A Woman's Primer for Building Her Own Computer

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A Woman's Primer for Building Her Own Computer - Part I

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Jul. 30, 2007

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Inside the Computer

The Motherboard, Processor, RAM, and Power Supply

There's no better way to see what's in a computer than to open one up. You can run a computer with the door off the case. It's a machine; unless you're really trying to, you're not going to break it.

Slide the computer out from under the desk; if you have to unplug it, consider printing this article first.

Most computers have doors, meaning one side pops off, but some have lids, where the outer shell comes off entirely. On most computers, the side that comes off, when you're looking at the front of the case, is the left side. Often, there's a latch on the side that opens the case. If you don't see a latch, or the latch doesn't seem to work, you probably have to unscrew the door. With a Phillips screwdriver, remove the screws holding the side on. (Taking out the wrong screws won't hurt anything, just put them back in.) Keep the screws someplace safe, but don't worry too much if you loose one; they're standard sizes and are easily replaceable.

With the case open, follow the mouse cable to the back of the computer. This rectangular plate with all the connectors is called the I/O panel, for input/output. It's attached to the motherboard, the biggest circuit board in the computer, located along the inside wall of the case. Most are as big or bigger than a sheet of paper, but a lot thicker.

The motherboard coordinates everything; if the processor is like the brain of the computer, then the motherboard is the computer's spine. When you look at all the other parts inside the computer, notice that they're all connected to the motherboard, either directly plugged into it (in "slots" and "sockets") or with cables (plugged on "headers").

The most noticeable thing attached to the motherboard is the big, vaned chunk of metal with a fan on or next to it.

This is the heatsink. Heatsinks are usually made of aluminum, or aluminum and copper. Heatsinks are placed on parts of the computer that produce a lot of heat; they cool by adding a large surface area to a much smaller part.

Under the largest heatsink is the processor. Don't remove the heatsink if the computer is running, because the processor will overheat and the computer will crash.

The processor (or CPU for central processing unit) is plugged into a socket on the motherboard. The whole point of a computer is to make the processor useful to us. Otherwise, the computer is just a box of parts. A processor is made of silicon--glass--and has layers of metal sandwiched inside of it. It calculates arithmetic and mathematical logic--math that adds up to play your music, movies, and games--every function of a computer is a function of the processor.

A processor can calculate an unimaginably large amount of information, but it can't store it. It doesn't have a lot of memory. That's why a computer needs RAM (random access memory) which is where the processor puts information that it isn't working with.

RAM is built into "sticks", a little smaller than a Hershey's bar, and sticks lengthwise out of the motherboard, somewhere near the processor.

Also plugged into the back of the computer is the electrical cord. It runs into the power supply, or PSU (power supply unit). It's the box inside the computer with a lot of cables coming out of it. The cables are bunches of wire, mostly red, yellow, orange, and black. These cables carry power to every part inside the computer.

There will probably be a few cables from the power supply that aren't connected to anything. Power supplies aren't made for specific computers, so they have extra plugs for different computers.

There is one large power cable that plugs into the motherboard only. It will have lots of differently-colored wires. There will also be a smaller black and yellow cable plugged into the motherboard and it delivers power to the processor.

All the other power cables are for the hard drives, optical drives (CD, DVD drives), and other accessories. As long as the plug fits, it's OK to use; a cable won't plug into the wrong kind of device. They're all shaped (or "keyed") differently. It also doesn't matter which cables are plugged in and which cables are not used.

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Page 2 of 4

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Inside the Computer
Page 3: The Drives and Expansion Cards
Page 4: Conclusion

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1 User Comment

1 - Posted by PsychoSnowMan on October 3, 2007 - 12:35 pm

Just noticed this article, it's an excellent introduction to computer hardware.
It might be a good idea to mention that there are differences in in interface compatibilities. PCI/PCIE, SCSI/IDE/SATA1.5GB/SATA3.0GB, AMD/Intel, Processor Sockets/Interfaces, etc.
For someone thinking about making their first computer this is definitely something to ask about, either from a friend, or a forum.

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