The Main Components of a Computer

System Units

Computers are very complex and have many different uses. This makes for a very complex system of parts that work together to do what the user wants from the computer. The purpose of this paper is to explain a few main components of the computer. The components covered are going to be system units, Motherboards, Central Processing Units, and Memory. Many people are not familiar with these terms and their meaning. These components are commonly mistaken for one and other.

System units are commonly mistaken as the Central Processing unit (CPU). System units sometimes called “computer chassis”, “base units” or “Tower cases” however are simply the housing for the integral parts of a computer. System units usual house all components of a computer excluding the monitor, Keyboard and mouse. System Units are a very simple component of the computer because they do none of the actual computing. They are usually just a square or rectangular prism made of some type of plastic or metal that hold all of the vital parts of a computer in a secure manner. Other than that there is not much to be said about the system unit.

A motherboard is a much larger topic to discuss. The motherboard sometimes referred to as the mainboard, system board, planar board or logic board is the main printed circuit board in computers. It is a large board generally made of silicon that holds basically all of the crucial electronic components of the system. Components such as the CPU, memory, optical drives, video card, sound card and connections for other peripherals are fixed on the motherboard. Motherboards vary greatly as far as what components they are compatible with. Each mother board only supports one type of (CPU).

The motherboard is contained w...

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...runching and finite element analysis, etc. require about 4 to 8 gigabytes. (C.M.B.)

The memory of a computer can be upgraded easily. The most effective way to do this is to get more RAM to plug into the motherboard. The user should first check in the manual for that specific computer to see if there is room on the motherboard for more memory. There is also a limit of memory a computer can have that should be checked as well as a recommended speed. If everything checks out giving a computer more memory is as simple as plugging it into the motherboard. (Raymond)

Works Cited

C.M.B. Yahoo voices. 16 july 2008.

Cpu. 2013. .

Cpu. n.d.

Fisher, Tim. Motherboard. 2013. howstuffworks. n.d. 2013 .

Raymond, Sarah. Thetechnologylounge.com. 13 Feb 12.

Wikipedia. n.d.