Computer Hardware:The Basics
Kyle Waters
UGOTTA President
The Computer
Includes:
- Case
- Circuit Boards
- Processors
- Storage/Memory
Peripherals
- Output
- Input
- Input/Output(Storage)
Central Processing Unit
- Main Brain
- Speed
- Processing and very short term memory
- Multi-Cores
CPU Companies:
Intel
AMD
Cyrix
The Main Board
- The spine of your computer
- Most computer components comunicate through the mainboard
- If a device is "onboard" it is integrated into the mainboard
- The chipset is the main component of the mainboard
- Also called motherboard
Main board companies:
Abit
MSI
Asus
Intel
Chipsets:
Nvidia
ATI(AMD)
VIA
Intel
Power Supply
- Converts power from AC to DC
- Seperates power out to individual components
- Usually comes with the case
Harddrive
- Long term storage
- Keeps data when power is off
- Uses magnetic memory
- Size measure in bytes(8 bits to a byte)
- Raid is used to improve speed and reliability
Harddrive companies:
Seagate
Western Digitial
Hitachi
Maxtor
RAM
- Random Access Memory
- Commonly called "memory"
- Short term memory for your computer
RAM companies:
Micron
Corsair
Video Card
- Graphics Card
- Handles complex video output
- May include tv tuner
- Often included on mainboard
Video Chipset Companies:
NVIDIA
ATI(AMD)
Sound Card
- Typically on board
- High end cards availiable
BIOS
- On main board
- Keeps basic settings
- Keeps Time
- Requires Battery
Common keys to enter bios:
del
f2
f10
f12
Peripherals
- Monitor
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Printer
- Speakers
Storage
- Harddrive
- Flash Drive
- Optical(CD/DVD)
Operating System
- Basic underlying software
- Keeps track of files
- Used to run other programs
Common Operating Systems:
Windows
Mac OS X
Linux
Solaris
Networking
- router/gateway/modem/switch/nat
- wifi