Computer Hardware, Parts and Functions of Computer Hardware

What is Computer Hardware?

Have you seen a keyboard before? What about a monitor? If yes, then you already know something about computer hardware.

Computer hardware is the collection of physical parts of a computer system.

Physical parts of a computer are those parts that you can see and touch. It may also be referred to as the equipment of the computer.

When the computer case is opened (with a screwdriver), one would see the different hardware components inside of it. It's important to state that some other hardware components are present outside the computer case.

Note: Hardware components seen outside the computer case are called peripherals. The peripherals are grouped into the following:

1. Input devices: They provide information to the computer.

2. Output devices: Brings out information from the computer.

3. Storage devices: They store information or data.

 

Below are examples of some peripherals:

• Keyboard (input)

• Monitor (output)

• Mouse (input)

• Webcam (input)

• Touch Pad (input)

• Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive or memory card (storage)

• Hard disc drive (storage)

• Stylus (input)

• Joystick(input)

• Printer (output)

• Speaker (output)

• Headphones (output)

 

Below are hardware components seen inside the computer case:

• Motherboard

• Central Processing Unit (CPU)

• Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

• Power supply Unit (PSU)

• Northbridge

• Southbridge

• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots

• Network Interface Card (NIC)

• Random Access Memory (RAM)

• Ventilation fans

• Heat sink

• Hard Disc Drive (external present)

• Solid State Drive (SSD)

• CMOS battery

• Optical Disc Drives (external present)

• USB port, PS2 port, Ethernet port and other ports

• Expansion Ports / Slots

Please read on the router (a networking device) here.

 

The motherboard houses the different hardware component inside the computer. Some of these includes the CPU, GPU, RAM, heat sink, fan, CMOS battery, and expansion slots and ports.

The motherboard also provides the electrical connections through which other components of the computer system communicate.

Below is a labeled diagram of a the computer motherboard with it's hardware components.

The Computer Motherboard

 

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) or simply processor is considered to be the brain of the computer. It processes all information and execute computer programs. It's clock speed is measured in gigahertz (GHz).

• Computer programs include the various applications installed on your computer system; for instance, Microsoft Office, Google chrome web browser and so on.
• Think of clock speed as the speed at which the CPU processes information. You may wish to check out the clock speed of a computer before purchasing it.

You can read on the internet of things (IoT) here.

 

The Random Access Memory (RAM) is always located in the memory slots of the motherboard.

Functionally, the RAM temporarily store programs that are currently running on the computer and it makes that data immediately accessible. For instance; when you multi-task with two or more applications (apps), the RAM will temporarily and simultaneously store both data which can be accessed in a random order.

The size of RAM is measured mainly in gigabytes (GB) or megabytes (MB). The larger its size, the more applications or programs you can run simultaneously (multi-task).

The RAM is a volatile memory. This means that it will lose all it's information as soon as the computer system is powered off.

We have different types of RAM. They include:

1. Static RAM (SRAM)
2. Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
3. Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM)
4. Single Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDR SDRAM)
5. Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM (DDR SDRAM, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4)

 

The optical drive presents the interface for the optical disc. Optical disc include CD, DVD, and Blue-Ray Disc.

The IDE or SATA cable connects the optical drive to the motherboard while the MOLEX cable connects it to the Power Supply Unit (PSU).

Optical Drive

 

The Hard Disc Drive (HDD) can permanently or temporarily store data. This data could be anything; from text documents, images, applications, games, movies and so on.

HDD can be internal or external and their sizes are measured typically in gigabytes (GB) and terabytes (TB).

The Hard Disc Drive is connected to the motherboard through either of the IDE/PATA, SATA or SCSI cable.

Hard Disc Drive

A modern type of storage is the Solid State Drive (SSD).

 

The Power Supply Unit (PSU) receives power (point of power entry) from an external power source like the home socket. It connects to the motherboard through the power cable. (The power cable can come in different categories). This power is allocated by the motherboard to the individual hardware component on it.

Power Supply Unit

The unit of power is in watt (W).

 

The Expansion Slot adds additional functionality to the computer by holding different type expansion cards.

Examples of expansion cards include video card, wireless card, sound card and network card. They are inserted on the expansion slots to improve a computer's functionality.

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