Inside the PC

Power Supply

Heat Sink Used to cool the CPU or graphics processors Designed to increase the surface area in contact with the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air Made of aluminum alloy

Heat Sink

Hard Drive A hard disk drive (HDD) is a data storage device used for storing and retrieving digital information using rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. A hard drive retains its data even when powered off. Data is read in a random-access manner, meaning individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order rather than sequentially.

Hard Drive

DVD/CD Drive

Memory

CPU

The brains of the computer, where most calculations take place the most important element of a computer system On a PC, the CPU is housed in a single chip called a microprocessor CPUs are small and square and contain multiple metallic connectors or pins on the underside The CPU is inserted directly into a CPU socket, pin side down, on the motherboard

Motherboard

The main circuit board Contains the connectors for attaching additional boards Typically contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive

Motherboard Collectively, all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard's chipset On most PCs, it is possible to add memory chips directly to the motherboard. You may also be able to upgrade to a faster PC by replacing the CPU chip To add additional core features, you may need to replace the motherboard entirely