Internal system unit components

•Processors- The processor is usually called a CPU (central processing unit). It is usually described as the brains of the computer.  It provides most of the processing for the computer to operate.

 

•Motherboard- The motherboard is the main part of a computer, it allows all the components to be plugged into it. This then allows all the components to communicate with each other in order for the computer to function.

 

•BIOS – This is a software in the motherboard, which controls all the components, e.g. fan speeds, processor speed and ram speeds.

 

•Power supply- This is the main power source for the computer. It has many connectors to power each component. This is important as each component needs different amounts of power to function properly. 

 

•Fan & Heat Sink- This is a component which is placed on top of the processer. It’s main function is to keep the processor temperature low. This is important because if the processor over heats it could get damaged.

 

•Hard drive – This is where most of the information is stored for your computer. These are useful as they usually have a very high capacity e.g. 1000gb. There are many different configurations, these include SATA which is the main way most hard drives are connected to the motherboard. It is a wire that connects with a lot of pins which allows fast transfer speeds. The other configuration they use is a master/slave configuration. This is when two hard drives are connected with one wire that splits into two.

 

•Ports- This includes the USB slots which are usually located on the front and back of the computer. These are used so peripherals can plug into the computer.  A parallel port is an old port with 25 pins that allows a computer to be connected to a printer.

 

•Internal memory- There is many different types of internal memory. These include RAM, ROM, CACHE . Ram is short for random access memory. Ram is to store data temporarily in so it can quickly send and receive information at a vey fast speed. Most computers would usually have 4gb of ram. Rom is a storage that can only be read and not deleted. It is usually use for the BIOS.

 

•Specialized cards – These include network and graphics cards. A network card is usually used so the computer can connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. A graphics card is a component that is mainly used so the computer can handle heavy tasks such as editing video or playing games .