Computer Hardware Components

Computer Knowledge related questions are asked in IBPS or SBI exams. Computer Hardware knowledge is an essential part of Computer knowledge to remember.

Computer Hardware is the key part of the computer system without which using a computer system is impossible. Various computer hardware is combined together to form a functional unit.

What is Computer Hardware?

Computer Hardware is the parts of a computer system that we can touch. Which includes the computer case, monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

It also includes all the parts inside the computer case, such as the (HDD)hard disk drive, motherboard, video card, and many others. Computer hardware is what you can physically touch.

• Input devices are: keyboard, mouse, etc.
• Output devices are: printer, monitor, etc
• Secondary storage devices such as − Hard disk, CD, DVD, etc
• Internal components such as − CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc

CPU – Central Processing Unit

CPU is very much like your brain, it is the part of the computer that gives out all basic instructions to every other component on your computer.

CPU itself has the following three components:
Memory or Storage Unit
Control Unit
ALU or Arithmetic Logic Unit

Monitor

A monitor is simply the screen that will be giving output as video from the computer, also make sure your monitor has the appropriate video components for your graphic card.

A monitor is sometimes called a screen, display,(VD) video display, video display terminal,(VDU) video display unit, or video screen. Monitors are built-in laptops, tablets, netbooks, and all-in-one desktop machine parts of the computer.

It comes in two major types: LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). LCD monitors are much thinner, use less energy, and provide a better graphic display. CRT monitors are deep in size and look like old-fashioned TVs.

Keyboard

The keyboard is the common and very popular input device which helps to send input data to the system. The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are some additional keys
provided for performing additional functions.

There are mainly two types of keyboard layout: QWERTY and DVORAK layout. While most of the keyboard is QWERTY layout, DVORAK layout users type faster than those using the QWERTY layout.

Motherboard

The motherboard of every PC is its inner body, it connects all the different parts of the system together, your motherboard is another critical component that may not affect your performance.

The motherboard is the key computer hardware component that will decide what inputs and outputs your computer has. An example of these inputs and outputs are your audio outputs, video outputs, USB ports, Ethernet ports, firewire ports, and your mouse and keyboard.

RAM – Random Access Memory

RAM or Random Access Memory is an internal memory which is used by CPU for storing data, program, and program result. It is a read or writes memory because it stores data until the machine is working.

RAM is volatile, i.e. data stored in it can be lost when we switch off the computer or if power failure. There are 2 types of RAM:
SRAM – Static RAM
DRAM – Dynamic RAM

HDD/SSD(Hard Disk Drive/Solid state Drive)

A Hard Drive uses one or multiple disk and magnets to write data on that disk, this data will be permanently store, assuming the disk itself does not get damaged for other reasons.

Hard Drives are older compared to Solid State Drives and are significantly cheaper than SSDs. Solid State Drives or SSD works like flash memory, unlike a hard drive they have no moving parts and everything works electronically. SSDs read data much faster but due to the technology being newer are more expensive.

Mouse

Computer Mouse is the most popular pointing device. or the most famous hardware. Computer Mouse is a very famous cursor-control device and is of small palm size box with a round ball or optical sensors at its base, which senses the movement of the mouse and sends corresponding signals of direction to the CPU.

When the mouse buttons are pressed it sends signal to CPU for operations.
Computer Mouse has two buttons called the left and the right button and also have wheel in between the mouse buttons.

A mouse is used to control the cursor position on the screen, but it can be used to enter text with the help of virtual keyboard. Operating computer without mouse is nightmare for many and it requires to remember lot of shortcut keys for each application on computer.