Basic Computer Hardware

Computer hardware is the physical part of the computer including the digital circuits inside the computer as opposed to the software that carry out the computing instructions. The hardware of a computer is unlikely to change frequently unless due to the crash or for upgrading them. The devices that is capable of storing, executing system instructions and controlling other logical outputs.

Hardware comprises all of the physical part of the computer such as Monitor, CPU, motherboard, ram, CD-Rom, printer, scanner, hard disk, flash drive (AKA pen drive), processor, pci buses, floppy disk, power supply, VGA card, sound card, network interface card, peripherals, joystick, mouse, keyboard, foot pedal, computer fan, camera, headset and others.



CPU (Central Processing Unit): CPU or central processing unit relates to a specific or processor. The performance of the computer is determined by the CPU chip (processor speed) and the other computer circuitry.



Hard Disk Drives – Disk drive is the mechanism to run the disks. All disks need a drive to get the information, read it and put it back to the disks. Hard disk is used to store the data permanently. Often the terms disk and drive used to describe the same thing but it should be clear that a disk is a storage device.



Modem – A modem is used for the modulation and demodulation of the data that is transferred through the modem and the telephone lines. Modem translates the data from digital to analog from analog to digital. Because on the telephone lines data can travel in the form of the analog signals and in the computer data transmits in the form of digital signals. Modems are measured by the speed which is called baud rate.



Video cards-Video cards allow computer to display video, graphics and animation. Some video cards allow computers to display television. A video card with a digital video camera allows users to produce live video. A high speed broadband internet connection is required to watch the videos on net.



Network cards: Network interface cards allow PCs to connect with each other and communicate. Every network computer is required to have a NIC card. NIC cards are required both in wired and wireless networking.



RAM (Random Access Memory) RAM is a memory that is being used by the computer to store the information temporarily. For example when some work is performed on some applications that work is temporarily stored in the RAM. More RAM in the computer more faster computer works.



Cards – Cards are the hardware components that are added to the computer to increase their functionalities and capabilities.

Memory – Memory is the one of the important piece of the hardware. Sometimes memory chip memory is confused with the hard disk memory. Sometimes unallocated space of the hard disk is used as virtual memory also known as page file. This type of memory is a temporary memory and is used actual memory is less and requires some additional memory to perform a specific task.

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