Personal Computer Hardware Assembly:



Personal Computer Hardware Assembly

Objectives:

• Know the basic components of a computer system

• Can name most of the parts of a mainboard

• Can assemble a PC given the components

Introduction:

Suppose we want to build a computer system, there is a question that we need to answer:

- What are the target functions of this system?

game, office work, photo work, heavy calculation, etc…?

Different systems require different components.

We shall learn some of the commonly used components, and their classifications first. Then we learn the parts used for connection on a mainboard. Finally, we assemble a computer.

Basic components used in a computer

There are certain components which are present in most of the computer system. They are

The basic components may be classified as

|Input |Process |Output |Storage |Interface |

|Keyboard, Mouse |CPU |Monitor |RAM, HD |VGA card |

Input unit: Keyboards and Mice

These input units are classified according to their connector. The following table shows the commonly used connectors for keyboards and mice.

|Connector |Keyboard |Mouse |Shape |

|PS/2 |Most widely used |Most widely used |[pic] |

|USB[1] |Not very popular |Becoming popular |Usually rectangular |

(There are AT connectors for keyboards and serial connectors for mouse as well. They are nearly obsolete nowadays and will not be further mentioned.)

The following photo shows some commonly used USB connectors.

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

|USB "A" female to PS/2|USB "A" male |USB "A" female |USB "B" male |USB "B" female |

|male. |connector |connector |connector |connector |

Processing Unit

|Central Processing Unit (CPU) | |

|There are two brands of CPUs widely used in personal computers. They are Intel and AMD. We| |

|may regard them as the same product but produced by different companies. The calculation | |

|power of the CPU is proportional to the speed of the CPU. Speed is measured in MHz and GHz | |

|(1 GHz = 1000 MHz). | |

Each company are producing high end and low end CPUs.

| |Intel |AMD |

|High end |Pentium IV |Athlon |

|Low end |Celeron |Duron |

High end CPUs have better computing power. They are more suitable for heavy calculations. Photoshop is one of the suitable applications of the high end CPUs. For word processing, like using Microsoft word, a low end CPU would usually be good enough

|Output Unit: | |

| | |

|We shall use a monitor as the output unit. The detail | |

|specification of the monitor will not be mentioned here. | |

| | |

|Printer is another common output unit. This may not be an | |

|essential unit. | |

| | |

| | |

Storage Unit

RAM (Volatile Memory)

RAM is volatile which means the memory if lost if the machine is switched off. Size of storage is measured in MB. RAM are classified according to the technology/connection.

|Connection |I/O speed |Remark |

|30 pin |Slow |Mainly used in 386, 486 system |

|72 pin |Slow |Mainly used in Pentium (586) system |

|SDRAM, 168 pin |Fast |Used in modern system |

|DDR RAM, 184 pin |Even faster |Mainly Used in modern system for the Athlon |

|RAMBUS |fastest |Used in the Pentium IV system exclusively. |

30 pin and 72 pin RAM exist in some very old machines(~8years) and they will not mentioned further.

Hard Disk (Non-volatile Memory)

Hard disk storage is non-volatile which means the memory remains event if the machine is switched off. We consider the hard disks using the IDE interface only. The performance of a hard disk is usually characterized by 3 factors:

• size of the Hard disk: measured in GB. This tells the storage capacity of the hard disk.

• Rotational speed of the hard disk, measure in rpm. Usually, we use 7200 rpm hard disk (fast). Some system uses 5400 rpm (slower) hard disks.

• I/O speed of the cache: ATA 33, ATA 66, ATA100, ATA 133 or SATA 150.

We shall assume that our target system is a machine that runs Win2k for office work. For this system, barebone system is commonly used nowadays and the VGA card is usually built into the motherboard.

Other important components:

Floppy disk drive: Input and output unit.

CD ROM drive: input unit. The speed is measure in 1X, 2X, … 32X, 40X, 48X.

1X means 150kB per second.

All the components mentioned are connected to a main board. Once the motherboard is chosen, the type of CPU(Intel and AMD), RAM (SDRAM, DDR RAM or RAMBUS) are specified. These components are plugged into the motherboard. Other components are connected via cables. The motherboard and the components are put in a case both for storage and for the power supply.

Parts used for connection of a mainboard

[pic]

Naming of the ports for the peripherals:

[pic]

Procedure of assembling a computer

1. Release the lever of the CPU socket of the motherboard. Then plug the CPU into the socket. Fastened the level.

2. How to install the RAM:

[pic]

[pic]

3. Mount the hard disk, floppy disk, the CD ROM and the mainboard into the case.

4. How to connect the hard disk:

[pic]

[pic]

The other side of the cable is attached to the hard disk. (The following photo demonstrates the attachment of the IDE cable and the power cable only. Your hard disk should have been mounted to your case)

.[pic]

[pic]

5. How to connect the CD ROM:

[pic]

6. How to connect the floppy drive:

[pic]

Without power cables, your computer would look like the following:

[pic]

With power cables, your computer would look like the following:

[pic]

7. Connect the keyboard and the mouse to the P/S 2 ports according to the colors.:

[pic]

[pic]

8. Connect the VGA cable (D-shaped head)

[pic]

9. Connect the power cable to the computer.

10. Switch on the computer.

Basic checking:

POST (Power On Self Test)

• The computer will count the amount of RAM installed

• Check the existence of the hard disks

• Check the existence of the CD ROM drives

• Check the existence of a floppy drives[2]

• If the computer beeps only once, the hardwares are assembled correctly.

-----------------------

[1] Require BIOS support for USB keyboards.

[2] This is BIOS dependent. The check of floppy may be skipped.

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Hard Disk

Floppy

CD ROM

case

CD ROM Drive

floppy drive

Keyboard

Mouse

Monitor

Printer

Computer

Modem

Loudspeaker

Game pad

A typical setup of a home computer

IDE Connector

Floppy Connector

Connect to Power

RAM Slot

PCI Slot

AGP Slot

Printer port

VGA port

RS232 port

P/S2 port (keyboard)

P/S2 port (mouse)

USB port

LAN port

This is a 168pin SDRAM. There are 2 notches

These comes up to mount the RAM if the RAM is installed correctly.

According to the notches, put the RAM into the RAM slots.

Modern IDE cables are usually one way with the colored side attached onto the mainboard

Floppy Connector

34 pins

IDE connectors

40 pins

The power connector is in D-shaped, an one-way connector as well.

The connection of the CD ROM to the mainboard is similar to that of the hard disk.

Same power connectors

One-way cable

Power Connection

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