PC hardware describes all the components that go into a computer. It includes things like a case that protects all the hardware, fans to keep the hardware cool and room for a power supply unit that handles power conversion for the other parts of the system.
Other pc hardware includes the central processor, which handles basic instructions and allocates more complex tasks to other chips; random access memory — RAM — makes data immediately accessible to programs; hard drives store gigabytes or terabytes of data using different technologies.
Motherboard
The motherboard is the skeleton that connects all of your PC’s other components. It houses essential circuits, chips, sockets, expansion slots and ports that determine the performance, expandability and compatibility of your system.
It delivers power from the PSU and regulates it so that components don’t get overloaded or experience power spikes that could damage them. It also enables data flow between different add-in components by using special buses and interfaces, like USB, SATA, and PCIe.
Its BIOS (or its successor, the UEFI) chip stores firmware that provides basic instructions for initializing your hardware and booting your operating system. The motherboard may include one or more slots for RAM memory, and it typically has connectors to attach storage devices, such as hard drives or solid-state drives.
Processor
The processor is the brain behind every computer, interpreting and executing instructions in a sequence. It takes in data and processes it, storing the information in RAM until needed again.
The four main functions of a CPU are fetch, decode, execute and write back. Fetch is where the CPU receives its instructions from program memory in a systems RAM, then the decode step converts those instructions into binary signals to control other parts of the chip.
Different types of processors exist, each serving a specific kind of task. There are single-core processors that handle tasks one at a time, dual-processor chips that take on both general computing and creative work like video editing and pro gaming, and octa-core chips designed for fast processing of parallel tasks.
RAM
RAM is a temporary storage place for data your computer is using now, and it’s much faster to access than the data saved in long-term storage (hard drives or solid state drives). Whenever you open a program on your device, the CPU reads all the relevant information from the hard drive into RAM to support its processing.
RAM comes in different forms, including DDR (dynamic random-access memory), which is the type you’ll find in desktop PCs, and SRAM (static random-access memory), used in mobile devices because it doesn’t need to be refreshed.
Modern RAM is also improving in terms of transfer speed and power efficiency, which is crucial for high-end gaming and other tasks like video editing that require large amounts of data. It also comes in different form factors for different uses: laptops use SODIMMs, while desktops need DIMMs.
Graphics Card
A graphics card, or GPU, is a specialized processor designed to accelerate the rate at which your computer processes images. It also stores those images in a pool of Video random-access memory (VRAM), separate from the main RAM that your CPU uses.
Graphics cards are most famous for accelerating graphics rendering, but they’re used in a variety of other applications, including computer simulation and artificial intelligence training. The CUDA cores and stream processors in a GPU allow it to handle large numbers of operations at once, which makes them useful for parallel processing tasks.
There are two types of graphics cards: integrated and discrete. Integrated cards are built into the motherboards of most laptops and desktops, while discrete cards are an external component that can be added to your system.
Hard Drive
The hard drive is the main storage device for files, applications and other data on a computer. It stores a significant amount of the computer’s operating system and individual programs, so that they do not have to be loaded from discs every time a user boots their machine or starts an application.
The physical components of a hard drive are primarily comprised of a magnetic surface layered onto a high-precision glass or aluminum platter. A precision arm known as the actuator is in charge of moving the head over this platter to read or write the binary 1s and 0s that make up our files.
The hard drive also has an electronic component to transmit the data and control the mechanism, which is a microprocessor and associative memory held on a PCB that communicates with the motherboard. Typically, the drive is powered by a connection to the power supply unit.