Welcome to the Ultimate Computer Guide

Before you purchase your parts, let's start with an orientation of all the different components that make up a computer. If you are upgrading an existing system, you generally won't need to buy every part shown (such as a floppy drive, CD-ROM, etc.)

Case and power supply. The case houses all the components.	Motherboard. The motherboard is the main circuit board where the CPU, RAM, expansion cards (modem, sound card, video card, etc.), hard drive, floppy drive, and CD-ROM connect.

CPU (processor) front. The CPU is the main chip that handles complex mathamatical calculations in order to run software (programs such as Windows, games, etc.).	CPU (processor) back.	DIMM (memory or RAM). RAM is used to store the software that is running, and to hold the CPU's calculations.

Hard drive. The hard drive is used to store programs for later use.	CD-ROM/CD-RW. The CD-ROM is used to install programs from a CD. CD-R drives can burn CD's as well as read them. CD-RW drives can erase CD's and re-write to them.	Floppy drive. The floppy drive is a removable storage device, only it does not have near the storage capacity of a hard drive.

Video card. The video card is what allows a monitor to connect to the PC.	Modem. The modem is used for communications through a phone line, such as FAXing or accessing the Internet.

As you can see, there's really not a lot to it. Let's move on to the next page where we'll see how to choose the proper components for the system we want to build or upgrade.