Power Supply

The Power Supply Unit (PSU) is the small intestines of the computer. Just like the functions of the small intestines, it distributes energy throughout the computer in order for modules that require power to operate. Power supplies come in different magnitudes of watts (standard unit for energy, measured in joules per second,) in order to successfully meet the demand of however much power your computer requires to run. A typical power supply looks something along the line of this:

                                  

As you can see, it connects to a 3 pin outlet in common households. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that the power supply is connected to a surge protector in order to avoid power surges. You may be wondering what the tentacles sticking out of the other end of the power supply is. Those are cables that connect to individual modules in the computer that require direct connect from the power source to function.

Modules that require direct connect is the motherboard, hard drive, graphics card, and CD-Drives. The motherboard connects by a 20 x 4 pin & a 4 x 4 pin, and the hard drive &  connects by a SATA power cord. The graphic cards typically connect by a 2 x 6 pin, but if you have a higher end card then it may require a 2 x 8 pin.

Although not a module, if a computer case comes with additional computer fans, they may have to connect to a 4 pin power cable that extends out from a power supply.

There are modular power supplies that can be bought. Modular supplies are the same exact thing as your standard power supply, but the cables can be detached from the power supply. This is only beneficial if you have cables you don’t use and want to make cable management easier.

Notice the sockets available to connect only the power cords you need.

Because of the many variety of power supplies on the market, not all power supplies may have the cables that will support the modules you have. Make sure you buy the correct power supply that will support all of the modules you have and also have enough watts to power your computer. Just like the motherboard, this component should also be considered to be bought last after you have figured out all the other modules you need.

Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives

The hard disk drive (HDD) is the brain of your computer. All the word documents you type, media programs installed, games you play, etc. are all saved onto the hard drive of your computer.

The common household HDD’s appear in the form of something like this:

A very simple design, and yet one of the most remarkable products of engineering, modern HDD stores gigabytes and terabytes of memory on disks similar to CD’s. The process of how it stores memory on disks is very complex, but the basic idea is that all data is stored in binary, and a sensor reads the binary code thats encrypted onto the disks as the disks spin up to 7,200 rotations per minute (RPM). The hard drive is connected to the motherboard using Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) cables. This cable transfers the data from the hard drive to the motherboard, in which the data is processed by rest of the other modules.

This video shows a hard drive in action.

(DO NOT TRY THIS WITH YOUR HARD DRIVE. THE MOMENT YOU OPEN THE CASE OF A HARD DRIVE, IT WILL NO LONGER OPERATE NORMALLY.)

As technology advances, more sophisticated and efficient forms of these HDD’s are made. The latest product is known as Solid State Drives, or SSD’s. As opposed to its predecessor, the solid state drive does not store memory on a spinning magnetic disk. It is stored in semi conductor chips. Therefore the SSD does not contain any moving parts and can allocate memory significantly faster than HDD’s.

Here you can observe the difference between a HDD (above) and a SSD (below).

The Motherboard

The motherboard can be thought as the skeleton of your computer. It is what connects all your modules together. The CPU, GPU, CD-Drives, RAM, Power Supply, HDD, all connect to it. Without the motherboard, the computer would have no way in functioning.

There are two types of motherboard on the market right now, AMD and Intel based motherboards. There is very little difference between these two, other than their compatibility with each chipset. If you have a Intel CPU, then you must have a motherboard that supports the correct socket. For example, the Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1155 will only work with motherboards that support Intel LGA 1155 sockets, and a AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz Socket AM3+ will only work with motherboards that support AM3+ sockets. (I’ll go more in depth with what all those wacky tech terms I just listed when I discuss what a CPU is).

Regarding all the other modules, it will work with either an AMD and Intel based motherboard, except when it comes to add-on cards such as a graphics card and/or sound card. Add-on cards are dependent if the motherboard supports the correct PCI (a standard for connecting computers and their peripherals) slots. There are some modules that connect using PCI slots and I’ll discuss of those later.

If you look up motherboards on the market, you will get pages and pages of different kinds of motherboards. That is because each motherboard have a feature unique to their model in order to be compatible with all the modules that attach to it. Also there are many different manufacturers that create motherboards. Just like how there are many different cell phone companies that make smart phones. The motherboard should be one of the components considered last because it is the compatibility checker.

    

      (AMD Motherboard) (Intel Motherboard)

As you can see, there physically is very little difference between these two motherboards. The main difference is the CPU sockets which is the rectangle shaped platforms.

Identifying the Important Pieces

It may look like a lot for your eyes to grasp, but don’t let the cables deceive you, it really isn’t much when it comes down to the modules. There are essentially 10 components to a functioning computer.

1. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

2. Motherboard

3. Random Access Memory (RAM)

4. Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

5. Heat Sink

6. Power Supply

7. Operating System

8. Optical Drive

9. Case

10. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

You can re-think each of these individual components as organs to your body. They all perform some sort of function that is very vital to running your computer. In the next few posts I’ll go in depth with each individual component to further your understanding of why these are vital components.

Welcome to the World of Computers

What are PC modules? PC modules are electronic components that conjoin together to build the computer that sits on your living room desk. If you were to open the case of the computer, you would find something that looks like this:

Now many of you may be dumbfounded and have not the slightest clue on what you’re looking at. Don’t worry, this blog will help you understand all the innards(modules) of your PC by the time you read through it.

About Me

My name is Karros, and I’m a computer enthusiast. Since the beginning of middle school my life has been pinnacled around computers. I have successfully built a high end desktop PC to: 3D model, program, and play video games with exceptional qualities. I have also been upgrading it overtime as technology advances and my current PC becomes outdated. My reputation for building PC’s has been acknowledged in my school, and I have pieced together many computers for my friends. Although I’m overburdened with school as I try to finish my senior year and complete college & scholarship applications, I do find time in my life to explore the world of computers. I plan to go into a college for Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Hopefully these majors can be incorporated into establishing a career in Computer Engineering.