The Components Inside a DeskTop PC (Lesson 1)

8 January 2022

This article is prepared for those who want to learn how to assemble a personal computer. 

What are the Components inside the PC?

Inside a desktop PC,  one should find the following components

1)   Motherboard

The Motherboard is where the CPU is located and the CPU is the "brain" inside a PC.

The CPU is located beneath the CPU fan as shown in the following picture

Besides the CPU,   there are other supporting components to facilitate the communication between the CPU and Graphics card for example.   There are also other communication channels allowing the CPU to talk to other peripherals connected to the PC,  such as printers,  games controllers and monitors that are to be connected to the PC.

2)  Power Supply Unit

The CPU or the PC will not run unless there is power connected to it.  This is where the power supply unit is so important.   The power supply unit converts and steps down the 230 household supply into lower voltages so that the PC can run.   The following lower voltages are supplied by the Power Supply unit:-

a)  5 Volts

b)  -5 Volts

c)  +12 Volts

d)  -12 Volts

e)  +3  Volts

f)    -3 Volts

3)  Graphic Card

This is the card that converts the CPU's output signal into a video signal so that the CPU output can be displayed on the monitor.   There is various type of connection for various kind of monitors;  some have display resolution better than the others.

For example,  this graphic card will convert the CPU output signals directly into a monitor that has a display port.  It has also an HDMI & a DVI connector.    It does not have the usual VGI connector because this is a high-resolution card that will display higher resolution graphics for computer games.

4)  Internal Drives

PC will need devices to store all the programs and the operating system (OS) that controls the CPU and other components inside the PC.   This is the function of the internal drives inside the PC.

The internal drive might consist of the following devices

a)  DVD Rom Drive: -  This device allows DVD discs to be read and written by the PC;

b)  SSD Drive:   This device,  consists of computer memory cards that do not have any moving parts.  It is commonly called Solid State Drive.

 

c)  Hard Drive:-  This device has magnetic discs inside that will spin at a very high speed so that information can be stored inside it for the PC to read and write on it.   Besides the spinning disc which is different from an SSD drive,  it has huge storage memories allowing thousand of gigabyte memory to be stored at a cheaper cost,

To be continued.....