- Hardware is the corporeal and tangible portion of a computer system that you interact with to take advantage of computer programs. It is distinct from software in that it is built of physical material and generally does not perform logical operations or change its state frequently.
- The central piece of hardware for any computer is the motherboard, which is a circuit board that contains all of the sockets, slots, and chip sets that all of the other hardware devices will be connected into. The central processing unit, which handles all of the mathematical calculations that the computer needs to perform, is attached to the main socket of the motherboard. The two main companies that produce processors, AMD and Intel, each make a variety of different processor types that work with different motherboards. The random access memory attaches to slots in the motherboard and it controls the speed that computations occur. The hard drive is the component that actually stores all of the data in the computer such as files, music or games. All of these units are run by a power supply that plugs into a wall socket. Computers with more advanced hardware will require a higher voltage power supply to run at peak efficiency. Some sort of cooling system must also be used, such as a fan or liquid cooling tubes, to prevent the other devices from overheating and shutting down. All of these components are held inside of a metal or plastic case.
- Media hardware devices allow external types of media to be used by the computer. The main media drive will be a CD or DVD that is allows you to install programs from CDs or play music. A graphics card, which will either plug into a PCI, AGP or PCI-Express slot on the motherboard, controls the level of graphical options that can be utilized for video games or graphics editing programs. Sound cards are used so that your computer can use different kinds of speaker systems. The final media hardware types are ports on the front or back of the computer that allow devices to be connected through USB, Fireware, Serial or Ethernet cables.
- In order to interact with your computer system, you will need some kind of input hardware. Most computer systems require one or more input devices to be connected or it will not boot up at all. The most popular input devices are a mouse for navigating the screen, a keyboard for typing text and a microphone for sending voice over the internet or activating voice command software.
- The fastest or most advanced computer in the world is useless without a means of displaying information to the user. Output hardware devices solve this problem by visually displaying graphics or text or playing sounds. A monitor is the most common type of output device. Older and bulkier cathode-ray tube monitors worked much like early televisions but most modern monitors are flat panel liquid crystal displays. Printers can also be considered output devices as they can print information from a software program.
