Computer Casing/System Unit:

It is a box/house, made up of steel or aluminum, consists of different components of computer i.e

Motherboard, Processor, Expansion Cards, Expansion Slots, Power Supply, Hard Disk, RAM, Ports
and connectors to make a full computer system. Motherboard is the main part of the System Unit
which contains different typesof chips, transistors and ICs etc. System units are available in
differentshapesandsizes.

CPU and System Unit:

Some people misunderstand the system unit as cpu, but these are two different things. A computer
system unit is the case/box having different components e.g motherboard, processor, RAM etc,
but CPU is basically the processor installed on motherboard inside system unit casing. CPU is
responsible for processing the different types of operations.

Computer Casing and Types of computer casings:

Computer Casing: A computer system unit is the case/box having different components. There
are two common types of computer casing.

1. Tower Casing: It is a tall computer casing, usually kept side by side with Monitor/Screen. It is a
modern shape and most of companies make system unit in this shape.

2. Desktop Casing: It is a slim computer casing. Monitor/Screen is usually kept on the desktop computer
casing. It is an old type of computer casing and the companies rarely use this shape for system
unit.

Explore the System Unit in detail?

System unit contains the following two main parts.

1. Power Supply, 2. Motherboard

1. Power Supply: It supplies power to other components of a computer system. Power supply
converts AC current to lowvoltage DC current to operate processor and peripheral devices.
Power supply may have short circuit protection, overload protection, over voltage and over
temperature protection.
2. Motherboard: It is the main circuit board in computer system unit lying inside System unit. It
holds different components of system unit e.g processor and RAM, expansion slots and ports
etc. Other devices such as hard disk, audio/video controller and input/output devices are
connected with motherboard via cables. Modern Motherboards may include the
followingadditional components:
CPUslots, RAMslots, IGC, PCIslots,PCIExpressslots, IDEconnector(forHarddisk,CDdrive),
SATAconnector, Connectorsforperipheraldevices(keyboard,mouseetc).
Explain important components on motherboard?

Following are the different important components on motherboard:

1. BIOS Chip: BIOS stands for ‘Basic Input Output System’. It is the firmware stored in BIOS chip
for loading and starting operating system. This process is called booting. It also checks and
initializes system devices for operation e.g keyboard, mouse, hard disc, printer etc.

2. Ports: it is a small device to which the plug/cable is connected. Most of the peripheral devices
are connected to computers by these ports. Types of ports are serial ports, parallel ports, PS/2
ports, VGA port, USB port, LAN port, Audio ports.

3. Expansion slots: these are sockets on motherboard to which expansion cards etc may be
inserted to add new functionalities. Examples of Expansion cards are:
 AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port is a high-speed, dedicated bus, used for Graphics card.
 PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnection is a bus used to attach devices to computer.
 PCI Express: it is an improved version of PCI bus with high bandwidth.

4. Ribbon Cable: A ribbon cable has many parallel wires used to connect hard drive, CD drive etc.
Thefollowing arethemaintypesofribboncables.

 IDECable/ATA: Integrated drive Electronics cable is used to connect hard drives.

 SATACable: It is an improved and high speed cable used to connect hard drives.

 FDCable: it was used to connect Floppy Disc.

5. Memory Slots: A computer memory slot is a socket in which the RAM is installed. Normally,
02 or 03 memoryslots are available on motherboard.

6. DiskController:Itisacircuitused to connect the CPU with harddiskandcompactdisk.

7. CoolingSystem:Itisusedtomaintainpropertemperatureinsidethe computerbecausedifferent
hardware generateheatwhileperformingtheirfunctions.
8. SystemBus:it is a path/channel/line used for communication among different types of
components of computer. The system bus consists of the following three (03) types of buses:
i. DataBus: It is a bi-directional bus used to transmit data.
ii. Address Bus: It is a uni-directional bus used for transmission of address of memory.
iii. Control Bus: It is used to send instructions to different components for controlling.
What is Port? Explain different types of Ports on motherboard?
Ports are physical connection points on motherboard used to connect hardware with computer.

TypesofPorts:Following are Commonports in computer:

1. SerialPorts
2. Parallel Ports
3. PS/2Ports
4. USBPort
5. FireWirePort

SerialPorts:Itisaserialcommunication path throughwhichonebitinformation may be transferred

atatime.Examples are COM1, COM2 etc. Itisbasicallyusedforexternal modems.

Parallel Ports: It is a parallel communication path through which multipleinformation bits may be
transferred at a time. Examples are LPT1, LPT2 etc. It is basically used to connect printers
andscanners.

PS/2 Ports: It was used to connect mouse and keyboard in old computers. But in modern
computers, mouse and keyboard are connected via USB port.

USB Port: It is a fast serial port which can connect all kind of external USB
devicessuchasexternalharddisk, printer,scanner,mouseandkeyboardetc.

Fire Wire Port: It is a high-speed port which is used to connect video devices such as
videocameras, camcorders etc.
What is Expansion Card? Explain different types of Expansion Cards?

Expansion Card: It is a circuit board which is inserted into the expansion slot to add some new
functionalities to the computer system such as sound card, video card etc.

Types of Expansion Cards: Following are the Four common types of expansion cards are:

a. Sound Card
b. Video Card
c. Modem Card
d. Network Interface Card
Sound Card: It is a card which is used to add sound facility to a computer. Sound Card enables a
computer to play voice, music and other audio file formats.

Video Card: it is a card which is used to generate images and videos that will be displayed on
Monitor.

Modem Card: Modem Card is used to convert digital data to analog signal at the sender end for
transmission. It convert back the analog signal to digital data at received end.

Network Interface Card(NIC): It is used to connect a computer to a Network of computers.

What is Memory Chip? Discuss different types of Memory Chips?

Memory Chip: it is basically ICs used to store data and code for processing. It is also known as RAM
(Random Access Memory). RAM types SIMM, DIMM, SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM store data
temporarily, while Flash memory chip store data permanently. ROM and PROM can never be
changed, while EPROM and EEPROM can be modified. Following are the different types of memory
chips:

SIMM: SIMM stands for Single Inline Memory Module. It is a type of RAM having 30 pins or 72 pins
used in old computers. It had storage capacity upto 32MB. It produce single line communication.

DIMM: DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module. It is the upgraded form of SIMM having 168
pins. It has more speed and more storage capacity upto 512 MB. It produce multiple line
communication.

SDRAM: SDRAM stands for Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory. It allows faster and
efficient data transfer. SDRAM is commonly used in modern computers. It works synchronously as
clock cycle.

DDR SDRAM: DDR SDRAM stands for Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access
Memory. It is an improved SDRAM which allows a computer to transfer data with double speed. It
reads/writes two consecutive words per clock cycle.