WHAT IS A COMPUTER? BY JACK SUMMERS

WHAT IS A COMPUTER? A computer basically a set of different components that when put together in the correct way and order will make a working computer system that you use nearly everyday either at home or at school. This PowerPoint presentation is therefor going to show all the different components that make up a computer and what they do an why they are so important when actually it comes to building your own computer at home or in the classroom.

MOTHERBOARDS What is a Motherboard? A motherboard is the main controller of a computer it is the main board were all of you other computer components will be plugged into and communicate through so that your computer will actually boot up and function correctly. If you don’t have motherboard basically you wont have a computer because if you don’t have a motherboard then there is nothing to put your CPU into or plug in your hard drives and graphics cards.

MOTHERBOARD PORTS PCI-E Slot: To insert your graphics cards PCI Slot: To insert other extension cards e.g.: Fire wire card, extra USB port cards SATA Port: To plug in your hard/SSD drives Motherboard Power Slot: This slot goes straight to your pc’s power supply to power your computer from the mains CPU Slot Where you will put your CPU and on top of that the CPU fan to keep it cool Board Inputs: Inputs for you external peripherals e.g. Keyboard mouse monitor sound device/headphones RAM Slots To insert you RAM also stands for “RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY”

CPU: COMPUTER PROCESSOR What is the CPU and what does it do? The CPU of a computer is one of the main components, if you don’t have a CPU your computer will not run, full stop!!! The CPU can be treated as the main brain of the computer as it is the component that does all the calculations and workings out that we take for granted on a computer in this day and age. It does everything from the moment you switch your computer on to the second you switch it off and in this there are two main contenders in the world of desktop pc processor manufacturers and they are AMD and INTEL. The processor speaks and processes information in binary code that is basically 0’s and 1’s e.g This then get processed and comes out on the other end into something we do on the computer e.g. click on internet explorer.

CPU MONITORING: FANS Because the CPU does so much work and so many calculations per second it gets very hot because it is converting a lot of energy as it is performing the specific calculations and because it is getting so hot you need to find some way of cooling it down r else you processor will fry. This will then make you computer cut out and not turn back on till you replace the CPU which can set you back about £50 to £1000 depending on what CPU you need for your motherboard. Air cooled Cools the CPU with air, used in nearly all pc’s very cheap and effective Water cooled Cools the CPU with water which cools the heat sink touching the CPU, used in high end gaming rigs and other high end systems Liquid Nitrogen cooled Cools the CPU with Liquid nitrogen used only in competitions and benchmarking events, extreme systems

RAM: (RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY) RAM or Random access memory basically is the stuff that makes your computer function, much like a CPU, or motherboard, if you don’t have RAM your computer will not work. What RAM actually does is process all the background information for your machine and helps take some of the strain of the main processor, so the more RAM you have the faster your computer will go because there is more RAM to help the processor run the computer at a much faster rate. This is because it stores temporary information from the computer in the background like internet and word document files that are kept in the RAM instead of the hard drives. However when the computer switch's off the RAM get wiped clean, so its not writable memory like a hard drive.

HARD DRIVES What are hard drives? Hard drives are basically the things that store all your data on. They are the devices that store all your music work and operating system on. There are many different types of hard drives no in world but the two main ones currently being used are HDD drive which are disk drives which use a disk and a laser to write your data to a disk, much like a DVD writer, and SSD drives which are like USB drives but much bigger in size, and also much faster than the HDD drives but also more expensive. HDD DRIVESSD DRIVE All hard drives plug into to the SATA ports in the motherboard or really old motherboard have something called an IDE port where you can also plug your hard drives into.

SOUND CARDS Sound cards are a standard PCI slot card which basically can provide sound from your computer system. A standard computer these days will already come with a basic sound out/line in jack which can be connected to set of speakers or headphones. However if you are wanting more definition and higher clarity from you machine in terms of sound then you would need to purchase an external sounds card which can normally range on the market now from £50 to £400 depending on what quality you want to have in your system.

GRAPHICS CARDS What is a Graphics Card? A graphics card plugs into the PCI-E slots in the motherboard and basically what it does is provide graphics to the user so that they can view there OS on there monitor. However some computer have on-board graphics already, you know when your computer has on board graphics when you see this port at the back of your PC. So if your pc has this port it then asks this question: Why do we need Graphics cards? A lot of people will never need a graphics card to run a computer system however if you are the sort of person who wants to run high quality games or run CAD software for example a graphics card will provide more power than the on-board graphics which means your pictures will display much smoother and faster than you standard graphics on your motherboard.

EXPANSION SLOTS/PCI As well as graphics cards that plug into your PCI-E slots in your motherboard you also have another slot which is just plain PCI. What this slot can be used for is expanding the different types of slots you have available on your computer system. For example if you want a few more USB slots on your computer you can stick a USB PCI expansion card into one of the PCI slots on your PC and then you will have more USB ports in your computer. As well as this there are a whole variety of expansion cards that you can purchase for your system e.g. Network card, fire-wire card, USB 2 & 3 expansion cards etc..

NETWORK & MODEM Network and Modem cards as described in the last slit can be plugged into a PCI slot into your PC’s motherboard. What these two expansion card do are either provide a network interface so that you can plug your Ethernet cable into your computer and they access the internet. As well as this the modem card will allow you to plug your phone into your computer and also access the same network but through different network interface.

FIRE WIRE A Fire-wire card is basically a different form of USB meaning they are both used to transfer data from one device to another. However Fore-wire has been know to transmit data from media device more than USB mainly because it is much faster than standard USB 2. Devices that actually stick use Fire-wire are device like video camcorders, and video camera’s digital SLR’s and also very old video cameras.

FULLY BUILT SYSTEM So when you actually get round to building your computer it should if you put in the money time and work come out looking something similar to this picture on the right. RAM Motherboard Graphics Card Hard drive HDD/SSD Power Supply CPU + CPU COOLING SYSTEM Disk Drive

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION If you have any more questions or you are still struggling with the setup, watch the videos below, or follow the links for any additional information and a step by step video guide on how to build your PC. Part 1: Choosing your components: Part 2: Building your PC: Part 3: Installing your operating system: