computer hardware components

motherboard

the computers main circuit board that holds the CPU, memory, connectors for the hard drive and optical drives, expansion cards to control the video and audio and connections to your computers ports (such as usb ports) it connects directly or indirectly to every part of the computer

CPU (microprocessor)

the brain of the computer, carries out commands (when you hit a key, click with a mouse, or start an applications)

what speed is a processors speed measured in?

megahertz (MHz) (millions of instructions per second) and gigahertz (GHz) (billions of instructions per second)

the speed of a computer solely relies on the processor

false, the actual speed of the computer depends on the speed of many different components not just the processor

what does a CPU look like and where is it located?

2 inch ceramic square with a silicon chip located inside. is the size of a thumbnail, covered by the heat sink (absorbs heat) inside a socket in the motherboard

RAM (random access memory)

where data from calculations is stored temporarily. the short-turn memory disappears when the computer is turned off, like when you work on a document and need to save it to prevent losing it.

what is RAM measured in?

megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB), the more RAM, you have the more things your computer can do at the same time.

what happens when you dont have enough RAM?

your computer is sluggish when you have several programs open (which can be fixed by adding extra to improve performance)

hard drive

where your software, documents, and other files are stored. it is long-term storage, meaning the data is still saved even if you turn the computer off or unplug it.