What's Inside Your Computer? - The Basics

Have you ever wondered what all of those components inside your computer actually are?  What do they do? How does it all work together so you can do things like check your email, browse the Internet, and sort through all those family photos?

There are books comprised of volumes of information that go into exhaustive detail on all of the components, but for our purposes we're going to take about a few of the basics.

The Motherboard

The motherboard is the main computer board that you'll see when you open your computer for the first time. This board contains all of the connections and components that make up your computer. 

The CPU

After the motherboard comes the CPU, or Central Processing Unit. This little chip is the brain of the computer like your human brain, every single bit of information is processed through this chip in one way or another. 

RAM or Memory

The next important thing inside your computer is random access memory, or RAM,  Memory is where programs are where programs are loaded while they are running on your computer, to the more you have, the more programs you can have open simultaneously.

Hard Drive

The hard drive is a device that is used for long term storage of information such as applications, files, settings, and operating system. When programs are installed on the computer, the installation is copying all of the necessary files to run the program onto the hard drive.

Power Supply

Of course nothing happens without power, so the computer also contains a power supply. This unit converts the power coming from your wall plug into power that the computer uses to process... well everything.

Of course theres a lot more going on inside of the computer and there may even be more components; such as optical drives, sound cards, video cards, network cards, and so on.  But these the very basic items that are inside of every computer. 

Of course, if you're having difficulty with any of these items, you can always call us at:

(817) 438-6512

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