Unit 2 P1

Inside the computer

Processor:

The processor is the item that controls the function of the computer/tells the computer what to do and is commonly referred to as the brain of the computer. It also decides/priorities the most important tasks for the computer.

Motherboard:

The motherboard is in charge of joining everything inside the computer and keeping all the CPU (processor), memory, hard drives, sound card, video card and optical drivers together.

BIOS:

The BIOS is in charge of instructing the computer when booting/rebooting the computer and also the keyboard control. It is also used to configure and or identify the internal component in the computer such as the hard drive, memory, CPU etc.

Power Supply:

The power supply converts incoming power/electricity into use able power for all the components in the computer. The quality of the power supply is measured by how high the wattage is, the higher the wattage is the more efficient it will be.

Cooling fan and Water cooling.

Fans in a PC are there to circulate the air so that the hardware inside the PC does not overheat. Your CPU is very prone to overheating, and unless you've changed the fan that comes default with it, it’s most definitely a low standard cheap fan, which can hardly keep it cool. Many companies sell bigger and more efficient fans which you can replace with the default one to reduce the chance of your CPU overheating. In very high end computers, heat buildup can become such a problem that even the fastest and most efficient fans can't cool the PC. In these cases, installing a water cooling kit can help. Water transfers heat well and can drastically reduce the temperature of a CPU.

Hard drives and configuration:

A hard drive is the main and largest data storage hardware device in a computer. The operating system software and most other files are stored in the hard drive. SATA generally refers to the types of cables and connections that follow this standard.  However an SSD (Solid State Drive) is much faster and more reliable than a HDD.

USB ports:


A USB port is a standard cable connecting interface on electronics such as PC. Many external devices can connect to USB infact most mouses,keyboards, scanners and so much more use them.

RAM/ROM/INTERNAL:

RAM (Random Access Memory) is part of the memory in a computer. Ram allows a computer to work with more information at the same time. RAM is the memory being used for example when you're playing a video game and it is loading the map and textures. ROM on the other hand is Read Only Memory and unlike RAM, when the computer is not on the contents of ROM are still there. Examples of ROM are things such as disk and floppy drives.

Graphics/Video Cards

A graphics card is often known as a GPU and they come in many different models. A graphics card is essentially the component which turns data being transmitted into images. It does this through the binary data in the CPU. People who play video games on their PC instead of console for example call of duty or battlefield will need a better graphics card for all of the in-game images, textures etc to be shown and obviously the better card the better quality. This is why PC has superior graphics to console because they come with a default graphics (crap) card which can't be replaced where as a PC as long as the rest of the system Motherboard, CPU work with it can be changed on a regular basis.

Peripherals -

Printer:

In computers, a printer is a device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to paper, usually to standard size sheets of paper. Printers are sometimes sold with computers, but more frequently are purchased separately. Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication, and cost. In general, more expensive printers are used for higher-resolution color printing.

Scanner:

A scanner is an input device that scans photographs and documents of text etc.. When a photo or piece of text has been scanned it can be viewed on a computer and even edited. The majority of scanners are flat or what people call 'flatbed devices' this is ideal as it will be easy to scan photographs, magazines, newspapers and so on.

Twisted pair cabling:

Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference from external sources.

Pen Drive:

A pen drive is a portable memory device which can be used for saving/backing up and transferring files from computer to computer and so on.. As long as the computer or laptop or whatever you're connecting has a USB port the pen drive should be compatible. The only problem could be the operating system.

Most components in a computer communicate with each other via the motherboard. On the motherboard there are many connections that allow the components to communicate with one another. The graphics card, RAM and CPU all connect on the 'North Bridge' of the motherboard. Where as everything else connects via the 'South Bridge'.