Welcome to GF Tech Class, this is session 1 where we will talk about the different parts of a computer and what they do.


Alright i decided that this would make a good starting point because without knowing this stuff you will not understand what the majority of GF Tech Class is talking about.

It's a very lenghthy read but you'll probably learn quite a bit about what goes on inside your computer, I've divided it up into sections so if a certain part of the computer interests you then you can go straight there without having ti fish for the information you want.


CPU (Central Processing Unit) aka "the processor"

Alright this basically much the main part of the computer, everything that you do on the computer will run through this small chip. This chip is virtually the main speed unit of your computer. The more powerful your processor is the faster your computer will be.

Commonly they look like this. (they are about 1 1/2 inches long per side)

The side with the small connector needles sticking out is the side that actually goes into the motherboard of your computer.

when it's connected to the motherboard it will look something like this and is usually held in by some sort of clip.


Since everything you do on your computer will at some time run through the processor it can get very very hot depending on what you are doing while on the computer. That is why in all Desktop PC's there is some sort of heatsink connected right over the processor. This is a heatsink...


the heatsink is actually only the silver colored metal part then on top of that is a fan, pretty much 100% of the time a fan is connected right over the heatsink blowing air outward not in.


Motherboard (Mainboard, Systemboard)

This is another vital piece of the computer, this is the single piece of the computer that connects everything together.

here is a picture of one


they can come in various shapes, sizes, and support for different types of things that you may want to put inside your computer.

Some motherboards have the video card built into the computer but for the most part video cards are a separate piece from the motherboard. Most modern motherboards have built in sound.

Every piece of your computer will be directly connected to your motherboard whether it be your CD drive, RAM, Video Card, Processor, Speakers, etc, you name it, it's somehow connected to the motherboard.

Another important feature of the motherboard is the BIOS, It is because of the BIOS that your computer knows how to start up each time you turn it on, without this, starting up your computer would be a difficult process every time you turned it on. This data is stored on a small chip on the motherboard and as long as the battery is supporting it keeps from going out then your computer will work just fine.

commonly the batteries that run the BIOS on your computer will look like this.

it's just a small 3v battery, that image is larger than actual size, and it's less than half a centimeter thick. When this battery runs out you will need to replace it to get your computer back into working order.




RAM (Random Access Memory)

Without any of this your computer wouldn't run, Basically what RAM does is assists the Processor of your computer by remembering things for it, so the more RAM you have the faster your computer will be for running different things because it will be able to remember more things. RAM comes in long sticks. It is normally found in Gigabytes (GB) nowadays the more GB of RAM you have the faster your system will run.

not long ago computers being manufactured were using DDR RAM which stands for "double data rate" this means that it worked twice as fast as the previous type of RAM which would be SD RAM.

here is what a stick of DDR RAM commonly looks like.


More recently we have picked up a new standard for RAM which is called "DDR 2" it's basically the same thing with some changes, it's a little bit smaller but not much, the connector chips are slightly different (sorry but nobodys computer can support DDR and DDR2)

Commonly DDR2 is found in a metal casing so it looks like this.


At the moment there is a new type of RAM being worked on Called DDR3 it's supposed to have drastic improvements from DDR2 it's scheduled to release to the general public being put into the everyday computer that you can buy at the store by the end of 2009, however this type of RAM is very expensive to get right now so most people just use DDR2.

Increasing RAM can increase your computers speed drastically, just remember that Windows XP can only support up to 2.75 GB if you have extra RAM in there it will not read it all.



Video Cards (Graphics Cards)
Anybody who plays a lot of graphic intensive games, or does graphic design, should know a lot about their Video card and exactly what it's capabilities are.

To tell you what the video card does, it puts the picture on your screen it's as simple as that, everyone reading this article has a video card in their computer

Video cards are very similar to RAM in the fact that they also use memory but this is a different type of memory it's known as GDDR the G stands for graphics. All of the memory of your video card is dedicated to the picture on your screen, the better the video card the more frames per second (fps) and the higher your resolution can go.

I use a nice ATI 256mb card on a 19" widescreen monitor the max resolution on both of them is 1440x900 those numbers are pixels which means that my monitor is 900 pixels tall and 1440 pixels wide.

Video cards can get very expensive os I do not suggest getting a super nice one if you don't do graphic design or a lot of PC gaming.


A while back the common type of video card that you would find in a computer was an AGP video card with stands for "Accelerated Graphics Port", these cards are older but are still great for the average gamer depending on what kind of card you get.

But more recently PCI-Express Video cards were introduced, these cards can give out an incredible amount of performance increasing your FPS drastically.

I have 2 256mb video cards myself, one of them is an AGP card and one of them is a PCI-Express card, both of them are fine video cards but the PCI-Express video card delivers over 3 times the amount of performance than the AGP card.

Depending on what kind of motherboard you have you will have either an AGP slot or a PCI-Express slot sometimes you will have more than one of the same type of slot but never 2 different types of slots. This slot determines what kind of video card your computer can support.

an AGP slot looks like this the brown slot is the AGP slot



and a PCI-Express slot will look like this



PCI Express slots come in 4 sizes x1, x4, x8, and x16, video cards only run on the x16 slots while the smaller PCI-Express slots can be used for other things.


Commonly a Video card will look something like this.




That is a picture of the card that i have, it has a fan on top of it and a heatsink to keep it from overheating and breaking, Since powerful video cards will run very hot commonly you will see a built in fan and heatsink to prevent damage to the card.


there are 2 different types of outputs that can be on your video card to go to your monitor.

VGA (Video Graphics Array)
DVI (Digital Visual Interface)



Commonly older monitors will have support for VGA only. Newer monitors usually have support for both of these.

If you have an older monitor that only has support for VGA and the only connection that you have on your computer is DVI you might think that you have a problem but really it's an easy fix, all you would have to do would be to buy a DVI to VGA adapter.



Hard Drives

Alright lets more on to the place where everything that you put on and do while on your computer is stored.

The hard drive has a series of discs inside that look much like CD's only they're a bit smaller, thicker, and can hold much more data.

most hard drives look about the same here is a picture of one.


depending on what type of hard drive it is the connections on the back of it are going to look different.

Just a few years ago the standard type of hard drive was known as ATA or IDE, this type of hard drive has been around since the 80's, however with the new need for speed that everyone wants the hard drive had to be upgraded and something new had to emerge.

Recently a new type of hard drive released called SATA not only were the connections for this hard drive different than IDE hard drives the discs inside the drive also spun much faster allowing for a faster transfer rate for the data thus helping make the computer much faster.


It's fairly easy to distinguish between what type of hard drive you are looking at when you see one.

IDE/ATA hard drives are connected with this belt like cable.

they can also be compressed into something a bit smaller and easier to place in order to save space and increase wire flexibility.



note how the connetions at the end of each wire are the same, commonly the main hard drive for your computer is connected to the end of the cable and the connector right near to it is used to connect a secondary hard drive to your computer this secondary hard drive is called the "slave" while the main hard drive is called the "master" the connection extending.

Commonly this same type of IDE connector cable is used to connect your CD/DVD drive to the motherboard.


SATA hard drives are something else, all computers sold in the store nowadays have this type of hard drive in them. The SATA hard drive is connected with a cable called tha "SATA Data Cable" and it looks like this.

the ends of these wires have a standard SATA 7 pin set up. that looks like this.


one end of this wire connects to the motherboard while one end goes right into your hard drive.



Sound Cards
Commonly nowadays sound cards are found to be build right into your motherboard but sometimes your motherboard doesn't have all of the options that you want or the sound isn't good enough for you.

Commonly a sound card will look about like this.

nothing really fancy here, you can run an older style gaming controller through a sound card if you'd like to.

Normally a sound card will be connected to your motherboard through a PCI slot. those look like this.









CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Drives

alright we all know what these look like, they're sitting right on the front of your computer or if you're using a laptop they're off to the side a bit sometimes.




these are really simple to put in and hook up, all you have to do to hook it up is use an IDE connector cable and hook the power up to it from the power supply and you're done, but of course be sure to screw it into your case so it stays securely in place.



Power Supply

You read it right, this is the thing that supports all of the power for your computer. Almost always these are measured by wattage, the higher the wattage the more powerful your computer is, Most people won't need more than a 500 watt power supply, but for those crazy gamers out there you can get an 800-watt power supply.



Each of those wires on there is designed to support the power for a different piece of your computer including, the motherboard, video card (if you have a powerful enough video card) CD drives, hard drives, fans, etc.

This thing is designed to bring the power to everything inside your computer safely.



The case
Alright this is pretty simple, it's the shell of your computer, it holds everything inside.

the size of your case may determine what exactly you can put inside.

Newer cases are designed better than older cases for air circulation, as computers Evolved they needed a better source of ventilation than older computers did due to teh extra amount of heat created by the computer.

Obviously we don't need a picture of the case, since we all know what it looks like. It may come with a floppy drive, maybe a power supply, and some USB ports for the front of your computer.















Well if you have any questions just ask, I'm sure that myself or someone else knows the answer to your question.


I'm pretty sure that i covered everything, hope this was an interesting read for all of you.


Thanks for attending the session.

Very informative. I knew some of the things you said, but I also learned quite a bit.