Computer

Hardware

From mouse and monitor to moth-
erboard and CPU, this guide explains
how your computer processes things
at the very basic level to give you
what you ask for.
Top view of a Laptop Motherboard
Picture captionAn o
Hardware Components
Power Supply
This piece of hardware converts external power
to usable power for the rest of the components
in the computer. If theres a problem, its usually
not user fixable. Located where you plug in the
computer.
Motherboard : Gigabyte, ASUS, MSU
Is the very base of the computer. The mother-
board ties all the other parts of a computer to-
gether. This must be compatible with the CPU
and all other components. Power is drawn from
the power supply into the motherboard by a
special port.
Central Processing Unit (CPU): Intel,
AMD
The CPU, or processor is what does most of
the calculations of a computer. Its job is to
execute, or carry out commands given by the
other parts of the hardware. Attaches into a
socket on the motherboard, has to be com-
patible with it.
Storage (HDD, SDD): Western Digital,
Seagate:
The computer uses Storage to permenantly store
items. This can include pictures, music, pro-
grams, and the Operating System of the comput-
er. Hard Disc Drives (HDDs) are mechanical
and have spinning discs and Solid State Drives
Introduction
Computers are an integral part of society.
Some even consider for them and inter-
net access to be elevated to a human
right. But how does the computer let you
do anything from visit Facebook and talk
to your friends to huge photo editing on
Photoshop. There are two aspects to
that, software, which are huge packets of
code that the second part, hardware,
must run. Well be focusing on hardware
in this brochure.

Definition of Hardware: Any physical
component of a Computer or Device.
Anything that you can touch.
(SSDs) have no moving parts. You usually get
a better price per GB for HDDs since theyre
older and cheaper to make
Random Access Memory (RAM): Cru-
cial, Kingston:
RAM is used for temporarily storing infor-
mation. When programs load on the computer,
theyre copying information from the hard
drive to the RAM. This information is stored
by electricity so once the computer is powered
off, the information is erased.
Input Devices:
Includes anything that a user interacts with to
give information to the computer. For exam-
ple: Mouse, Keyboard, webcam, CD drive
Output Devices:
Includes any device the computer uses to give
information. For example: monitors, printers
The inside of a desktop computer
A macro of the bottom of a laptop motherboard