basic Infomation on keyboards

A Keyboard is a Devise that you type information into so it can show up or do a task on your pc. The keyboard plugs into your motherboard by ether USB or a designated PS2 port which is specifically for Keyboards only.

The keyboard has an arrangement of different keys or buttons that have letter on it, if you press a letter it will send that letter as data to your PC and your PC will pick up what letter you pressed. Your computer will then process that letter and it will type it down or do a certain function.

For more information on keyboards and how they work please go to:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_keyboard

Basic Infomation on computer Mouses(Mice)

A mouse is a computer devise that plugs into your computer, the mouse is like a pointer for your computer. A mouse allows you to navigate around your computer and do tasks like opening internet explorer or exploring the internet.

Mouses are also called mice. Generally a PC mouse has 2 buttons, these buttons allow you to click on objects on your desktop or computer. Some apple Mac mice only have 1 button. Some mice have extra buttons and most commonly today you will find mice with a scroll wheel which allows you to scroll down pages faster.

You get many different mice, here is a list of some of the mice you get.
- Infra-red Optical mice
- Laser mice
-Mechanical Mice

Basic Infomation on video cards(Graphics cards)

A graphics card is the devise that allows you to see what’s on your screen. Without a graphics card your screen ( even if on and is working)won’t show any image. The graphics card is a very complex and powerful devise. The image you see on your screen is made up of tiny dots called pixels, most screens show millions of pixels other even more!

The graphics card works like this, the graphics card gets binary code which it translates to color, the graphics card then outputs those colors on your screen.

This is a very basic outline of how these devises work. If you would like more in-depth information on how this devise works please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_card

Basic infomation on sound cards

Your sound card does two important things. The first thing it does is take digital information from your computer and turns it into sound and then outputting it through ether speakers, headphones are any other audio devise. The second thing it does is turn input sound (eg:microphone)and turns it from audio to digital data.

To be able to play and record sound you need to have both a microphone and speakers connected to a sound card which is on your computer. You connect speakers and other audio peripherals to your sound card by jacks called miniature audio jacks. On average you have at least 2 audio jacks namely audio in(microphone) and audio out(speakers)

These days most computers have built in audio devises(fitted to the motherboard) that offer surround sound as well as other newer technology such as S/PDIF(sony/Philips digital interface format which only needs 1 cable to be plugged into your pc to have surround sound.

For more information on sound cards please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_card

Basic infomation on Optical media

Optical media is what people use every day to listen to music, play movies, load games and lots more. Optical media is the term used for CDs and DVDs.

CDs can hold up to 700 megabytes of storage and DVDs can hold up to 4.4 gigabytes on a single layer and 8 gigabytes on a dual layer disk. To be able to play optical media on your PC you have to have an optical media drive. If you want to play DVDs you have to have a DVD compatible one, these drives have become extremely cheap and most of them now are DVD writer compatible meaning you can write your own data to them.
To get more in depth information on optical media please go to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_media

Basic Information on Hard Drives

A hard drive is a devise that stores all your data, this data includes your operating system, programs and any other data that is not being used by the CPU and RAM.

A pc hard drive has much more storage than RAM (normally 40-500 gigabits) although it is not as fast as RAM. It’s common to only find one or two hard drives in a computer but computers can have much more! In fact some computers have 16 or more drives.

Most commonly you will find ATA hard drives,there are two different types of ATA hard drives namely SATA and PATA. PATA is a older model than SATA. SATA is much better then PATA because it is faster and the cables are much thinner which means it will take up less space and ultimately will mean your pc will have better air flow meaning a better cool system. Newer motherboards all come with both SATA and PATA connections.

Basic infomation on Modems and how they work.

A modem is a device that allows you to connect to the internet. Your phone line plugs into a modem and the modem plugs into your computer by ether a serial port,usb port or internally vie a PCI card slot.

With dial up modems were very important as the modem would take your normal phone line and change its signal from analog to digital so your computer could read what it was saying. The reason it does this is because your computer can’t read analog like the phones do.

Today with ADSL and other high speeds analog intent has almost been phased out but for people who don’t have money or don’t have access to ADSL still stick with it.

Modems are still used today with ADSL and other fast speed services, you even get modems that can plug multiple computers in vie a cable network and/or a wireless network.

For more information on modems and their history please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem

Basic infomation on Motherboards/mainboards

Every computer component in your pc connects to the motherboard! The motherboard also known as the main board is the component in your pc that links everything together! A motherboard is a thin flat silicon based board that has millions of different circuits that all connect to each other.

A Motherboard has tones of sockets and slots that components fit into, one of these is the CPU socket which fits straight into the main board, another component that fits directly into the board is RAM.

Other devises like hard drives, CD drives also connect to the motherboard but through a cable that is plugged into the motherboard leading into the devise. You can also plug add-on cards onto your motherboard such as extra graphics cards and TV tuners.

For more in depth information or for history on motherboards please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard

Basic Information on the computer case

The case is the box that normally sits under on on top of your desk. It is round and holds all the components like the motherboard and hard drives in the correct places. The case is also known as the system unit, this is where you turn on your computer.



They case is built to hold the exact components at the right size so that no components can fall out or get damaged while being transported. The case also is designed to make air go through the PC to cool it down, It does this by blowing air in and out of the case with case fans.



Think of a case like this, it is the internal framework of the PC as well as the exterior protector of it. Without the case your computer components would be more likely damaged by dust,water,heat and many other problems that the case resolves.

Basic Information on computer monitors and displays

A monitor is the box that you look at to see what your computer is doing! A monitor connects to the system unit usually by a cable connecting to a graphics port. The graphics port is these days usually on your motherboard but you can also buy graphics cards that fit into a designated graphics slot on your motherboard called AGP or with the newer PCs PCI express.

With newer graphics cards you can connect 2 monitors to your computer. There are 2 main types of monitors namely CRT(cathode ray tube) and LCD(liquid crystal display).LCD monitors are more common today as they are thinner and are better for your eyes but you still see a lot of people still using CRT because of the expensive cost of LCD monitors!

Computer screens rang from many different sizes, commonly they range from 15”-24” in size. If you would like to find out more about monitors, how they work and other information please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_display

Basic Information on RAM(random access memory)

Random access memory also known as RAM for short stores data and programs that are going to be needed to be used by the CPU.The reason for this is because your CPU can only process a certain amount of data at a time so any data that needs to be proceed by the CPU needs to get stored somewhere while the CPU process the first tasks it receives.

RAM today has billions of bytes of memories in their ram chips. Most computers today have between 256MB to 2GB of ram but there are also computers like servers that have much more Gigabits of ram. Ram is generally long and rectangular although there are many different types of RAM. RAM fits straight into your motherboard and is secured with 2 clips that hold it into place. You are most likely going to find dual inline memory module (DIMM )RAM in computers today.

For more information on RAM and different types/speeds and any other information please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_access_memory

every thing you need to know about SCSI and SCSI drives.

I know a lot about computers, in fact I know more than some IT technicians, but due to me being pretty young compared to computers there is a lot of old hardware I don’t know about and one of them is SCSI.


After doing some research on the internet and the like I now know quite a lot! SCSI Stands for Small Computer System Interface.SCSI is mainly in servers because it can run lots of devices simultaneously. You connect SCSI hard drives, scanners, CD-ROM/RW drives, printers and tape drives to a SCSI host adapter.You don’t see SCSI in A lot of new computers because SCSI has mainly been taken over by SATA(serial-ATA) because newer SATA drives are faster and cheaper than SCSI drives.SCSI talks to your computer with a add-on card called a host adapter, some host adapters have both internal and external SCSI ports to fit a SCSI cable into.

SCSI is a very old technology (been around for 20 odd years)yet it is very fast,currently SCSI has speeds of up to 320 megabytes per second or MBps.

SCSI comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes but I will not go into all this in this article. If you would however like to see what they all look like and information on them go here: http://www.ramelectronics.net/scsi_connectors.ep

SCSI runs parallel which means all the information is sent at the same time and does not have to wait and send information one at a time.SCSI host adaptors have a built in BIOS just like your motherboard, this SCSI BIOS controls your SCSI drives. Every SCSI devises has a SCSI ID,this ID is important because without it the host adaptor won’t be able to speak to the other devises on the SCSI chain.

On the end of a SCSI daisy chain you have to put a terminator because then the SCSI drive does not know that there is no more devises connected, to do this you need to add a termination devise or set your devise to termination mode.

For more information on SCSI visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI

Basic information on the Central processing unit (CPU)

Many people compare the CPU(central processing unit) to the human brain, although this is slightly true it is a huge overstatement for the CPU. The CPU is more like a very powerful calculator that can calculate billions of calculations every second and because it does this so fast it does in fact look very intelligent. Everything you do on your computer is processed by the CPU.The faster the CPU is the faster it can process calculations! In other words every CPU does the same thing, but it is better to have a faster CPU so it can process tasks that need to be processed faster, well faster! If you use your PC for word processing, internet, email and other basic tasks you don’t need such a powerful CPU but if you are going to use your PC for gaming or graphics design you going to have a fast CPU to processes calculations on the fly.

The CPU fits into a CPU socket on your motherboard! Without the CPU your PC won’t be able to do anything. In my opinion CPUs and motherboards are the most important system component today. For more information on Central processing units please visit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU