 Computer System Component Breakdown
by Terry E. Mercer ©1997, 1999
Case - The box all the
parts (except monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer) are stored in... unless you have a
notebook or laptop computer. In most instances, the case is nothing more than personal
preference. Try to get one large enough to grow with your future needs, taking into
account your workspace. This is like the body - it contains, holds, and protects
the vital components.
Mother Board - The main printed circuit board in the
computer, which the CPU (see below) plugs into; as do all of the "cards" - sound
card being the most common, scanner cards, etc., the bus, memory sockets,
keyboard controller and supporting chips. This is the central nervous system of
your computer. Without it nothing runs... with one too cheap, things run slower
or more sluggishly that they would with a better one.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) - This
is the actual "brains" of
the computer. It does the calculations, the processing of data, the reading (and
interpreting) of the computer code and converts it to whatever output we or the program
tells it. It turns the massive 1's and 0's (binary machine language) and hexadecimal code
into real English (or your preferred language). It also controls the other components in
the computer. Keep in mind that it has a ZERO I.Q. - because it can ONLY FOLLOW
INSTRUCTIONS (from the firmware (chips built in to the motherboard and certain
cards), OS (operating system), and programs (which you or some person told the
computer to run). Without specific instructions, the CPU is worthless. The CPU
is the MOST vital part of a computer, BUT the speed of the CPU is LESS IMPORTANT
than many techs would want you to believe... the video, RAM, and bus speeds are
actually MORE IMPORTANT than the speed of the CPU. Again, this is considered the
"brain" - with no intelligence, only the ability to follow
instructions - like a genius without any social skills.
RAM (Random Access Memory) - Like
pieces of scratch paper that information is temporarily stored on ONLY WHILE you
are actually working on the computer. Programs
require RAM to operate, this is where data is stored while in use... while being manipulated - edited, added
to, or subtracted from. This is the only usable MEMORY. When you lose power, all
of the scratch paper is thrown away. It is instantaneously history... therefore,
if you didn't save your work to your hard drive, there is a 99% chance it is
lost forever!
Disk Controller - This allows your computer to
interact with your disk drive storage devices... whether they are hard disk drives, floppy
disk drives, CD-ROMS, or Tape drives a controller is required. Now days, the controller
and I/O ports (serial or COM ports, and printer port) is usually built into the
motherboard, and can be turned off or by-passed through the BIOS (which is part of the
motherboard). Like flood gates on a damn in a river, the bus speed of the disk
controller determines how much stuff can get through. If you have a slow
controller, then fast drives won't matter... it would be like having a Porsche
that can't drive in anything but 1st gear. Controller speed is measured in two
fashions: bus speed (from the motherboard), and megabytes per second
(controller/drive speed combination).
Hard Disk Drive - A STORAGE device, NOT MEMORY!
This is like a filing cabinet - no more, no less. Retrieval is faster, and
finding things is usually easier, but it is still just a filing cabinet. Drives
give you a place to store you data, install programs that are larger than what would
fit on a floppy disk, and drastically speed up the time spent accessing programs.
With the huge drives available today, you can think of the
hard disk drive as a room full of filing cabinets, which store papers, files and data.
Having a fast hard drive is useful ONLY if you have a fast controller. Data can
only travel as fast as the combination of the drive, controller, and motherboard
allows. Drive speed is measured in two places, usually: 1) Megabytes per second,
and 2) RPM's (the higher the number the faster - in both cases).
Floppy Disk Drive - Either 5 1/4" or 3 1/2".
An inexpensive way to save, transport, and backup data and programs which are small. They
are quickly being phased out, and will eventually be completely replaced by rewritable
optical drives, and larger capacity removable disks. The 3.5" high density 1.44 MB
floppies are still being used, but CDs are quickly becoming the preferred method of
program and data distribution. SuperDisk and Zip drives are much more popular,
and are readily available... although I prefer the Zip, only the SuperDisk drive
is capable of reading a normal floppy disk (as well as the 120MB SupperDisk).
With bootable CD-ROM discs and drives, the necessity for having a floppy drive
is less important. Short of some small word processing files (with or without
small graphics) and a few other programs, it is getting increasingly difficult
to even fit your data on floppies. I don't use floppies unless I have no other
choice... it is zip, jaz, or CD all the way!
Video Display Adapter - Unlike your eyes,
it can ONLY OUTPUT the
computer information in the form of a video signal that is human readable (via
the monitor). It decodes the computer data and sends it to the monitor,
which makes the monitor the most common "output device." The difference in
display adapters can be as big as the difference between a tricycle and a jet airplane.
Monitor - The actual display you see the words,
pictures, and data on. There are two main types: analog and digital. Then things get more
complicated. "dpi" is Dots Per Inch, the smaller the better the resolution. A
.28 dpi is generally adequate for 15" monitors, .26 for 17", and .25 for larger
monitors. 15" and 17" monitors are the most common, with 19"
coming down in price and improving in quality. Even touch screens, which replace
the mouse, the actual video portion is still only an output device.
Input Device - Keyboard, Mouse, Digitizer, Scanner,
Pen, Digital Camera, etc. Basically any device that, once connected to the outside of the computer, can
directly input (add or change) data in the computer.
Modem - A device which hooks your computer up to the
telephone line, allows you to connect to the Internet, as well as directly
to other computers in different
cities, states, and country's.
Printer - The most commonly known "Output
device" (the monitor is not commonly thought of as such, but really is). This allows
you to print to paper, transparencies, film, even coffee cups and t-shirts (depending on
the type of printer you have).
Optional Equipment - Tape Backup Devices, Audio
Adapters, CD-ROM drives, removable drives, digital cameras, etc.
This page was last updated 15 April 2000
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