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A
personal computer is made up of many components; called "hardware".
This article briefly explains each hardware component in turn. If
you are interested only in a specific component, use the list below
to jump directly to that information.
A
typical PC contains the following hardware:
There
are many other possible hardware components, such as a DVD, CD-RW,
Zip drive or network card. There are also many subcomponents of
a PC, such as the cooling fan, printer port or reset switch to name
a few. This article focuses on the basic PC hardware. The hardware
in the list above is nearly universal to a basic PC.
While
a PC is built up from hardware components, the hardware is only
half of the equation. The other vital part of a PC is the software.
Without software, the hardware is useless; and vice versa.
The
fundamental software for a PC is called
an "operating system". Without
an operating system or "OS",
a PC can't do much. The operating system
tells the components of a PC what to do
and when to do it. Windows, MAC OS, Linux
and Unix are all examples of operating
systems.
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