THE SYSTEM’S UNIT

Unit Overview
“What’s in the box?” In this unit, the student will answer that question by delving into the
inside of the computer. The common computer parts and their functions will also be
identified. The student will also uncover the mystery surrounding many of the acronyms
used in the computer industry.

Key Terms

Motherboard: A board that System Bus: The system bus is

contains the main chips and circuitry copper tracing on the motherboard
of the computer hardware, including that transports data between the CPU
the CPU. and memory.

Microprocessor: The Memory: The electronic circuitry

microprocessor is the central that temporarily holds data and
processing unit or processor program instructions needed by the
contained on a chip. CPU.

Chipset: A part of the Megahertz: One measure of a

motherboard that guides and controls computer’s microprocessor speed is
the flow of data between the equal to one million cycles per
computer’s components. second.
 Computer Internal Layout

The system’s unit is the computer tower or computer case that contains the electronic
components of the computer system. The motherboard is the main system unit
component. It is a flat circuit board contained within the computer’s housing. Laptop
computers usually have the same components as their desktop brethren but in a much
more compact form. To help illustrate the layout of a computer more easily, we will
focus this lesson on desktop computers.

Computer Case

The computer case is important because it provides

protection for the internal electronic components of the
computer. The computer case must also provide sufficient
ventilation (so the electronics don’t overheat) and room
for expansion. Most computer cases are designed to
accommodate specific motherboard types.
 Case Front Panel

The case front panel of this computer case contains

four 5.25 inch drive expansion bays, which could be
used for a CD/DVD-ROM drive or CD-RW, BluRay
disc drive, hard drive bay, SD card reader, etc. The case
also contains one 3.5 inch expansion drive bay, which
could be used for a Zip Drive or floppy disk drive
which could be used for many of the same (but smaller
like USB ports or an SD card reader) ways as the 5.25
inch bays. Typically, the front panel of a computer case
contains an on/off switch, a power indicator light, and a
hard disk drive activity light. In addition, many computer case front panels contain USB
ports for easily connecting digital cameras and other electronic devices to the computer.

Case Rear Panel

The case rear panel contains many openings, which are shown in the
picture to the left. The expansion slot covers can be removed to
connect a variety of expansion cards (which in this diagram is filled
with a video card, network car, and a modem). The small holes down
the right side of the case rear panel are used to increase ventilation.
Additionally, there are numerous other slots for everything to
headphones to USB ports.

Expansion Slot Covers

Case Fan

Because computer components generate a lot of heat, the computer

case fan is essential for maintaining the functionality of the
computer. The case fan is the primary source for cooling internal
components for most computers (as some custom or higher end
computers may use liquid cooling). Some computer cases are built to
accommodate additional case fans.

Power Supply and Cables

The power supply provides the electricity supply to the
motherboard and computer drives. Power supplies
usually have wattages of 200 watts to 750 or 1000 watts,
but more powerful models are available. The power
supply cables contain red, yellow, and black wires. The
black wires are ground wires, while the red wire supplies
five volts of power and the yellow wire supplies twelve
volts of power. The power cable connector connects the
power supply with the computer’s drives.

Floppy Disk Drive

The floppy disk drive allows you to transfer files using 3.5 inch disks
(or back, back, back in the day 5.25 inch discs that were bendable (i.e.
floppy) – that is why they were called “floppy discs”, and the name
stayed with the smaller 3.5 inch disks even though they were not
floppy anymore). Floppies have / are largely disappeared, but you may still run into them
from time to time. Fun note: Commonly, the icon that is used to “save” your work with
software today (like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat) uses an image of an old floppy
disk.

Optical Disk Drive

The optical disk drive allows you to install software, play
music CDs and watch DVD or Blu-Ray movies. This drive
can also be used to make music disks, copy movies, and
backup data, photos, etc.
Hard Drive

The computer hard drive contains disks that

are made of aluminum or glass, or ceramic.
The disks in a typical hard drive cannot be
removed or replaced. Hard drives are today
usually measured in either gigabytes or
terabytes (a thousand gigabytes). So your
laptop might have a 500 GB (gigabytes) hard
drive but your desktop may have a 2 TB
(terabyte) hard drive which would be equal to
2000 GB. One terabyte can hold 120 dual-layered (8.4 Gigabyte) DVD’s within it. The
hard disk drive stores the files and programs that are used by your computer every day.
The hard disk drive is usually referred to as Drive “C:”

Motherboard
The motherboard is a circuit board inside the computer and is the main system unit
component. The motherboard uses electrical paths to connect each component of the
computer. The motherboard has slots or sockets for the central processing unit, memory,
video, audio, etc. Everything inside the computer is connected to the motherboard.
 Dolby Home
Theater Back-to-
BIOS Switch

Network
PCI Express

PCI Express

Battery CPU

Chipset DIMM

Chipset
The chipset is the most important element of the motherboard. It guides and controls the
flow of data between the computer’s components (CPU, memory, etc.). This microchip is
kind of like a cop or traffic light at an intersection telling the cars (data) when and where
it can go.

Motherboard Battery
The motherboard battery’s main purpose is to maintain the computer clock’s time and
the computer’s Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or UEFI (Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface) settings when the computer is turned off.
System Bus
The system bus connects the major components of a computer (CPU, Memory, etc.)
system for the transfer of data (information) between the parts of the computer, kind of
like a highway (system bus) linking buildings together with the cars being the data /
electrical signals. They can be seen as the metal colored lines (“tracing”) on a circuit
boards). Bus speed is commonly measured in megahertz (MHz) with some even in the
gigahertz range (GHz).

UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and BIOS:

Basic Input/Output System

UEFI has largely replaced BIOS, but their function is largely the same and both are often
referred by the older BIOS name.

The UEFI / BIOS program is written permanently on the UEFI / BIOS chip. The UEFI /
BIOS program controls the computer when it is first turned on. It sets up the computer’s
hardware and performs systems checks. Then it turns over control to the computer’s
operating system. The BIOS stores information in CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor). The UEFI / BIOS program can be accessed through the computer’s
setup. You can think of the BIOS or the UEFI as a sort of built in operating system for
the motherboard before it loads the more familiar “bigger” operating systems from the
hard drive (such as Microsoft Windows or OS X).

Back-to-BIOS Switch
This is a switch for resetting your BIOS / UEFI back to the default settings in case the
motherboard cannot boot up. This would be similar to how your phone can be erased and
“reset” with the “factory settings” if your phone stopped working for some reason.

Microprocessor
The microprocessor contains the central processing unit or CPU
and the cache memory. The CPU is the “brain” of the computer.
Intel makes most of the CPU’s on the market today. The Intel
Core “i” series processors are the newest, smartest, and fastest
processors.

The CPU is comprised of three parts: the control unit, the arithmetic/logic unit, and the
memory. The control unit manages the computer by obtaining, interpreting,
implementing, and saving the data inside the computer. The arithmetic/logic unit
conducts all of the mathematical calculations and logical comparisons and stores the most
frequently used instructions and data in the CPU’s cache memory. The speed at which a
processor runs is measured in mega hertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). The larger the
number of MHz / GHz the faster the processor will work. The memory stores the
program instructions and data that the processor is currently using.

Memory Components
The DIMM sockets, or Dual Inline Memory Module sockets are the location on the
motherboard where the Random Access Memory (RAM) is installed. DIMM stands for
Dual Inline Memory Module and refers to the fact that both sides of the memory card
have separate connections to the DIMM socket.

Everything that is done on the computer is temporarily stored in the RAM until it is saved
to a disk. There are two types of RAM: static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM
(DRAM). As long as power is maintained, SRAM will hold its content without
involvement from the CPU. DRAM must be continuously refreshed from the CPU in
order to maintain its contents.

As of, 2016, most desktop and laptop computers have

between 2 to 8 GB of Ram, with some higher end consumer
systems (those you can usually buy in a store) having as
much as 32 GB. 32-bit systems can only have up to 4 GB of
Ram, while 64-bit systems can go as high as 123 GB. Most
computers today use DDR-RAM (currently DDR3 or
DDR4).

“ROM,” or read only memory, holds the programs and data that were permanently
recorded into memory at the factory. ROM cannot be changed by the user and its contents
remain even, when power is turned off. The boot routine of the computer is stored in
ROM.
Video Card
The video card is the component that operates the monitor.
It interprets instructions from Windows or another program
and displays images, graphics and videos on the screen.
The video card contains a processor chip and memory.

GPU

GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit. The video card is

in charge of controlling the video display. Much like the
CPU's relationship with the motherboard, the brain of the
video card is the GPU. It is responsible for making the
decisions for processing the video card's graphical input and
output data. It is often either located under the fan or
equipped with its own dedicated fan. Also, many modern CPUs may include an
integrated GPU within the CPU itself.

PCIe Slot
PCI Express largely replaced the older PCI slot. They are used to connect expansion
hardware (like an extra video card) to the motherboard. PCIe slots can transfer data at up
to 16 GB’s per second.
Audio Cables
Audio cables connect multimedia drives, such as the
CD-ROM and DVD drives to the computer’s sound
card. The audio cables enable sound data to be
transferred so it can be decoded and played. The
computer’s sound card and speakers determine the
computer’s sound quality. There are various cords /
cables that are used (such as: standard 3.5mm audio
cable, TOSLINK, S/PDIF, etc.)

IDE, PATA, SATA, eSATA Connectors

These are all names for connectors that connect devices to the motherboard, with IDE
being the oldest (and mostly no longer used) and the SATA variants being the newest.
Peripherals
Peripherals are all external devices that
will not be installed inside the case. They
will allow you to interact with the
computer by inputting commands, viewing
the screen, as well as printing out
documents and pictures.

I/O is short for input and output. USB

ports or Universal Serial Bus ports are
used to connect a variety of devices such
as a mouse, keyboard, digital cameras, and
even printers. Most peripherals are
connected by USB (Universal Serial Bus)
ports (such as: mice, keyboards, printers,
etc.). Monitors will use VGA (older), DVI,
HDMI ports, or the newest innovation…
DisplayPorts.