CoMpUtEr HaRdWaRe
By Yeji Hwang
Hard Drive
Hard drive is a component which storages information, such as pictures, music, computer history, apps, etc. Inside the hard drive, you will see something like a CD with arms. These arms write/erase/retrieve information on the CD. Some (most) hard driveshave lots of memories to store in. The problem about an hard drive is that these arms move, so if dropped, these arms will brake and will not be usable anymore.
SSD
SSD stands for solid state device. It does the same job as hard drives, but doesn't have an arm, so it doesn't move. This is a great advantage because it will not be broken when dropped. In addition, SSDs are slimmer and faster.
Optical Drive
An optical drive is a CD reading/edting device. Optical means eye, so this device is done by lazers (Do you get the joke? See?). Common everyday optical drives are like CD players, blue ray, you computer and even PS3! Everything which can insert a disc and retrive/remove/edit information from the CD. This is used for like movies, games, installing, etc. One of the bad disadvantages are that they're so thick! (That's why some of the computer companies decieded to remove it because they wanted their product thin and light)
Monitors
This is a device that all PC, televisions and game devices need. Monitors are the screen that displays the computer operation and lets you see films, pictures, etc. Without moniters, you can't really process data and use the computers (TV, DS, etc). Monitors are used for using datas and a lot of things like entertaintment, etc.
CPU
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit (also known as Processors) and it's the heart of processing in PCs. It's literally the brain of all computers, phones, etc. and without it it won't even work (it's important as monitors!). This is inside the centre of computers and does all the calculation and processing really fast. Usually Intel and AMD produces al ot of CPUs, but other companies sell those too, such as Apple. There are also things like duo-core processors and quod-core processors which has two microprocessors (the brain of CPU) and the quod-core processors has 4 microprocessors. It does makes it faster because a normal CPU can only process 1 thing at a time, but duo-core processors can do two things at a time (and quod-core processors do 4 things at a time, etc). The speed of the CPU is measured by GHz (gigahertz).
RAM
RAM stands for Ramdom Access Memory. It is a device that temporarily stores information and the information can be exported easily and fastily. For example, copy and pasting is one of the method of RAM. It temporarily stores that copied thing and paste it on where you want it to be. If you got more RAM, you can do more things at once.
Motherboards
The motherboard is the primary circuit board of computers. The motherboard connect all the device inside a computer. Inside a motherboard, there's the optical drive, hard drive, memory chips (RAM), etc. and the CPU is in the centre of the motherboard.
Input/Output
Yeji Hwang
Email: 18hwangy@kgs.org.uk