What are the components of a computer? complete guide

We have set out to create this article as a guide to learn what are all the components of a computer, fully explained and in as much detail as possible. So anyone who does not know exactly what a computer consists of or what parts we can find inside it, from now on will not have excuses.

Index of contents

Hundreds of reviews, thousands of news and lots of tutorials are what we carry behind our backs, and the time had not yet come to create an article geared towards those who are just beginning in the world of computing and computers to provide them with the basic knowledge of what are the components of a computer and what function do each of them.

With this guide, we intend that those who know less about computers get a fairly complete idea of what components there are and the latest trends today, in order to know how to start assembling their own PC.

Internal and peripheral components

In a computer, there are two large groups of electronic components, internal and peripheral. But what we really call a computer is the grouping of internal components within a PC chassis or case.

The internal components are those that make up the hardware of our equipment, and will be in charge of managing the information that we enter or download from the Internet. They will be the ones that will make it possible for us to store data, play games or show the work we do on a screen. The basic internal components will be:

• Motherboard CPU or processor RAM memory Hard disk Graphics card Power supply Network card

These components will generate heat, as they operate on electricity and at enormous processing frequencies. So we also consider the following internal components:

• HeatsinksFansLiquid cooling

Well, somewhere you will have to start, and what better way to do it than by looking at each of the components that are installed inside a computer, or in your case, those that will be critical and basic.

CPU or microprocessor

The microprocessor is the brain of the computer, which is in charge of analyzing absolutely all the information that passes through it in the form of ones and zeros. The processor decodes and executes the instructions of the programs loaded in the main memory of the computer and coordinates and controls all or almost all the components, as well as the connected peripherals. The speed with which these instructions process a CPU is measured in cycles per second or hertz (Hz).

The CPU is nothing more than a devilishly complex silicon chip in which there are millions of transistors and integrated circuits installed in it along with a series of pins or contacts that will be connected to the socket of the motherboard.

In addition, the new CPUs on the market not only have one of these chips physically speaking, but they also have several units inside them called Cores or Cores. Each of these cores will be capable of processing one instruction at a time, thus being able to process as many simultaneous instructions as the cores a processor has.

That is measured in a processor to know if it is good

It happens to know if a processor is powerful or not, what we always have to measure is the frequency at which it works, that is, the number of operations it is capable of performing per unit of time. But in addition to this measure, there are others that are also essential to know its performance and be able to compare it with other processors:

• Frequency: Currently measured in Gigahertz (GHz). A microprocessor has a clock inside that marks the number of operations it will be able to do. The more frequently, the more of them. Bus width: simply, it marks the work capacity of a processor. The wider this bus is, the bigger the operations you can do. The current processors are 64 bits, that is, they can do operations with strings of 64 ones and consecutive zeros. Cache memory: the more cache memory the processor has, the more amount of instructions we can store in them to get them quickly. The cache memory is much faster than the RAM memory and is used to store the instructions that will be immediately used. Cores and processing threads: And the more cores and processing threads, the more operations we can do simultaneously.

Microarchitecture and manufacturers

Another thing that we must know about this component are the manufacturers that there are currently and the architecture that is on the market. Basically we have two manufacturers of PC processors and each with its own architecture.

The architecture of a microprocessor is formed by the set of instructions with which a processor is made, currently x86 predominates. You will have seen this number on most CPUs. In addition to this, the architecture indicates the manufacturing process and size used to implement the transistors.

Intel:

Intel is a manufacturer of integrated circuits and is the one that invented the x86 series of processors. The current architecture of this manufacturer is x86 with 14 nm (nanometer) transistors. Additionally, Intel names each of its updates using a code name and a generation. Today we are in the 9th generation of processors named Coffee Lake, predecessor of Kaby Lake and Kaby Lake R also 14nm. The first 10nm Cannon Lake processors will be released soon.

AMD:

Intel's other direct rival processor manufacturer is AMD. It also uses x86 architecture for its processors and just like Intel also names its processors with a code name. AMD is currently running 12nm processors named Zen + and Zen2 architecture and Ryzen models. In a short period of time we will have the new 7nm Zen3 architecture .

To learn more about what a processor is and how it works, see this article.

And if you want to compare the latest models visit our guide to the best processors on the market

Motherboard

Despite the fact that the CPU is the heart of our computer, it could not function without the motherboard. A motherboard is basically a PCB board made up of an integrated circuit that interconnects a series of chips, capacitors and connectors spread throughout it, which together make up the computer.

On this board we will connect the processor, the RAM, the graphics card and practically all the internal elements of our computer. Explaining a motherboard in detail is tremendously complex due to the huge number of important elements it has.

What we really must understand about a motherboard is that it will determine the architecture of the processor that we can install on it, in addition to other components such as RAM. Since not all are the same and each one is oriented to certain processors.

Motherboard Formats

A very important aspect of a motherboard is its shape or format, since the number of expansion slots and the chassis that will span it will depend on it.

• XL-ATX and E-ATX: These are special formats and involve the acquisition of a large tower with 10 or more expansion slots. They are ideal for mounting full liquid coolers, multiple graphics cards, and many storage units. ATX: Normally its measurements are 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm and it is compatible with 99% of PC cases on the market. It is our recommended format in all our Gamer configurations or for Workstation equipment. Micro-ATX: It has a smaller size, very much in use, but with the arrival of smaller motherboards it has been a bit out of place. Ideal for salon equipment. ITX: Its arrival has revolutionized the world of motherboards and gaming equipment with really small dimensions and capable of moving resolutions 2560 x 1440p (2K) without disheveled and even the highly demanded 3840 x 2160p (4K) with some ease.

Components that come installed on a motherboard

The current motherboards have many functionalities and also have a multitude of installed components that in the past could only be found on expansion cards. Among them we find:

• BIOS: The BIOS or Basic Input-Output System is a Flash memory that stores a small program with information about the configuration of the motherboard and the devices connected to it, as well as the devices connected to it. Currently the BIOSes are called UEFI or EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) which is basically a much more advanced update of the BIOS, with a high-level graphical interface, greater security, and with much more advanced control of the components connected to the motherboard. Sound card: When we buy a motherboard, 99.9% of them will have a chip pre-installed that is responsible for processing the sound of our PC. Thanks to it we can listen to music and connect headphones or Hi-Fi equipment to our computer without having to buy an expansion card. The most widely used sound cards are Realtek chips, high quality and multiple outputs for surround sound and microphones. Network card: in the same way all the motherboards also have a chip that manages the network connection of our computer, as well as the corresponding port to connect the router cable to it and have an Internet connection. The most advanced ones also have Wi-Fi connection in them. To know if it brings Wi-Fi we will have to identify the 802.11 protocol in its specifications. Expansion slots: they are the key to the motherboards, in them we can install the RAM, graphics cards, hard drives and other ports or connections of our computer. In each component we will see these slots in more detail.

Chipset and socket

As we said before, not all base bales are compatible with all processors, what's more, each processor manufacturer will need its own motherboard for this item to work. For this, each board will have a different socket or socket, and only certain processors can be installed on it according to its architecture and generation.

Socket:

The socket is basically the connector that serves to communicate the processor with the motherboard. It is nothing more than a square surface full of small contacts that receive and send data to the CPU. Each manufacturer (AMD and Intel) has a different one, and therefore, each motherboard will be compatible with certain processors.

Currently there are several types of socket for each manufacturer, but these are the ones used in the most current models:

Intel sockets
LGA 1511	Used by Intel Skylake, KabyLake and CoffeeLake architecture. We have mid-range and high-end processors.
LGA 2066	Used for SkyLake-X, KabyLake-X processors and SkyLake-W servers. They are the most powerful processors of the brand.
AMD sockets
AM4	Compatible with AMD Ryzen 3, 5 and 7 platform.
TR4	Designed for the huge AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors, the most powerful of the brand.

Chipset:

On the motherboard there is also an item called a chipset, which is basically a set of integrated circuits that act as bridges to communicate input and output devices with the processor. On older boards, there were two types of chipsets, the north bridge charged with connecting the CPU to memory and PCI slots, and the south bridge charged with connecting the CPU to I / O devices. Now we only have the south bridge, since the north bridge includes the current processors inside it.

The most important specification of a chipset are the PCI LANES it has. These LANES or lines are the data paths that the chipset can support, the greater the number of them, the more simultaneous data will be able to circulate to the CPU. Connections such as USB, PCI-Express Slots, SATA, etc, have a number of LANES if the chipset is small, there will be fewer data lines and fewer devices we can connect or slower they will go.

Each manufacturer has a range of chipsets that are compatible with their processors, and in turn there will be different models of high, medium and low range, depending on the capacity and speed they have. Now we will quote the Intel and AMD chipsets for the latest generation processors.

Best Intel Chipsets
B360 (Socket LGA 1511)	For boards with processors that cannot be overclocked, usually for mid-range equipment
Z390 (Socket LGA 1511)	It is indicated for processors that can be overclocked (Intel K range). To mount mid-high range equipment
X299 (Socket LGA 2066)	Intel's most powerful chipset for very powerful and high-performance processors
Best AMD chipset
B450 (Socket AM4)	It is the AMD mid-range chipset, for less powerful equipment but with the possibility of overclocking
X470 (Socket AM4)	Higher performance chipset, more LANES and capacity for more connectivity and overclocking.
X399 (Socket TR4)	The best AMD chipset, for the high-end Ryzen Threadripper

We have more information in the tutorial about what a motherboard is and how it works

And if you want, you can also visit our updated guide to the best motherboards on the market

RAM memory

RAM (Random Access Memory) is an internal component that is installed on the motherboard and serves to load and store all the instructions that are executed in the processor. These instructions are sent from all the devices connected to the motherboard and to the ports of our equipment.

The RAM memory has direct communication with the processor to make the data transfer faster, although this data will be stored by the cache memory before reaching the processor. It is called random access because the information is stored dynamically in the cells that are free, in no apparent order. In addition, this information is not permanently recorded as on a hard drive, but is lost every time we turn off our computer.

From the RAM memory we must know basically four characteristics, the amount of memory in GB that we have and that we must install, the type of RAM memory, its speed, and the type of slot they use depending on each computer.

RAM type and speed

First, we will look at the types of RAM that are currently used and why their speed is important.

To begin, we must identify the type of RAM that our team needs. This is a simple task, since if we have a computer of less than 4 years old we will be 100% sure that it will support DDR-type memory in its version 4, that is, DDR4.

DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic-Access Memory) technology memories are those that have been used in recent years in our computers. Basically the updates of this technology from version 1 to the current version 4, consists of increasing the bus frequency considerably, the storage capacity and decreasing the working voltage to obtain better efficiency. We currently have modules capable of working at 4600 MHz and a voltage of just 1.5 V.

Amount of storage and installation slot of a RAM

We continue to see the capacity of RAM memory modules to store information. Due to the evolution of its storage quantity, the capacities are measured in Gigabytes or GB.

The current memory modules have a capacity ranging from 2 GB to 16 GB, although some 32 GB are already being manufactured as a test. The capacity of RAM memory that can be installed in our computer will be limited, both by the number of slots that the motherboard has, and by the amount of memory that the processor can address.

Intel processors with LGA 1511 socket and AMD processors with AM4 socket are capable of addressing (requesting information from memory cells) up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, which will be installed in a total of four 16 GB modules each one in four slots, of course. For its part, the boards with Intel LGA 2066 and AMD LGA TR4 sockets will be able to address up to 128 GB of DDR4 RAM installed in 8 slots with modules of 16 GB in each one.

For its part, the installation slots are basically the connectors on the motherboard where these RAM modules will be installed. There are two types of grooves:

• DIMM: They are the slots that have the motherboards of desktop computers (those of desktop). It is used for all DDR memories, 1, 2, 3, 4. The data bus is 64 bits in each slot and can have up to 288 connectors for DDR4 memories. SO-DIMM: These slots are similar to DIMMs, but rather smaller, because it is used to install memories in laptops and servers, where space is more limited. As for performance, they are the same as DIMM slots and have the same memory capacity and the same bus.

Dual Channel and Quad Channel

Another very important aspect to take into account of RAM memory is its ability to work on Dual Channel or Quad Channel.

This technology basically consists of the processor being able to simultaneously access two or four RAM memories. When Dual Channel is active, instead of accessing 64-bit blocks of information, we can access blocks of up to 128 bits, and in the same way , 256-bit blocks in Quad Channel.

To learn more about RAM, visit our article on what RAM is and how it works.

And if you want to know what types of RAM exist and the list of current speeds, visit our article on types of RAM and packages

Finally, it is worth taking a look at our guide to the best RAM memory on the market

HDD

We now turn to see the hard drives and the usefulness they have for our team. Like the previous ones, it is a device that is installed internally in our equipment, although they also exist externally, and are connected via USB in most cases.

The hard disk will be the component in charge of permanently storing all the data that we download from the Internet, documents and folders that we have created, images, music, etc. And most important of all, it is the element that has the operating system installed with which we can operate our computer.

There are many types of hard drives, as well as construction technologies, you have heard of HDD hard drives or SDD hard drives, so let's see what they are.

HDD hard drive

These hard drives are the ones that have always been used in our computers. It consists of a rectangular metal device and of considerable weight that inside it stores a series of discs or plates glued on a common axis. This axis has a motor to rotate them at high speeds and it will be possible to read and write information thanks to a magnetic head located on the face of each plate. Precisely for this system, they are called mechanical hard drives, since it has motors and mechanical elements inside.

Disks have two useful faces on which to store information using zeros and ones. These are logically divided into tracks (concentric ring of a disc), cylinders (set of tracks vertically aligned on the different plates) and sectors (pieces of arc into which the tracks are divided).

The important thing about hard drives is their storage capacity and the speed they have. Capacity is measured in GB, the more you have, the more data we can store. Currently we find hard drives up to 12 TB or up to 16, which would be 16, 000 GB. Regarding sizes, we basically have two types of discs:

• 3.5-inch disk: they are the traditional ones, those used by desktop computers. Measurements are 101.6 × 25.4 × 146 mm. 2.5-inch disk: they are the ones used for smaller and smaller capacity laptops. Its measurements are 69.8 × 9.5 × 100 mm.

SATA is the connection interface that these hard drives use to connect to our computer through a connector on the motherboard. The current version is SATAIII or SATA 6Gbps, because this is the amount of information that is capable of being transmitted per unit of time. 6 Gbps is approximately 600 MB / s, it seems a lot, but it is nothing compared to what we will see now. In any case, a mechanical hard disk is not capable of reaching this speed, at most it reaches 300 MB / s.

SSD Hard Drive

It is not correct to call hard drives, since the storage technology is very different from that used by HDDs. In this case we must make solid-state storage units, which are devices capable of permanently storing information on flash memory chips, such as those with RAM. In this case the data is stored in memory cells formed by NAND logic gates basically, since these can store a voltage state without the need for a power supply. There are three types of manufacturing technologies, SLC, MLC, and TLC.

These units are much faster than HDDs, because inside there are no mechanical elements or motors that take time to move and put the head on the right track. These types of connection technologies are currently used for SSDs:

• SATA: it is the same interface that is used in HDDs, but in this case it does take advantage of the 600 MB / s that it is capable of transmitting. So, initially, they are already faster than mechanical discs. These units will be encapsulated in 2.5-inch cabinets. 2 with PCI-Express: basically it is a slot located on our motherboard that uses a PCI-Express x4 interface under the NVMe communication protocol. These drives are capable of speeds of up to 3, 500 MB / s read and write, impressive without a doubt. These units will basically be expansion cards without encapsulation, looking like RAM. 2: It is another new connector that also uses a PCI-Express x4 interface. These units will also be encapsulated.

To learn more about HDD hard drives visit the article on what a hard drive is and how it works

And to learn more about SSDs visit the article on what is an SSD and how it works

Of course you have two guides to see and compare the latest models available on the market:

Graphic card

This component is not strictly necessary to install on our computers, at least in most cases, and now we will see why.

A graphics card is basically a device that is connected to a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 expansion slot that has a graphics processor or GPU that is responsible for performing all the complex graphics processing of our computer.

We say that they are not strictly necessary because most current processors have a circuit inside them that is capable of taking care of processing this graphic data, and this is why motherboards have HDMI or DisplayPort ports to connect our screen. to them. These processors are called APU (Accelerated Processing Unit)

So why do we want a graphics card? Simple, because the graphics processor of a card is much more powerful than that of the processors. If we want to play games, we will almost need a graphics card on our computer.

Graphics card manufacturers and technologies

There are basically two manufacturers of graphics cards in the market Nvidia and AMD and each of them has different manufacturing technologies, although today Nvidia has the best graphics cards on the market for being more powerful.

Nvidia

Nvidia has the best graphics cards today, certainly not the cheapest, but it does have the highest performance models on the market. There are basically two manufacturing technologies for Nvidia graphics cards:

• Turing technology: it is the most current technology with 12 nm GPU and GDDR6 video memories capable of acquiring transfer speeds of up to 14 Gbps. These cards are capable of real-time ray tracing. In the market you will be able to identify these cards by the GeForce RTX 20x model . Pascal technology: it predates Turing, and they are cards that use a 12 nm manufacturing process and GDDR5 memories. We can identify them by their name GeForce GTX 10x.

AMD

It is the same manufacturer of processors which is also dedicated to building graphics cards. Its TOP models do not have the overwhelming power of the top Nvidia range, but it also has very interesting models for most players. It also has several technologies:

• Radeon VII: It is the most innovative technology of the brand, and comes the recently released AMD Radeon VII card with a 7nm manufacturing process and HBM2 memory. Radeon Vega: it is the current technology and it is currently on the market with two models, Vega 56 and Vega 64. The manufacturing process is 14 nm and using HBM2 memories. Polaris RX: It is the previous generation of graphics cards, relegated to low and mid-range models, although with very good prices. We will identify these models by the different Radeon RX.

What is SLI, NVLink and Crossfire

In addition to the manufacturing technology and the characteristics of the GPUs and memory of graphics cards, it is important to know these three terms. Basically we are referring to the ability of a graphics card to connect with another exactly the same to work together.

• The latest SLI technology, NVLink, is used by Nvidia to connect two, three, or four graphics cards that work in parallel in PCI-Express slots. For this, these cards will be connected with a cable on the front. For its part, the Crossfire technology belongs to AMD, and also serves to connect up to 4 AMD graphics cards in parallel, and a cable will also be necessary to make the connection.

This method is not widely used, due to cost, and is only used by extreme computer configurations used for gaming and data mining.

As always we recommend you visit our guide to the best graphics cards on the market

Power supply

Another component of a computer that is necessary for the operation of this is the power supply. As its name suggests, it is a device that provides electrical current to the electronic elements that make up our computer, and which are basically what we have already seen in previous sections.

These sources are responsible for transforming the alternating current of our house from 240 Volts (V) into direct current and distribute it among all the components that need it through connectors and cables. Normally the voltages that are handled are 12 V and 5 V.

The most important measure of a PSU or power supply is power, the more power, the greater ability to connect elements this source will have. The normal thing is that a source of a desktop computer with a graphics card is at least 500 W, since depending on what processor and motherboard we have, they can consume about 200 or 300 W. Likewise, a graphics card, depending on what it is, will consume between 150 and 400 W.

Types of power supplies.

The power supply will go inside the chassis, along with the other internal components. There are different PSU formats:

• ATX: It is a normal size font about 150 or 180 mm long by 140 mm wide by 86 high. It is compatible with boxes called ATX and the vast majority of Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX boxes. SFX: They are smaller and more specific fonts for Mini-ITX boxes. Server format: they are sources of special measures and they are incorporated in the server boxes. External power supply: They are the traditional transformers that we have for our laptop, printer or game consoles. That black rectangle that is always lying on the ground is a power source.

Power supply connectors

The connectors of a source are very important and it is worth knowing them and knowing what each one is used for:

• 24-pin ATX - This is the main power cable for the motherboard. It is very wide and has, that, 20 or 24 pins. It has different voltages on its cables. 12V EPS - This is a cable that carries direct power to the processor. It consists of a 4-pin connector, although they always come in 4 + 4 format that can be separated. PCI-E connector: Used to normally power graphics cards. It is very similar to the EPS of the CPU, but in this case we have a 6 + 2-pin connector. SATA Power: We will identify it for having 5 cables and being an elongated connector with an "L" shaped slot . Molex connector: This cable is used for old IDE connected mechanical hard drives. It consists of a four-pole connector.

As expected, we have an updated guide with the best power supplies on the market

Network card

Quite possibly you do not have this component as such visible on your computer, since, in all cases, our motherboard already has a built-in network card.

A network card is an expansion card, or internal to the motherboard that will allow us to connect to our router to obtain connection to the Internet or to a LAN network. There are two types of network cards:

• Ethernet: with an RJ45 connector to insert a cable and connect to a wired network and LAN. A regular network card provides a connection with 1000 Mbit / s LAN transfer rates, although there are also 2.5 Gb / s, 5 Gb / s and 10 Gb / s. Wi-Fi: we also have the card a wireless connection will be provided to our router or to the Internet. They have it installed by laptops, our Smartphone and many motherboards.

If we want to purchase an external network card, we will need a PCI-Express x1 slot (the small one).

Heatsinks and liquid cooling

Finally, we must mention the heatsinks as components of a computer. They are not strictly necessary elements for a computer to function, but their absence can cause a computer to stop working and break.

The mission of a heatsink is very simple, to collect the heat generated by an electronic element such as a processor due to its high frequency and transmit it to the environment. To do this a heatsink consists of:

• A metal block, usually copper, that is in direct contact with the processor through a thermal paste that helps transfer heat. An aluminum block or exchanger formed by a large number of fins through which air will pass so that their heat is transmitted to it. Some copper heat pipes or Heatpipes that will go from the copper block to the entire finned block so that the heat is transmitted to this entire surface in the best way.One or several fans so that the air flow in the fins is forced and thus remove more heat.

There are also heatsinks in other elements such as the chipset, power phases and of course in the graphics card. But there is a higher performance variant called liquid cooling.

Liquid cooling consists of separating the dissipation elements into two large blocks that make up a water circuit.

• The first of these will be located in the processor itself, it will be a copper block full of small channels through which a liquid actuated by a pump will circulate. The second will be a finned exchanger with fans that will be responsible for collecting heat from the water that He arrives and transmit it to the air. To do this, a series of tubes must be used that make up a circuit in which the water circulates and never evaporates.

They also have a guide with the best heatsinks and liquid cooling on the market

The chassis, where we keep all the components of a computer

The chassis or box, is an enclosure built of metal, plastic and glass that will be in charge of storing all this ecosystem of electronic components and thus have them ordered, correctly connected and refrigerated. From a chassis we must always know what format of motherboards supports to install them, and their dimensions to see if all our components fit in it. In this way we will have:

• ATX or Semitower chassis: it consists of a box approximately 450 mm long, another 450 mm high and 210 mm wide. It is called ATX because we can install motherboards in it in ATX format and also smaller ones. They are the most used. E-ATX or full tower chassis: They are the largest and are capable of housing virtually any component and motherboard, even the largest. Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX or mini tower box: they are smaller in size, and are designed to be able to install motherboards in these types of formats. SFF box: these are the typical ones that we find in university computers, they are very thin towers and they are placed in cabinets or laid out on a table.

The tower will be the most visible element of our computer, so manufacturers always strive to make them as impressive and bizarre as possible so that the result is spectacular.

Here's our updated guide to the best PC cases on the market

These are all the basic components of a computer and the keys to understand its operation and the types that exist.

We also recommend these tutorials with which you will learn everything you need to assemble your own PC and know the compatibility of its components.

We hope this article has clarified what are the main components of a computer.