Caring For Network and Computer Hardware

UNIT ONE: IDENTIFY COMPUTER HARDWARE
COMPONENTS
Overview of Internal and External Hardware Peripherals
Hardware
Computer hardware refers to the physical parts of a computer
and related devices.
Internal hardware devices include motherboards, hard drives,
and RAM.
External hardware devices include monitors, keyboards, mice,
printers, and scanners etc.
The internal hardware parts of a computer are often referred to
as components, while
external hardware devices are usually called peripherals.
Together, they all fall under the category of computer hardware.
 Software, on the other hand, consists of the programs
and applications that run on computers. Because
software runs on computer hardware.
 software programs often have system requirements
that list the minimum hardware required for the
software to run.
Windows 10 system requirements
• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit
OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 800 x 600
Internal Hardware Peripherals
Inside Computer
1 Motherboard
 the body or mainframe of the computer, through which all other
components interface.
 It is the central circuit board making up a complex electronic
system.
 A motherboard provides the electrical connections by which the
other components of the system communicate.
 The mother board includes many components such as: central
processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), firmware,
and internal and external buses.
 The motherboard is a computer's central communications backbone
connectivity point, through which all components and external
peripherals connect.
 Other components get added to a motherboard through expansion
slots.
 It allocates power and allows communication to and between the
CPU (central processing unit), RAM (random-access memory), and all
other computer hardware components.
2 Central Processing Unit
• The Central Processing Unit (CPU; sometimes just called processor) is
a machine that can execute computer programs. It is sometimes
referred to as the brain of the computer.
 There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their
operation: fetch, decode, execute, and write- back.
 The first step, fetch, involves retrieving an instruction
from program memory.
 In the decode step, the instruction is broken up into
parts that have significance to other portions of the
CPU.
 During the execute step various portions of the CPU,
such as the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and the
floating point unit (FPU) are connected so they can
perform the desired operation.
 The final step, write-back, simply writes back the
results of the execute step to some form of memory.
Power supply
 A power supply unit (PSU) converts alternating current

(AC) electric power to low-voltage DC power for the
internal components of the computer.
 Some power supplies have a switch to change between
230 V and 115 V.
 switch mode power supplies (SMPS). The SMPS provides
regulated direct current power at the several voltages required
by the motherboard and accessories such as disk drives and
cooling fans.
3 Removable media devices
4 Secondary storage
 Hardware that keeps data inside the computer for later use and
remains persistent even when the computer has no power.
 A Hard disk drive (HDD also hard drive or hard disk) is a non-volatile,
random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features
rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective
enclosure.
 Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by
read/write heads that float on a film of air above the platters.
Introduced by IBM in 1956.
 hard disk drives have decreased in cost and physical size over the
years while dramatically increasing in capacity.
• Hard disk drives have been the dominant device for secondary storage
of data in general purpose computers since the early 1960s.
• Today's HDDs operate on high-speed serial interfaces; i.e., serial ATA
(SATA) or serial attached SCSI (SAS).
5 RAID array controller
• A device to manage several internal or external
hard disks and optionally some peripherals in
order to achieve performance or reliability
improvement in what is called a RAID array.
Sound card
 Enables the computer to output sound to audio devices, as well as
accept input from a microphone. Most modern computers have
sound cards built-in to the motherboard, though it is common for
a user to install a separate sound card as an upgrade. Most sound
cards, either built-in or added.
External hardware peripherals
1 Monitor (output)
 A monitor, also known as a visual display unit (VDU) or screen, is
like a television screen.
 It is measured diagonally in inches — the distance from one
corner of the screen area to the opposite corner.
 The quality of a monitor is determined by its resolution.
 Resolution is calculated based on the number of pixels, which are
individual dots that create the images you see on your monitor.
Keyboard(input)
 A combination of a typewriter keyboard and numeric keypad, a keyboard enables
you to enter data into a computer.
 Computer keyboards are similar to electric typewriter keyboards but include
additional keys.
Mouse
 A mouse is a device that controls the movement of the cursor on a screen.
 A mouse is a small object you can roll along a flat surface, to help you navigate
your computer.
 Mouse also have a variety of buttons, which can have different purposes
depending on what program is running.
 There is usually a left mouse button (which is used to select an object and
perform an action)
• Laser printer — produces very high-quality text
and graphics, using a process similar to a
photocopier to produce print. It creates dot-like
images on a drum, using a laser beam light
source.
Scanner
 A scanner is a device that captures text or illustrations on paper
and converts the information into a form the computer can use.
 One of the most common kinds of scanners is called a flatbed
scanner
USB flash drive
 A small, portable device that plugs into a computer’s USB port
and operates as a portable hard drive.
 USB flash drives are considered to be an ideal method to
transport data, as they are small enough to be carried in a pocket
and can plug into any computer with a USB drive.
Web cam
• Web cams are small cameras that plug into your computer which
allow the user to share a moving image of themselves with
others on other computers through the Internet.

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UNIT ONE: IDENTIFY COMPUTER HARDWARE

 A power supply unit (PSU) converts alternating current

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