Hardware

by John Anthony
All the elements that go together to make up a PC fall into one of two categories, hardware or software.
This section is about hardware, the stuff upon which software runs.

PC Case
The PC CASE is a thin sheet metal enclosure that houses the motherboard, power
supply and various drives (HDD, FDD, CD, DVD).

Cases are offered in two styles, desktop and tower. Today

the tower type is predominant. It stands upright and is much
taller than it is wide. It is usually placed on the floor next to,
or under a desk. The desktop has a pizza box profile and
usually sits on the desktop.

Tower cases are offered in two basic sizes, one that can fit
ATX (12" wide) motherboards and one that can accommodate ATX mini
(8.5" wide) motherboards. The number of drive bays offered also varies
depending on manufacturer.

The motherboard and power supply mount to the floor at the rear of the case.
The drives (hard, floppy and CD/DVD) mount in enclosures called drive bays at
the front of the case

Motherboard
The MOTHERBOARD is the main circuit board in a PC. It contains all the circuits and
components that run the PC.
Major

Components found on the motherboard are:

CPU - the Central Processing Unit is often an

Intel Pentium or Celeron processor. It is the
heart of every PC. All scheduling, computation
and control occurs here.

BIOS Basic Input Output System is a non-volatile memory that

contains configuration information about the PC. It contains all the code required
for the CPU to communicate with the keyboard, mouse video display, disk drives
and communications devices.

When a PC is powered on it uses the BIOS 'boot code' to set up many required
functions that bring the PC to a point where it is ready to work.

RTC - the Real Time Clock chip keeps date, day and time in a 24 hour format just
like your watch. The PC uses this clock to 'time stamp' files as they are created
and modified. When you print a file it time stamps the pages as they are printed.

Chip Set - these are large chip(s) that integrate many functions that used to be
found in separate smaller chips on the motherboard. They save space and cost.
The functions performed by these chip sets often broken into two devices with
one providing an interface from the CPU to the memory and the other providing
controllers for IDE, ISA, PCI and USB devices (see below).

Power Supply

A power supply is installed in the back corner of the PC case, next to the motherboard.

It converts 120vac (standard house power) into DC

are used by other components in the PC.

A 20 conductor cable carries +5vdc, -5vdc +12v dc, -12vdc

and ground to the motherboard.

Another pair of cables, each with four conductors and two 4pin connectors daisy-chained along it, carry +5vdc, +12vdc
and ground to the drives (hard, floppy and CD/DVD).

Typical PC power supplies are rated at 200-250 watts and sell for about
$50 - $75. Higher wattage supplies are available.

voltages that

Hard Disk Drive

The HDD installs in one of the 3-1/2 inch internal drive bays in the PC. It is secured by machine
screws.

Data Transport: IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is a 40 pin ribbon cable originally used to carry
data to and from the host bus adapters on the motherboard and the hard disk drive. This parallel
bus was later renamed PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment).
Drives with PATA interfaces are powered by a separate 4-pin cable from the power supply which
carries +5v, +12v and ground.
Since 2009 SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) has replaced PATA in consumer and
laptop PC's. It is a very fast serial bus and uses only 7 lines for data transport which is huge
reduction from the 40 lines PATA requires.

SATA drives use a separate 15 pin connector for power

and receive +5v, +3.3v, +12v and ground from the power
supply.

Data Storage is maintained magnetically on multiple rigid disks that

are stacked up like pancakes. Small arms with magnetic pickups move
rapidly back and forth across the top and bottom surface of each disk in the
The sensors float just a few microns above the rotating disk surface and can read
data (ones and zeroes) at very high rates.

drive.
and write

Most commercially available hard drives rotate at 5400 or 7200 RPM (revolutions per minute)
which translates to 90 or 120 revolutions per second respectively. The data transfer rate from the
drive to the motherboard is 33 Mbytes/second in bursts. Newer drives are capable of higher
speeds up to 66 Mbytes/sec. To use this faster drive, the PC must have an ATA/66 interface that
is capable of keeping up with it.

A 40 Gbyte (Gigabyte) drive in 2004 sold for about $100. In 2012 a 1 Tbyte (Terabyte) drive sells
for the same or slightly less and has 25 times more storage capacity!

Digital Video Disk drive

1. DVD also known as the Digital Versatile Disk drive, installs in one of
the external 5 1/4 inch drive bays in the PC. It is secured by machine
screws. Some manufacturers offer special rail-like systems that mount
on the DVD. These allow the drive to be removed from the PC without
having to remove screws.
2. It is designed to optically access data stored on a DVD. A laser moves back
near the disk surface and accesses data at a very fast rate.

and forth

3. A 4-pin cable from the power supply plugs into the CDD and provides power to it.

Monitor
CRT Monitors

Up until recently, CRTs (Cathode RayTubes) were the only type of displays
use with desktop PCs. They are relatively big (14" to 16" deep) and heavy (over 15 lbs).

They are available in screen sizes from 14" to 21". A 17" display means that it is 17" measured
diagonally from one corner of the tube to the other. The actual viewing area is smaller than 17"
(about 16") since the electron gun can't sweep completely to the tube edge.

CRTs send a stream of electrons at the screen, which is charged to about 25,000 volts. As they
strike it they cause phosphor on the backside of the screen to glow creating light which you see.
The electron stream is sweep back and forth and up and down at about 60 sweeps per second
and turned off and on at the right time to make text and graphics images appear.

for

Keyboard

The keyboard was the first input device

developed for the PC.

The standard keyboard layout provides 104 keys organized as four groups:
o

alphanumeric keys (A-Z, 0-9)

location keys (home, end etc.)

numeric keypad

function keys (F1-F12)

In addition to the standard keys, some keyboards offer functions such as volume control for
speakers, web browser functions and power management.

Data is transferred to the PC over a short cable with a circular 6-pin Mini-din connector that plugs
into the back of the motherboard.

Mouse
The mouse is the most common 'pointing device' used in PCs. Every mouse has
buttons and most have one or two scroll wheels.

By default the left button is used to select items. The right button is assigned as a context or
alternate menu. A single wheel is normally set to scroll up and down on the active page . If a
second wheel is present, it is usually assigned to scroll left and right on the page.

The button functions can be reassigned by going to Control Panel > Mouse > Buttons tab.

Audio

Speakers and headphones are the primary audio output devices for a PC.

Some monitors have speakers built into their sides. Other speakers are
free standing.

two

Passive speakers plug into and are powered directly from the output signal provided by the
'speaker out' port on the sound card.

Active speakers amplify the sound signal from the sound card using battery or rectified AC house
power.

Cables and Wires

by John Anthony

Although these are not the most sophisticated part of the system, they are just as important as
any other component.

All the components in a PC are connected together and to power with wires and cables.

Ninety percent of all electronics problems (including PCs) are the result of poor connections.

If you have a PC problem, it is always a good idea to first check that all the cables on your PC are
plugged in and properly seated.