Computer Hardware

1.Power Supply
Convert AC to DC voltages. It usually supplies 3.3 volts and 5 volts for the computer's circuits and 12 volts for the motors that spin the disk drives and the fans.
The problems that appear with a power supply are usually related to the fan that prevents it from overheating. If the fan doesn't work at full capacity anymore your PC will shutdown suddenly or restart with no reason.
When buying a power supply, first consider the amount of power needed by your computer (measured in Watts, video card consume wattage, memory, CPU,motherboard) and get a power supply that has a greater output than you need.

2. MOTHERBOARD is to connect all the devices of the computer toghether and to host the CPU. Usually you can find on the motherboards:


(a.) The Processor Socket

Sockets are the home for your Central Processor Unit (CPU). Several types of socket exist, but only 2 of them are really used, and both of them are used by Intel and AMD. The Pin Grid Array (PGA) and the Land Grid Array (LGA).
Motherboard socket

With the type PGA, the CPU will have pins to fit in the socket holes, but with the type LGA, the CPU will not have such pins and will just sit on the socket.

To know the form of CPU your motherboard can use and the range of powers and FSBs, look in your motherboard's book. The book that comes with your motherboard has a chart about it in the socket or CPU chapter. That information will give you an idea to how far you can upgrade your CPU.

(b.) Memory Slots

Memory slots also call memory banks are for Random Access Memory modules (RAM). Each memory bank can receives a RAM module designed for a specific pc mother board. Ranging from 2 to 4 banks, you will encounter single and dual-channel technologies.

With single-channel, you can use 1, 2 or 3 Ram modules, and it should work perfectly. On the other hand, with dual-channel technology, if you fill only 1 bank, you will lose some strength from your module.

To get the most of it, you need to fill 2 banks with the same module types, from the same manufacturer with exactly the same memory amounts.

Different types of Memory

1. SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM)
SDRAM operates 3.3 volt, 168-pin SDRAM DIMMs.

2. DDR (Double Data Rate SDRAM)
DDR operates 2.5 voltslt, 184 pins in its DIMMs.

3. DDR2
DDR2 operates 1.8 volts, 240 pins in its DIMMs.

(c.) Floppy Drive
While still a component of many existing computers, floppy drives are moving slowly into obsolescence as the popularity of flash drives and other portable media drives increase. In fact, the floppy disk drive is no longer standard equipment on many new computer systems today.


(d.) IDE, ATA And S-ATA Interface Connectors

The Advance Technology Attachment (ATA) interface is used to connect hard drives and optic drives. You can attach 2 drives on the same ribbon, 1 master and the other slave, and it supports almost all modern hard drives storage capacities.

Modern computer mother boards have the new interface called Serial Advance Technology Attachment (S-ATA). It is faster than the ATA and only 1 device can be attached to it. The wire is thinner than his predecessor and surely help at the cooling process inside the computer case.

(f.) Northbridge
This chip that interconnects the CPU with the system's memory and fast slots (like AGP).
Northbridge, also known as a memory controller hub (MCH) or an integrated memory controller (IMC) in Intel systems (AMD, VIA, SiS and others usually use 'northbridge'), is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a PC motherboard, the other being the southbridge.


(g.) PCI Express x1
PCIe 1.x is often quoted to support a data rate of 250 MB/s in each direction, per lane. This figure is a calculation from the physical signaling rate (2.5 Gbaud) divided by the encoding overhead (10 bits per byte.)PCIe card will physically fit (and work correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is.

(h.) PCI Expres x16
PCIe x16 means a sixteen lane (×16) PCIe card would then be theoretically capable of 16×250 MB/s = 4 GB/s in each direction.

(j.) PCI Slot
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) interfaces are used to connect any extensions like sound cards, network interfaces,modem, etc.

(k.) Southbridge
This chip that interconnects the North Bridge to the other components, like PCI slots, Realtime clock, APM(Power Management), USB, Other Devices. But the NForce technology encapsulated both North and South Bridge in the same chip.

3. Processor
An electronic circuit that can execute computer programs.

4. Hard Disk



5.Video Card