry. Currently, the Pentium chip (processor) is the most popular even though there are
other chips available in the market today such as AMD, Motorola and others. The clocks speed
becomes most important factor in determining the performance of a computer. The motherboard
contains the hardware circuitry and connections that allow the different hardware components of the
PC to interact and communicate with each other. Most computer software is being developed for the
latest processors so it would be difficult to use the older systems.

Hard Disk Drives – Disk drive is the mechanism to run the disks. All disks need a drive to get the
information, read it and put it back to the disks. Hard disk is used to store the data permanently. Often
the terms disk and drive used to describe the same thing but it should be clear that a disk is a storage
device.

Modem – A modem is used for the modulation and demodulation of the data that is transferred
through the modem and the telephone lines. Modem translates the data from digital to analog from
analog to digital. Because on the telephone lines data can travel in the form of the analog signals and
in the computer data transmits in the form of digital signals. Modems are measured by the speed
which is called baud rate. The typical baud rate is 56Kb.

Keyboard – The keyboard is used to type something or input information to the computer. There are
different designs and models of the keyboards in the market. The most common layout of the
keyboard is QWERTY layout. A standard keyboard has 101 keys and embedded keys.

Video cards-Video cards allow computer to display video, graphics and animation. Some video cards
allow computers to display television. A video card with a digital video camera allows users to
produce live video. A high speed broadband internet connection is required to watch the videos on
net.

Network cards: Network interface cards allow PCs to connect with each other and communicate.
Every network computer is required to have a NIC card. NIC cards are required both in wired and
wireless networking.

Cables: There are two broad types of cables internal cables, which are embedded on the mother
board circuit that performs the communication between the devices and CPU. The other types of the
cables are the network cables like coaxial cable, CAT 5, Ethernet cables. These cables are used for
the communication purposes between the devices or computers.

Memory – Memory is the one of the important piece of the hardware. Sometimes memory chip
memory is confused with the hard disk memory. Sometimes unallocated space of the hard disk is
used as virtual memory also known as page file. This type of memory is a temporary memory and is
used actual memory is less and requires some additional memory to perform a specific task.

RAM (Random Access Memory) RAM is a memory that is being used by the computer to store the
information temporarily. For example when some work is performed on some applications that work is
temporarily stored in the RAM. More RAM in the computer more faster computer works. Today at
least requirement of a modern PC is 64 RAM. RAM is in the form of a chip and different vendors have
developed the RAM of different capacities.

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Mouse – Every modern computer requires a mouse for faster operations. Generally a mouse has two
buttons left and right to perform different functions. One type of the mouse has a round ball under the
bottom. Another type of the mouse use optical system to track the movement of the mouse.

Monitors – The monitor is used to display the information on the screen. All the activities of a
computer, functions and tasks are seen on the computer screen and this is called outputting
information. Monitors come in many sizes and shapes, monochrome or full colors. Today most
computers use LCD screens. It is light weight and consumes less power as compared to the
monitors.

Printers – The printer takes the information from the PC and transfers it to the paper of different
sizes, which are placed in the printer device. There are three basic types of a printer such as dot
matrix, inkjet and laser.

Scanners- Scanners allow you to transfer pictures and photographs to your computer. A scanner is
used to scan the images and pictures. You can then send the image to someone, modify it or take a
print out of it. With optical character recognition software you can convert printed documents into the
text that you can use in the word processor.

Digital camera - You can take the digital photographs with the digital cameras. The images are
stored on the memory chip of the digital cameras and you can transfer them to your computer with
the USB drive.

Case – Case or casing covers the whole computer’s circuitry. There are two types of casings desktop
and tower casing. There is room inside the casing to add or remove components. Cases come in
many sizes like desktop, mini, midi and tower. There are some additional empty slots inside the
cases such as IDE, USB, ASI, PCI and firewire slots.

Cards – Cards are the hardware components that are added to the computer to increase their
functionalities and capabilities.

Sound cards produce the sound like music and voice. The older cars were 8, 16 and then 32 bits.
Color cards allow computers to produce colors. Initially there were 2, 4 and then 16 bits. The main
types of the graphic cards are EGA, VGA and SGA. The 32 cards are the standard to display almost
billions of the colors on the monitor.

Hardware

The hardware are the parts of computer itself including the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and
related microchips and micro-circuitry, keyboards, monitors, case and drives (floppy, hard, CD,
DVD, optical, tape, etc...). Other extra parts called peripheral components or devices include
mouse, printers, modems, scanners, digital cameras and cards (sound, colour, video) etc...
Together they are often referred to as a personal computer or PC.

Central Processing Unit - Though the term relates to a specific chip or the processor a CPU's
performance is determined by the the rest of the computer's circuitry and chips.

Currently the Pentium chip or processor, made by Intel, is the most common CPU though there are
many other companies that produce processors for personal computers. Examples are the CPU
made by Motorola and AMD.

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With faster processors the clock speed becomes more important. Compared to some of the first
computers which operated at below 30 megahertz (MHz) the Pentium chips began at 75 MHz in the
late 1990's. Speeds now exceed 3000+ MHz or 3 gigahertz (GHz) and different chip manufacturers
use different measuring standards (check your local computer store for the latest speed). It depends
on the circuit board that the chip is housed in, or the motherboard, as to whether you are able to
upgrade to a faster chip. The motherboard contains the circuitry and connections that allow the
various component to communicate with each other.

Though there were many computers using many different processors previous to this I call the 80286
processor the advent of home computers as these were the processors that made computers
available for the average person. Using a processor before the 286 involved learning a proprietary
system and software. Most new software are being developed for the newest and fastest processors
so it can be difficult to use an older computer system.

Keyboard - The keyboard is used to type information into the computer or input information. There
are many different keyboard layouts and sizes with the most common for Latin based languages
being the QWERTY layout (named for the first 6 keys). The standard keyboard has 101 keys.
Notebooks have embedded keys accessible by special keys or by pressing key combinations (CTRL
or Command and P for example). Ergonomically designed keyboards are designed to make typing
easier.

Some of the keys have a special use. There are referred to as command keys. The 3 most common
are the Control or CTRL, Alternate or Alt and the Shift keys though there can be more (the Windows
key for example or the Command key). Each key on a standard keyboard has one or two characters.
Press the key to get the lower character and hold Shift to get the upper.

Removable Storage and/or Disk Drives - All disks need a drive to get information off - or read -
and put information on the disk - or write. Each drive is designed for a specific type of disk whether it
is a CD, DVD, hard disk or floppy. Often the term 'disk' and 'drive' are used to describe the same
thing but it helps to understand that the disk is the storage device which contains computer files - or
software - and the drive is the mechanism that runs the disk.

USB Flash drives or thumb drives work slightly differently as they use memory cards to store
information on. Digital cameras also use Flash memory cards to store information, in this case
photographs.

Mouse - Most modern computers today are run using a mouse controlled pointer. Generally if the
mouse has two buttons the left one is used to select objects and text and the right one is used to
access menus. If the mouse has one button (Mac for instance) it controls all the activity and a
mouse with a third button can be used by specific software programs.

One type of mouse has a round ball under the bottom of the mouse that rolls and turns two wheels
which control the direction of the pointer on the screen. Another type o