Whether you're buying a prebuilt computer or assembling one yourself, a PC has many parts. Understanding these components is essential for both scenarios, as it helps you make informed decisions when buying a prebuilt PC and allows you to troubleshoot and upgrade your self-assembled PC.
In the world of computers, we have two main categories: hardware and software. Hardware refers to the physical components that make up a computer, such as the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and more. On the other hand, software refers to the programs and applications that run on this hardware. In this article, we'll focus on hardware, providing a guide to what all these parts are, what they do, and how they work.
The External Parts of a Computer
Let's start with all the computer parts you can see without taking anything apart. These are simply the parts you can see when using a PC (personal computer).
To keep things simple, we won't be talking much about laptop computers here (unless otherwise stated), even though a lot of the components are present in both.
Case, Chassis, or Tower
This is the main part of any PC and the most significant difference between PCs and laptops. Every desktop computer will have a case, sometimes called the chassis or tower.
This box-like component includes all the elements that constitute your PC, like the motherboard, CPU, RAM, drives, and cards like graphics cards, sound cards, network adapters, etc.
Don't worry too much about these for now; we'll cover them later in the article.
On the outside of the case, you'll find various buttons, ports, and lights. These are the interface points that allow you to interact with your PC. For example, you might find a power button, USB ports for connecting external devices and accessories, and indicator lights that show the status of your PC.
This is also where you'll connect your PC to external components like USB drives and input and output devices like your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speakers.
Input Devices
Every computer will have input devices. This is how you interact with your computer as the user; without them, you can't do anything.
Keyboard
The keyboard is a classic input device, and while more modern devices like tablets and smartphones no longer use a physical keyboard in favour of a virtual on-screen keyboard, you'll find that both PCs and laptops still use a keyboard as the primary way for users to interact with the systems.
Mouse
The mouse is the other input device that almost every PC will have. Most computers still use a mouse, but initially, the keyboard was the only input device.
Thanks to keyboard shortcuts, there are many ways to input instructions to a computer quickly without even needing the mouse, and advanced users often prefer keyboard shortcuts over using the mouse.
Unlike the plural for the animal, the plural for a computer mouse can be "mice" or "mouses".
Touchpads, Trackpads, and Tablets
While most modern laptops include a touchpad instead of a mouse, you can also get touchpads or even graphics tablets that act as input devices for personal computers.
Artists and graphic designers will prefer tablets with a stylus, as they allow them to interact with desktop and laptop computers in a way reminiscent of pen and paper.
Output Devices
While the devices above were for users to interact with the computer, some devices allow users to see what the computer is doing and receive feedback from the computer.
These are output devices, and while they're integrated into the main unit on laptops, they're separate from the case for most desktop computers.
Monitor
The monitor or screen is the computer's main display. Monitors come in all different shapes and sizes.
When buying monitors, users will want to know the size (often measured in inches diagonally across the screen), the resolution, the refresh rate (how quickly the image on the monitor can change), and other factors like the image quality, the colours, etc.
Speakers
Speakers provide the audio output for a computer. While you can buy monitors with integrated speakers, dedicated components tend to offer better sound quality.
The Internal Parts of a Computer
Everything we've seen so far is part of a computer that can be seen without taking anything apart. However, things get interesting inside the case, where all the computer's main components are housed.
Here's a fascinating and lengthy video on what every piece of hardware does.
Let's have a look at each of these and what they do.
Motherboard
Every computer starts with a motherboard. If you assemble a PC, you could think of the whole thing as a little city. The motherboard is all your infrastructure like roads, power, sanitation, etc.
Every other component connects to the motherboard in some way.
The motherboard is a printed circuit board (PCB) complete with various sockets, slots, and chipsets.
Motherboards have limitations on what they can handle, so the more powerful you want your PC to be, the more critical your motherboard will be.
Motherboards come in different sizes, known as form factors, which will dictate what kind of case you need for your PC.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The central processing unit, CPU, or simply processor, is your computer's brain. This processes data and executes instructions.
CPUs are typically discussed in terms of speed, cores, and threads. However, there are many factors to consider when understanding how a CPU performs.
Random Access Memory (RAM)
Random Access Memory or RAM serves as temporary storage for CPU data processing.
Like all memory, RAM is measured in bytes and multiples thereof (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc.). Nowadays, you can get gigabytes of RAM for desktop computers, and the amounts are always powers of two because of the binary nature of computing (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.).
To fully understand RAM's performance, users should consider speed, latency, bandwidth, and capacity.
RAM helps computers multitask and do more things at once, and it speeds up how quickly and efficiently applications and the operating system (like Windows) run.
RAM is crucial for gaming, as many games are RAM-intensive as they use it to store and quickly access data.
Storage
Storage refers to "permanent storage." While files can be permanently deleted, this storage is used for files, your operating system, applications, and programs, some of which were created by the history's greatest programmers.
Your storage is typically a drive or drives. Unlike USB sticks, drives, or external drives, these internal drives generally have a larger capacity and access data more quickly.
If you're familiar with the history of computers, you'll know that older hard disk drives (HDD) use magnetic storage and are high-capacity and slower-speed devices.
More modern solid-state drives (SSD) offer faster access speeds and are more expensive.
Graphics Card
A computer needs either a graphics card or an integrated graphics chipset to display graphics on the monitor.
The latter is some chips on the motherboard that handle graphics. However, a dedicated graphics card connected to the motherboard (usually via a dedicated slot) will provide much better performance.
For those interested in gaming, graphics cards are essential to a computer's hardware. Graphics cards also have their own version of RAM called VRAM, accessed and used by the graphics card.
Sound Card
A sound card handles and produces sound for speakers.
A sound card also handles audio input and can be used to connect audio input devices like microphones and certain musical instruments.
Motherboards often have integrated sound cards or chipsets that can produce sound. Still, audiophiles typically prefer to opt for a dedicated sound card, which will connect to the motherboard using one of the expansion slots.
Network Adapters
A computer requires a network adaptor to connect to any network or the Internet. This component is often integrated into motherboards, but you can buy dedicated network adaptors.
Like many devices nowadays, network adaptors come in both wired and wireless options. With a network adaptor, you'll typically connect your computer to a network router to connect to a network or the Internet, whether you're doing research for a project or idly scrolling through Facebook.
You can also get wireless network adaptors to connect your PC to WiFi.
Cooling System
Your computer generates heat while in use. Each component will generate heat, which is a problem because computing components operate better at lower temperatures.
To counteract overheating, computers use various methods to reduce heat buildup.
CPUs and GPUs sometimes use thermal paste to transfer heat away from the components. This paste is applied between the element and a heatsink, usually a heat-conducting component with a high-surface area that dissipates heat away from the element. They typically act like little radiators.
There are also liquid cooling systems that use liquid coolant and pipes.
If you choose to assemble your own PC, how you cool it is an important consideration.
Computers perform better at cooler temperatures. In addition to cooling systems, you can also ensure your computer stays cool by keeping it away from confined areas where heat can't dissipate.
Power Supply
Last but not least, everything inside your PC needs power. Within the case, a power supply connects to an outlet. Within the tower itself, this power unit has various connections to feed electrical current to other components like the motherboard and drives.
Most devices that connect to the motherboard will be powered through the motherboard, which gets its power from the power unit. However, specific energy-intensive devices, like graphics cards, may require a dedicated connection from the power supply.
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