Computer Hardware By Millie Hay

Processors The processor is the ‘brains’ of a computer. It controls all the processes that the user is commanding, they were single core but now most computers have either a dual core or quad core processor. This allows the computer to do x2 or x4 the amount of tasks that the user is submitting to the computer. It carries out the instructions of a computer program by carrying out basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the computer. Processors come in either Intel or AMD which are the leading manufactures in this technology.

Fan & Heat Sink Cooling The Heat sink is a component that sits on top of the processor which draws the heat out of the processor into the heat sync, which has a large surface area. There is thermal paste between the heat sink and processor which is a good heat conductor and the heat sync will have a fan which helps draw out the heat from the processor to cool it down. This is an active heat sink.

Motherboard The motherboard is the main component of a computer and it is a PCB, printed circuit board. It provides a solid foundation for all components to be connected to and interact with each other. Extra components can be added to the motherboard such as graphics cards, TV tuners, network cards, RAM etc. The motherboard is either AMD or Intel and certain components like the processor has to match this otherwise it will not fit.

BIOS BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System and it holds the basic functions for the computer to run and work without a OS, operating system, and it collects data about the hardware present in a computer to allow the OS to control and use the hardware. BIOS is software that is built into the PC and it is the first software run when the PC is switched on.

Power Supply The power supply supplies power to the component from the mains. It transforms 230V into 12V and then to a further 5V & 3V depending on which components needs a certain amount of power to run. It has a variety of leads leading from the power supply to different components such as SATA, ATX12V, IEC & Auxiliary Power Connectors.

Hard Drive configuration & controllers These are just different types of wires used for different purposes to connect from one component to another. There are many different types of wires and the main ones are: SATA, IDE, EIDE, Master, Slave. Serial ATA (SATA) is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices, Hard Drives and Optical Drives. Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) was replaced my SATA to do the same role for the advantage of and increased speed in data transfer and a much smaller cable.

Ports A computer port is a device that allows an external device, hardware, to connect to the computer. Physically a port is a specialized outlet on a piece of equipment to which a plug or cable connects. Ports come in a variety of different types for different devices, for example: USB, VGA, DVI & HDMI etc.

Internal Memory (RAM, ROM, Cache) Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer data storage but it is only temporarily. The advantage of RAM is that it can be used to access stored data from any storage location in nearly the same amount of time, therefore data can be accessed quickly and in a random order. Read-only memory (ROM) is another form of computer data storage but it cannot be modified, or can be modified but extremely slowly and with great difficulty. It is used to distribute firmware (software that is tied very closely with hardware). Cache is used by the Central Processing Unit (CPU) in order to reduce the average time to access memory. It is small and a fast source of memory which stores data from the most frequently used main memory locations.

Specialised Cards (Graphics, Network etc.) Specialised Cards are hardware that are either already directly manufactured into the motherboard or can be inserted into the motherboard usually through a PCIe port but in older models they may be inserted into a AGP port. For example, graphics cards, usually referred to as a GPU, are PCBs which is designed specifically to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the building of images intended for output to a display.

Peripherals – Output Devices Output devices are devices that take specific commands from the computer and use them to output a certain command, such as an image and print a page. Output devices are know as peripherals as they are able to be plugged into a computer, with some software to usually to be installed to be able to use the software 100%, and then the computer operates the commands to control the peripherals or send commands to do a certain command.

Peripherals – Input Devices Input devices are peripherals that are connected to the computer that sends commands to the computer which interprets them and conducts the appropriate instructions that the user has submitted. A typical input device is a keyboard as when the user presses a key the keyboard sends the command to the computer that the key is pressed and the computer interprets that and outputs that given key. Other input devices are scanners, cameras & mouses.

Peripherals – Cabling Twisted pair cabling is used for carrying signals, typically used as Ethernet cables. Optical fibre cables are used for digital audio connections between devices. Coaxial cabling is a type of wire that consists of a centre wire surrounded by insulation and then a grounded shield of braided wire. It is typically used by the cable television network.

Backing Up Storage Backing up storage is essentially the function of making an extra copy of data in a another storage device so you are able to retrieve your data if the original file becomes corrupt. There are many ways of backing up your data such as external hard drives, which plug through USB into your computer, USB Pen drives, flash memory cards and the cloud. The cloud is a system that is operated by a company which synchronises your data to a RAID of external hard disks known as the cloud. When backing up your data you have to choose an appropriate storage device depending on the data you are transferring as data transfer speeds are important when backing up a huge amount of data in a specific time frame. Also you have to think about the capacity the backing up storage will and should hold before over writing old data if any.

Performance Factors Depending on the type and amount of data you want to back up and at what times is a huge factor in your decision in choosing a storage device. When choosing a storage device you want to think about the read/write speed of the device and the amount of data it can hold. Different hard disks have different read/write speed which is usually 5400 or 7200 RPM (revs per minute), and the higher APM is the quicker you can physically read or write from the disk so it will play an important role in choosing a back up hard disk. Also the size of the hard disk will play an important role and is chosen by how frequently and what data the user is backing up.

Communication between Components CPU Internal Memory Power Supply Ports Fan/Heat Sync Motherboard BIOS Specialised Cards Output Devices Input Devices