Computer hardware consists of the physical components that make your computer work. Software is the programming that tells those components what to do.
Whether you’re building your own PC or upgrading an existing one, understanding pc hardware is crucial. Here’s a primer on the essentials: CPU, motherboard, video card and more.
CPU
The central processing unit (CPU) is the brain of your computer. The complex circuitry inside the CPU handles instructions to run programs, and the overall operation of your computer is determined by its performance.
Its control unit assigns jobs to other parts of the chip, much like a manager might assign work to employees. The arithmetic/logic unit performs mathematical operations, and the registers store instructions and data.
The processor clock controls the flow of work through the CPU by delivering electrical pulses to coordinate with other parts of the system. It also manages the memory cache, which speeds up work by storing frequently used data closer to the CPU for quicker access.
Motherboard
Motherboards are essential for PCs, forming the skeleton that holds all other hardware components together. They distribute power to different add-ins like expansion cards, storage devices, and the best RAM, ensuring that each gets enough voltage to work properly.
They also host the computer’s BIOS (or UEFI) firmware and enable the system to recognize its internal hardware and load an operating system. Many motherboards come with features that cater to specific needs and preferences, such as onboard Wi-Fi and RGB lighting.
You can find motherboards in various form factors, from standard ATX to microATX to mini-ITX. The latter is particularly popular in desktop PCs, as it offers performance comparable to ATX boards in a smaller footprint.
Video Card
In modern PCs, the video card controls the display settings of the computer. It enhances the quality of pictures and videos by increasing their resolution, speeds up 2D and 3D graphic rendering, and helps in improving gaming performance.
GPUs are specialized computers that can perform massive amounts of repetitive math calculations needed to show digital images. They have their own memory, which is called VRAM, to store pixel colors and textures.
Most GPUs have a PCI Express interface slot for quick data transfer. They also have auxiliary power connectors to supplement the power provided by the motherboard.
Hard Drive
A hard drive (abbreviated HDD or sometimes referred to as a disk drive) is nonvolatile storage for the computer’s data. An internal hard drive consists of multiple disk platters containing magnetic tracks and a read/write head in an air-sealed enclosure.
It also has electronics to control the mechanism, translate data and perform error correction and analysis. A hard drive also has a power connector and a data interface. The most common are ATA/IDE and SATA for desktop drives, but there are other choices such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Fibre Channel for enterprise drives.
RAM
When you play a game or stream a movie, all the data that goes with it is stored in your RAM so your processor can quickly access it. That information gets replaced with new data when the program ends, and the old data gets lost when you shut down your computer.
Most computers allow you to add more RAM up to a certain limit, and it’s one of the best ways to boost performance. Having more RAM lets your CPU cut down on how often it reads data from long-term storage like your hard drive or solid-state disk, which takes much longer than reading from RAM.
Optical Drive
The optical drive, also known as a disc drive or ODD, reads CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (and floppy disks) that contain data files like music, movies and photos. It looks like a square box with a drawer that has a small Open/Close button that ejects and retracts the bay door to accept and remove media.
Optical drives use a laser beam to read the underside of the plastic disc, detecting a series of pits and bumps that encode digital data. Some optical drives can also write to the discs, allowing users to create their own music and video CDs, or back-up their data.