The hardware of the personal computer represents the total of the computer components. The computer hardware represents the physical parts of the computer, the ones that you can touch. On the other hand the software of the computer represents the programs which are installed on the PC, and these ones can not be touched of course. There are various components which the computer hardware contains and in what follows I am going to present you these components.

I will start with the motherboard, as this is the component on which all the other components are located with very few exceptions. The motherboard is a large rectangular board which has various integrated circuits on it and through these circuits the other components are connected to it. One of the most important components which connect to the motherboard is the central processing unit, or the CPU; you might also know it by the name of processor.

The processor is responsible for performing most of the calculations which are required in order for the computer to be able to function properly. This is why the central processing unit is also known as the “brain” of the computer. The processor will be able to connect with all the other components of the computers with the aid of the chip set.



The memory of the computer is extremely important as well. Just like the processor, the Random Access Memory, or RAM for short, connects on the motherboard. The RAM stores all the running processes an the operating system, which means that it can be compared with a hard drive, and I am going to talk about this later, but which loses all the data at a reset of the computer. There are many types of RAMs and I should tell you that the more memory a PC has the better it is.



The hard drive is the component on which the data is stored including all the programs and files such as movies, audio ones, and so on. The more bytes the hard disk has the more memory it can store. There are also external memory devices such as USB flash drives and optical discs but these do not belong in the hardware category but in the accessories one.  The graphics card is important as well because it produces the output for the computer monitor.

The more advanced graphic cards are usually used for gaming and when using programs which are very demanding. The computer also contains the power supply, an underrated component but a very effective and important one. The power supply supplies power to all the other components located inside the computer and as you can tell if it doesn’t work well the computer will not start.