The components of a Personal Computer (PC)

A Personal Computer generally make up of parts as follows:

• Case

 

The case is used to mount, secure and protect the internal parts of the PC, for example the power supply, CPU and hard disk from dust, moisture and accident fall.


 

The parts inside the case:

 

• Power Supply Unit
  
  
   

 
Power Supply Unit is used to convert AC electric supply into DC supply for components of the computer. The outside of the Power Supply Unit contains a three pin plug for a power cable connecting to an external power source. The internal cable connects to various components of the PC. One of them is designed to plug in with the motherboard. Other are designed to plug into CPU, fans, Optical Drivers and floppy drive.
Quoting from: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/componentprofiles/p/p_ps.htm


 

• Motherboard
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   

The Motherboard is a piece of circuit board, located at the bottom of the computer case. Motherboard is used to connect different hardware components together to build a structure of the computer. Motherboard allows each computer components communicate with each another so it is treated as the 'heart' of the computer. The components of Motherboard are:

• Expansion slots
• fan connectors
• Heatsink
• 4-Pin power connector
• CPU Socket
• Northbridge
• Memory slot
• Floppy connection
• ATA (IDE) disk drive primary connection
• Coin cell battery CMOS battery
• RAID
• System panel connectors
• Southbridge
• Serial port connector
• USB headers
• Jumpers
• Integrated circuit
• CD-IN

Quoted from: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mothboar.htm

• Memory (RAM- Random Access Memory)

The RAM in your system is mounted on the motherboard. This is used to store data temporary when the power is on. For example a word document that haven't saved yet.

• Hard disk drive
  
  
  
  
  

   
The Hard disk drive is used to store your files on a permanent basis, your operation system is also installed here.

 

• CD-ROM drive
  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The CD-ROM drive is an optical device used to read and retrieve data that stored on a CD-ROM only. Other optical drive such as CD-R and CD-RW can allow users to write data onto the CD.

• Monitor
  
  
      

The Monitor is used to let the user to 'look' how the computer respond to the input. It also provide a graphical impression to the user when error occurs.

• Keyboard
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   

The keyboard is used to input alphabets, numbers, symbols and command into the computer.

• Mouse
  

Mouse is a pointer device for entering commands into a graphical user interface.