Yesterday, I learned about computer hardware and how each piece help make the computer function. We are going to build a computer from pieces bought off the internet, which made this topic relevant to activities at CSCL. The parts that we are going to buy (also the parts I learned about) are the computer's case, motherboard, hard drive, memory, optical drive, GPU, and monitor. If I get som
1. The computer's case house all of the inside components, to protect them and make the whole thing look pretty. The case usually has a built-in fan, which helps keep the electronics from overheating.
2. The motherboard is a circuit board inside the case which connects the other components together. The motherboard houses the CPU, Central Processing unit, which does the calculations for the computer.
3. The hard drive stores all of the data on the computer, using physical disks coated with a magnetic material. The hard drive is why files are not deleted when a computer is off or the files are not being used.
4. Memory stores information that is currently being accessed. This means that it keeps track of the tabs open in your browser, or what email you are looking at in your email. It copies the info from the hard drive, and deletes the information when you stop accessing it.
5. The optical drive is the part of the computer that DVDs and CDs can be loaded into. The computer scans the disks for the information stored on them with a laser.
6. The GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is a special chip that translates the data in the computer to images on the monitor.
7. The monitor is the screen of the computer, the part where the computer's user sees all the images that the GPU sends to to it.
By the way, I have been told how to comment non-anonymously, and you can find out how in that entry. Thanks for reading!
Good post. Many years ago (25?) I was figuring out what were the best computer options to consider while identifying a system to capture patient physiological data (ECG, blood pressure, brain waves, etc) for my company's research. At that time the options were much more limited than they are now. I could have bought a complete computer off the shelf, but I found the most cost effective solution was to do what you're doing now - purchase the pieces separately and put it together myself. I put together 7 systems that way. One thing I remember vividly was the physical size of the hard drive. It was about the size of two bricks stacked together. And it only had a 20 MByte capacity!! How far we've come...
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