Components and What They Do

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COMPUTER COMPONENTS - WHAT DOES WHAT?
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It goes without saying, that we are now, more
than ever, reliant on technology for our day to
day activities. We use them to communicate with
friends, and to browse the limitless supply of
information that is available to us online. But
how often do we take a step back to try to
understand how exactly these incredible feats of
engineering, such as computers, actually
work? While we dont need to understand the ins
and outs of how our PCs work, its interesting
to have a vague idea of what each of the
individual parts within the mechanism play in
making the whole thing do its job and for the
most part it doesnt even need to be rocket
science! If your computer is running slowly, or
encountering any number of issues that can occur
naturally over time, understanding the
components can help you diagnose the issue
(although of course we thoroughly recommend
taking it to someone who has a lot of experience
in computing). If youd like to know the basics
of how computers work, then allow us to show you!
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Motherboard
The motherboard is the central part of the
machine which connects all the hardware. Every
part of the PC goes through the motherboard in
some way, whether directly or indirectly. It
kind of works like the human central nervous
system, in that it allows the different
components such as the CPU, RAM and much more to
communicate with each other (more on those
later!) and react to everything else.
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Random access memory or RAM is a physical bit of
hardware inside a computer, it temporarily
stores data on it to serve as a computers
working memory. Most often computers come with a
small amount of RAM which most users often
upgrade to suit their personal needs, RAM can be
a great way to boost your systems
performance. RAM allows the computer to quickly
store data and retrieve it very quickly when it
is needed, it allows for quick access to stored
data.
RAM - Random Access Memory
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CPU (or Central Processing Unit)
Sometimes referred to as a microprocessor, it is
actually a surprisingly small selection of chips
for the job it does. It takes care of moving
data from one memory location to another, whilst
simultaneously making decisions about
everything else that is going on in the rest of
the computer.
If the motherboard is the nervous system, then
the CPU is the brain! This is the bit that does
all the complicated math that is difficult for
us as humans to comprehend. This is also the part
that determines the speed at which the computer
can do various tasks, with most modern domestic
CPUs ranging in speeds between 2.0 and 3.0 GHz.
This correlates with the number of calculations
that the processor can make in just one second,
which is incomprehensible considering it takes
about that just to blink.
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Power supply
This is the bit that provides the juice. As with
all electrical appliances, there needs to be a
source of power for it to even turn on before it
can do all this amazing stuff. It goes without
saying the desktops and laptops require slightly
different amounts of power laptops tend to work
from a charging battery pack with a kettle lead
and input into the laptop itself, but have a
battery built into the computer so that it can
last a while without a constant source of
electricity which is what makes them so portable.
Desktops however do need a constant source of
energy, which usually comes in the form of the
large towers that have complex wiring systems
inside that work as the battery.
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Hard drive
The long term memory of the computer is the job
of the hard drive, sometimes known as HDD or HD.
It keeps hold of all of your documents, games,
music and precious holiday snaps, whilst also
maintaining the computers main operating system.
For example, it can hold the operating system
for Windows, alongside all of your personal
effects- it is one hard working piece of kit!
While you buy your computer with a certain sized
hard-drive, it really is a personal matter and
can depend on what you use the computer for. Say
for example, if youre a professional
photographer by trade, the likelihood is that
you are going to need to store an enormous
volume of images on the computer, both before
and after the editing process. In cases like
this, external hard drives are easy to get hold
of, and is a small investment which can really
save the stress of deciding which files need to
go in the digital rubbish bin! Just to put into
perspective how quickly this kind of technology
advances Mac released a computer in the mid 90s
with a 160 Mb hard drive, which laughably held
around 50 songs! Which is unbelievable when you
think that most of us carry around a phone of
sorts that can store well over 20 times that.
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Video Card
The video card (or sometimes graphics card)
takes care of what you actually see on the
monitor by generating output images. The images
comprise of many tiny dots known as pixels, that
the computer has to piece together to create the
image that makes the computer usable- this
translation takes place in the video card. The
CPU sends the binary information to the
video/graphics card via the motherboard, which
then is fed to the monitor via an internal cable.
Due to the amount of work that the video card
puts in, with regards to placement within the
computer they are normally located under a fan
to help keep them cool. Its the bit that burns
your lap after watching Netflix for too
long! The video card is, like a few of the other
components mentioned in this list, reasonably
easy to replace once you know what youre doing.
Just as a warning, in case you do choose to pop
open your computer to see whats going on in
there, be sure that the computer is off and has
been disconnected to any power source before you
do so!