ResearchInside your PC
Every day you hear people saying "I don't understand computers." Even people who work with personal desktop computers on a daily basis, including web developers and software engineers, confess they have no idea what's going on inside the box. And that's very surprising, because in reality a PC is a simple assembly of components which are standard from one model to another. If you can change the oil filter on your car, you can replace a part in your PC - in fact a PC has far fewer parts! You may want to slide open the case on your machine and at least familiarize yourself with the parts - even a rudimentary knowledge of basic PC components can help you diagnose problems and even fix them yourself, saving hundreds of dollars for the work of using a screwdriver for ten minutes.
So, meet the computer parts. If you need help identifying them, try using an Internet search engine to search for the name of the part in the "images" section.
We'll start with the motherboard. It's the big, wide, flat part that everything else plugs into. This is the equivalent of the spine and skeleton of the human body. It is the framework that makes all the parts work together, and has all manner of pins and sockets on it. Your computer's BIOS, the first screen you see when you turn the machine on, lives on the motherboard.
Look for a large box that your power cord plugs into from the outside. Inside, the box has many wires splitting off and plugging into everything else. This is the power box, and it's job is to take your household current and split it up into many small currents of 5 to 12 volts to power the many small components. It has a big fan on it. Power box failure is the number one problem of a computer which is simply dead, and it is very easy to replace. Before power boxes fail, their large fan will usually make a lot of noise. New power boxes run from $70 to $140 or so, depending on the model.
One special part fastens securely to the motherboard, and that is the processor chip. This will usually be an Intel or an AMD processor, and is the main basis of the computer's performance. If people say they have a "586" or "Pentium 3" or an "Athlon", these are all types of processor, and practically everything else can be assumed from the processor type. The processor is the inner brain of the computer; all the logic processing - the "thinking" of the machine - happens here.
Another kind of part plugged directly into the motherboard is the memory modules. These are "RAM" chips; long, thin strips of chips which plug into two or more sockets in the motherboard. RAM stands for "random access memory" and comes in many varieties such as SRAM and RDRAM. Random access memory is like the scratch pad or scrap paper you would use to make grocery lists and do math by hand on. It allows the computer to read a large chunk of stored memory off the much slower storage media, keeping it in a quick, accessible memory area for rapid processing. The more MB of RAM you have the faster your computer is, it's as simple as that. Upgrading your RAM is the simplest way to get better performance out of your machine, though there's only so much you can cram in there.
Next is storage media. These are the disks, and may be hard drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, or other peripherals such as a zip drive. This is the long-term memory store of the computer, which keeps you installed system and programs and your documents stored. There are physical limitations on how much data your computer can store here, just like filling up the pages of a book.
Last are the "card" devices. Most motherboards these days come with basic ethernet, video, or sound built in, but you can also over-ride it with these special cards which plug into slots near the back of the motherboard. Usually these will have a socket that extends out the back of the PC, for plugging in a monitor or your Internet connection. The rest is cabling, such as IDE "ribbon" cables which connect the hard drive to the motherboard, or the wires connecting the On/Off switch from the PC case to the board.
With a few minor exceptions, that's all that's going on under the hood of your average desktop PC! Just knowing these few components will at least help you figure out what may go wrong when your hardware fails. At the very least, it will help you understand the computer technician's talk a little better.