WEEK+5


 * Hardware**


 * INSIDE THE COMPUTER**



The m otherboard is t he central printed circuit board (PCB) found in complex electronic systems, such as modern personal computers. It holds many of the crucial electronic components of the system, including the CPU and RAM, and provides connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or logic board.

The power supply, not surprisingly, provides all components of the system with power.

Hard drives are non-volatile storage devices—they retain data when the computer is turned off—and use magnetic platters to store data. We’ll look a bit more at hard drives in a minute.

RAM, or Random Access Memory, is volatile storage—it does not retain data when the computer is turned off. RAM uses memory chips / circuitry to store data electronically, instead of magnetic platters or optical storage.

The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the functional chip inside the computer that is responsible for executing all programs, operating system code, and numeric calculations. The CPU is housed underneath the heat sink and associated fan in a socket on the motherboard.

A heat sink is an environment or object that absorbs and dissipates heat into the air from another object. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool CPUs or graphics processors.

Finally, we see some other common elements of the inside of a computer here, including a case fan (that cools the entire computer), a slot filled with a GPU (a graphics card or video card, that is used to run calculations required to display graphics), and slots for expansion cards of various kinds.


 * THE HARD DRIVE**




 * Solid state drives:** use integrated circuits as memory to store data persistently. They DO NOT use moving mechanical components. They're also less susceptible to physical shock, quieter, quicker...but more expensive for the same amount of storage.


 * DO's**

-turn off computer -remover power cord and anything that can cause static


 * DON'T**

-lose screws -eat or drink around open machine -force anything