THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL OF SYSTEM

UNIT

SYSTEM UNIT - is like a box case that contains

electronic components of a computer. Many people
erroneously refer to this as the CPU.

EXTERNAL SYSTEM UNIT - ommonly referred to

as the "computer system unit" has several names
including chassis, cabinet, box, tower, enclosure,
housing, or simply the computer case or system
case.

SYSTEM CASE - hold all the components together

and protect the sensitive electronic parts of the
computer hardware.

COMPONENTS OF THE SYSTEM CASE

DRIVE BAY - is a standard-size area for adding
hardware to a computer.

POWER SUPPLY - is an electronic device that

supplies electric energy to the computer

PORTS - refers to the female part of connection

that are used to connect a monitor, webcam,
speakers, or other peripheral devices.

CONNECTORS - is a wire that joins electrical

circuits together. It can be either be a male (with
pins) or female (with holes).

USB CONNECTOR - initially developed in the

1990s as a standardized method of connecting
computers with keyboards, displays, and other
peripherals

USB cables - have transformed how electronic POWER SUPPLY UNIT (PSU) - is used to
devices exchange power and data. convert AC currents from the main supply to the
different DC voltages required by various computer
ETHERNET CABLE - an Ethernet cable lets you components.
physically connect your computer to the internet.
Ethernet connections are almost always faster than HARD DISK DRIVE - is a high capacity,
Wi-Fi connections, and are usually more stable. nonvolatile, magnetic data storage device with a
volume (disk) that is usually non-removable. Data
PARALLEL PRINTER CABLE - a.k.a parallel is magnetically read and written on the platter by
printer connector (PPC), is a connector used with read/write heads that float on a cushion of air
printers and plotters that connect a parallel port to a above the platters.
printer. Parallel ports can transmit data between
different devices, such as printers and scanners, FLOPPY DISK DRIVE - a disk drive that can read
and can transmit data between two computers. & write floppy disks, although they are obsolete
nowadays.These drives have been replaced by the
USB flash disk drives in modern machines.
CD-ROM DRIVE - is a high capacity optical these ports like printers, external hard drives,
data storage device with a removable disk. its scanners, web cam, mouse and keyboard,
writes data onto or reads data from a storage replacing the connectors mentioned above.
medium.
• VGA port (built-in) - serves as an interface of the
MOTHERBOARD monitor screen to the other members of the
Motherboard - is sometimes called the system computer system. The fastest video card versions
board or main board. It is the main circuit board of are based on the standard of the VGA slots ex: the
a microcomputer. AGP and PCI'e card.
-​ the most important component in a
computer system that serves as the 2.) ATX Power connector (4 pin) - this is for the 4
backbone that supports all the other pin of the power supply unit (PSU) connection. This
computer components. is separate of the 20 or 24 pin of ATX power supply
to provide DC voltage of the computer processor.
PARTS OF THE MOTHERBOARD AND ITS
FUNCTIONS 3.) Processor's ZIF Society - handles the
processor or CPU chip.

4.) Memory Slot (DIMM) - this is called Dual Inline

Memory MODULE, this is the slot of comp. memory
or what we called RAM.

5.) ATX Power connector (24 or 28 pin)- a group

of connector that provides a DC power output to
the system board(SB) from the output of the PSU.

6.) Name of the Vendor - the manufacturer's name

is important so as to identify also the right drivers to
be installed to have the computer system work
1.) I/O ports - this is located in the back panel of the properly.
microprocessor that is used to conjoin the outside
hardware or computer devices. Under this are 7.) CMOS /BIOS BATTERY - In this part, the
listed below: CMOS/BIOS battery is placed to afford 3 volts
direct current/voltage to the CMOS IC so that it can
• Audio Port - connects sound devices such as the
preserve the BIOS settings like the time module,
speaker, microphone, and MIDI (Musical
hardware information & settings/parameters among
Instrument Dgital Interface).
others.
• DB 25 female connector, popularly known as the
printed port where it connects the impact printed 8.) IDE connector - serves as a connector of IDE
such as DOT MATRIX printers. cable of the HDD or CD/DVD ROM drive to the
• DB 9 male connector (Serial or com1 port) - Motherboard IDE.
connects a serial device of the computer, like the
serial mouse and external modem. 9.) Front panel connectors (F-Panel) - attach the
Power LED, HDD LED, Power Switch, and Reset
• LAN port - links computer nodes or workstations
switch of the processor.
to form a within a small area with the aid of
communication media such as the network switch
10.) SATA connector - new standard of the IDE
and router.
connection Array of the computer SATA Hard Disk
• PS/2 ports - connect the mouse (Green color) Drives to the motherboard system.
and the keyboard (purple color)
11.) CMOS/BIOS jumper - disables the BIOS
• USB 2.0 - these ports are becoming the industry
default setup such as supervisor password.
standard in connecting external devices. From flash
disks and memory card readers, several
peripherals are now designed to connect using
12.) USB connector (header) - joins the USB port FORM FACTORS OF MOTHERBOARD
of the front panel USB 2.0​ Common motherboard form factors include the
following:
13.) FDD connector - connects FDD cable and the
system board. Normally there are 34 pins out of it Standard ATX - common motherboard form factor
to connect the 3.5" 1.44mb FLOPPY Disk Drive. for desktops, with up to seven expansion slots and
up to 10 mounting holes for easy expansions and
14.) PCI slots - serves as a bridge of the I/O cards upgrades.
of the computer i.e LAN card, WIFI card, USB
expansion card and sound card. Micro-ATX - smaller than the standard form factor,
with up to four expansion slots and up to eight
15.) Motherboard Version Number - displays the mounting holes.
motherboard version of the driver software to
download the correct drivers DTX - motherboards with a width of 6.7 inches and
up to two expansion slots.
16.) CMOS/BIOS IC - this is where the program the
BIOS configuration settings is being installed such EATX - a larger form factor than standard ATX,
as the speed of the CPU chip and RAM, etc. usually included in specialized computers for
gaming, graphic design, video editing, etc.
17.) AMR Slot - demodulates and modulates the
analog audio of the comp. ITX - smaller than ATX and micro-ATX; usually
used with small form factor computing units or
18.) PCI express slot - a part of the computer that low-power processors.
holds the computer video card (VGA), the PCI'e
card. Mini - ITX - The smallest possible ATX form factor,
mini ITX only has one expansion slot and four
Chipper - is a grp.of Integrated circuits (microchips) mounting holes.
that can be used together to serve a single function
and are therefore manufactured and sold as a unit. AMR - AUDIO Modem Riser
FDD - Floppy disk drive
19.) North Bridge IC - technically known as MCH HDD -
or Memory Controller Hub; manages and controls ZIF - Zero Insertion Force
the computer memory before the processing of the VGA - Video Graphic Array
CPU chip. LAN - Local Area Network
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide
20.) South Bridge IC - is a passion name referring Semiconductor
to I/O Controller Hub (ICH). It is a microchips that BIOS - Basic Input/Output System
controls all the Input and output devices such as SATA - (Serial Advance Technology Attachment
the keyboard and mouse, and the monitor screen IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics
of the computer that is commonly located at the
back of the CPU or system unit.

FORM FACTORS - is commonly used to describe

the design, size and/or arrangement of a device, a
computer case or chassis, or one of the device's
internal components, such as a motherboard or a
daughterboard.

It can also mean any of the following regarding a

hardware component:
- Shape or layout - Dimensions
- Connectors - Mounting types