How Computers Work: The Separate Parts

Computers have come a long way in recent years, and although the actual manufacturing of each part is a very advanced, precise process, understanding how each basic component works is a very cool thing to know: It can make you seem smarter when talking about computers, help you troubleshoot when a computer fails, or help a person build a computer! A computer may seem complex on the outside, but on the inside, there are only seven main parts that help everything you do on your computer work flawlessly.

1) CPU, or Central Processing Unit. The CPU is basically the "brain" of the computer, it LOVES doing math and calculating things. Imagine it as the Excel worksheet cruncher!

2) GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit. The GPU is like an artsy person! It is similar to a CPU, but instead of crunching numbers, it LOVES drawing pictures instead, so it helps generate the graphics that you see on your computer screen. It can be seen as the CPU's artsy sister.

3) HDD, or hard disk drive, is where all your files are stored. It is like a CD that spins thousands of times a minute. Files are stored on the HDD by a mechanical arm moving back and forth, magnetizing a glass disk coated in aluminum. When you start your computer, the biggest reason it takes a while to start is because the arm has to read BILLIONS of little magnitized bits on a disk. Basically, it would similar to...a huge circular library, and someone says,"I want the Dino book", but unfortunately, the books were all ripped up page by page, and the librarian has to use a claw arm to grab each page of his book while the library spins thousands of a minute. As you could imagine, it would take some time to find the pages, then pick them up, and then put them together to present the book, and thus, that is why it takes time to boot a computer and reach the desktop.

4) RAM, or random accesss memory, is basically fast memory (measured in Gigabytes) that is basically the multitasking ability of your computer. When you open a program or file (I'll use the book analogy), IT TAKES A LONG TIME for all the pages of a book to be found. However, once the librarian reassembles that book from the slow HDD, she can place it in the RAM, where it can remain, so it will take almost no time to re-retrieve that book. On a computer, if you opened Excel, you would have to wait a while for the HDD to read the program, but once it was inside of the RAM, the program works fast, and closing and reopening it will be faster, because it is still residing in the faster RAM. Without RAM, the world would be a crawl. However, once a computer is shut down, the RAM is completely cleared, so that is why data cannot be stored in RAM.

5) PSU, or power supply unit, is what powers the computer. It converts AC current, which alternates, to DC current, which is constant. On a desktop, it's inside the computer, and on a laptop, its the brick on your charger. Your phone also has that little wall wart, and that's basically a PSU too, but WAY smaller.

6) Motherboard, or Mobo for short, basically has a lot of slots on it, and looks like the most advanced component, but is basically a large flat component that the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other things plug into. It connects everything together like glue, and can be seen as the Mother, connecting all the children together as a family.

7) The case is the last part, and is what I love most, because some look extremely cool, and functions as the exterior chassis to hold everything inside, but also cool everything with internal fans.


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