Main Parts of a Personal Computer

Know the main parts of a personal computer such as: central processing unit (CPU), hard disk, common input or output devices, types of memory. Understand the term peripheral device.

The System Unit
The "system unit" is the name given to the main PC box

that houses the various elements that go together to make up the PC.

For instance within the system unit is the computer system's motherboard,

which contains all the main components, such as the CPU. The system unit also

houses items such as the hard disk, the floppy disk and CD-ROM drives etc. System

units come in two basic varieties, the tower version, as illustrated

or a desktop version, which is designed to sit on your desk

with your monitor on top of the system unit

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The System (Mother) Board

in contained within your system unit and all the vital computer systems plug directly into the system board. The CPU is normally housed on your system board along with all the other electronic components. Other items such as the hard disk are attached to the system board, either directly or via cables. These boards are getting smaller and smaller as the components become more integrated. If you open up a modern system you will find that it is mainly full of air

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The CPU

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is normally an Intel Pentium (or equivalent) and it is one of the most important components within your computer. It determines how fast your computer will run and is measured by its MHz speed. Thus, a 2 GHz Pentium is much faster than say a 1 GHz Pentium CPU. It is the CPU that performs all the calculations within the computer, when running programs such as word-processors, spreadsheets and databases. See page 10 for more information.

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Memory (RAM)

The RAM (Random Access Memory) within your computer is where the operating system is loaded to when you switch on your computer and also where your applications are copied to when you start an application, such as a word processor or database program. When you create data, (e.g. letters and pictures), these are initially created and held in RAM and then copied to disk when you save the data. As a rule of thumb, the more RAM you have installed in your computer the better. These days you will commonly find over 128 Megabytes of RAM installed.