Parts of the Computer - page 2
A
computer is made up of several common parts.
The computer case is usually made from metal and plastic and
contains the components of the computer.
Computer cases come in many different shapes, sizes and colors.
The older (or business) desktop computer lies flat on the desk with the monitor usually sitting on top.
The up-right
towers can be positioned on the top of the desk, or can be put on the
floor usually off to one side out of your way.
The front of the case usually has a larger round button which is the power on/off switch and normally has one or two media drives also on the front of the case. One of the media drives will be a CD and/or DVD drive and quite often a Floppy drive (although the Floppy drive is nearly redundant these days).
Modern
computers will also have a few front access points for different
plug-in devices: USB, Headphones, Microphone
and sometimes a RAID access point.
The back of the computer case has connection ports which are
usually designed to fit only one
type of plug-in device. They are often color co-ordinated, so it is as
simple as matching the colors. The ports include monitor cable port,
keyboard
and mouse ports, network cable port (for Broadband and networking),
dial-up mode, microphone and speaker, USB, parallel and Com ports.
There is also a socket for the power cord plug, it connects to the PSU
(power supply unit) which converts your mains power to different
voltages to suit the internal components.
If you are unsure about where to plug in devices, check with
the
manual that came with your computer - or get someone more knowledgable
to help you with the installation.