There are three main components of a computer: hardware, software and memory. There are many other components of a computer, but these three are the most common. Other components of a computer may include peripheral devices, batteries, hard drives, wireless cards, etc. The parts of a desktop or laptop computer are generally categorized as follows:
The hardware components of a computer system are the things inside the computer itself. These are the monitor, the keyboard, the CPU (a microprocessor), graphics card, hard drive, memory cards, mother board, optical drive and so on. There are sometimes more components of a computer, but this is to designate the more important and critical parts of the computer hardware. Some computers may have additional hardware additions like sound card and/or video card. Components of a computer hardware can be found in the form of an operating system, a driver, or installed software.
The software components of a computer usually come in the form of programs, drivers, standard library, and so on. In some cases, the components of a computer can be very complex, like a video card. The motherboard is the component that connects all the external components of a computer together and is usually powered by a PCI (PCI compliant) slot. Motherboards also contain embedded random access memory (RAM), which works like a computer’s RAM except it is not controlled by any software.
Some computers use a motherboard based upon the processor on the inside of the computer case. The most popular type of motherboard is the ATX form of motherboard, which contains two slots for the CPU and one each for the PCI and AGP ports. Some motherboards contain extra slots and cards for extra components of a computer. A minor motherboard variation is the molex form of motherboard. This motherboard has one internal molex plug for the CPU and one external molex plug for the video card.
One important component of a PC is the central processing unit (CPU). The meaning of the term “processor” means that the hardware device is responsible for performing the arithmetic and logical operations that are part of an execution of computer code. In the case of the CPU, the various components are the microprocessor, the cache, and the central memory.
The microprocessor controls what gets written to the CPU’s register and what gets stored in the CPU’s registers. The cache contains data that is used frequently by the operating system and executed on the CPU. The central memory is where the computer maintains information that is required for execution of tasks by the operating system. All of the components of a CPU work together to run the computer.
One of the other most important components of a computer is the operating system or the software that controls how the hardware and software interact with each other and with the computer user. Often times, users will have to set up the computer in order to get it to perform the way they want it to. The computer usually comes with a pre-installed operating system or some type of distribution that is needed to get the computer to perform certain tasks.
There are other major components of a computer system, but these are the four main ones that all people know about. There are many more minor components, such as peripheral devices, which perform similar functions but are not part of the main processing unit. peripheral devices include printers, scanners, keyboards, and monitors. Major components of a computer include the memory, the hard drive, the processor, the graphics card, the hard disk, the optical drive, the keyboard, the mouse, the monitor, and any other devices that are needed to operate the human anatomy.