|
RISING WOMEN EXPERTS...
I know I should understand the basics of computer hardware, but
when I hear about CPU’s and RAM, I zone out. What do I really need to know?”
By Diane Henders of Bright Ideas Personalized
Learning
Main parts inside a computer case:
- The power supply: the power cord goes into it, distributing power to
everything;
- The motherboard: a big circuit board that’s connected to everything else;
- The daughter-boards (or “cards”): smaller circuit boards that plug into
the motherboard;
- The CPU (or “chip”): a chip that plugs into the motherboard, covered by a
fan;
- The hard drive: metal case and circuit board, 4” by 6”
- The RAM (or “memory”): little circuit boards that plug into the
motherboard.
The first three items are fairly self-explanatory. The power supply supplies
power to all the other parts. Without the motherboard, none of the parts
could work together. The cards provide ways to get information into and out
of the computer (i.e: you plug your monitor into the video card.)
“CPU” stands for “Central Processing Unit”, and it directs traffic between
the motherboard and all things connected to the motherboard. The CPU does
all the data processing and calculations, but it doesn’t store any data.
Think of the CPU as the CEO of a corporation - it does all the thinking and
directing, but it leaves filing to others.
The hard drive is like your filing cabinet. All your data is stored on the
hard drive. When you open a file, the CPU directs a request to the hard
drive to get the information.
“RAM” stands for “Random Access Memory”, and it’s similar to your short-term
memory. Without it, you’d have go to the filing cabinet each time you needed
information. When the CPU first requests data from the hard drive, the data
goes into RAM, which can be accessed more quickly than the hard drive. But,
like your short-term memory, there’s only so much RAM available. As you work
on more files, the older data in RAM is replaced with the current data in
use.
This is why the CPU, RAM and hard drive are important in controlling the
speed of your computer. The advertised speed of the CPU (i.e, “a 3.8
GigaHertz chip”) is really the maximum speed it could go if it had adequate
RAM and hard drive space. So you don’t necessarily need to buy a “faster”
computer - you could add RAM or free up hard drive space to improve
performance.
To learn more about your computer, please call Bright Ideas
Personalized Learning at 403.692.2255, or visit
www.BrightIdeasWeb.biz |
