Today's PCs have gotten more complicated than ever before, and whether you are buying a new one or just trying to figure out the one at work, knowing what the parts are is important.
External Parts and Peripherals
These are the things connected to your PC. The monitor is the screen. The keyboard is what you use to type in information; it looks like a typewriter keyboard with more keys. The mouse (or trackball) moves the cursor around the screen and allows you to highlight things; it usually sits to the side of the keyboard.
Front Panel
In addition to the power button, one thing that almost all PCs have is an optical drive, which will play CDs and/or DVDs; depending on the model, some will even record. The capabilities of the drive are often printed on the front of the drive. Often, there are slots for flash media cards and USB ports to connect other devices.
Back Panel
The back panel is where most of the connections are made. On most new computers, many of the ports and plugs are clustered to one side of the computer with expansion slots for extra connections.
Video Ports
An example of a DVI port on a dedicated video card.
Video can be handled either on the main board or on a separate video card. There are two types of ports, VGA or DVI. The VGA is the longtime analog standard port and consists of three rows of five holes for the cable to plug into. The DVI port is a digital video port capable of higher resolutions and is better for digital sources, such as DVD movies.
Modem and Network Jacks
An example of an network port.
To connect with the outside world, you can use either a modem for a dial-up connection or a network connection to a broadband modem. You can also use a network connection to connect your computers together. The modem has a standard phone line jack, and the network connection looks similar but is just a bit wider because it can have up to eight wires instead of four for a phone line.
USB and Other Ports
The four ports on the right are the USB ports.
The USB port is the most common port for connecting things to your computer. It is used for keyboards, mice, external drives and MP3 and media players. These ports can be on the front or back of your computer. Front ports are for things that get plugged in and removed often like a thumb drive or MP3 player; rear ports are for things like the keyboard that you leave plugged in all the time. There are also audio ports to connect speakers and microphones; they look like headphone jacks, and many of them are color-coded to make connecting things easier.
Tags: network connection, connecting things, phone line, ports connect, ports things, video card