Upgrading
a PC is a straightforward task, but it does depend upon some skill with a
screwdriver and some familiarity with its hardware. Fortunately, it’s easy to
see what’s inside a desktop PC by simply removing the case and taking look — a
luxury that laptop owners, unfortunately, can’t enjoy.
Before you begin
Most
desktop PCs have a case that can be opened by removing a few screws on the rear
panel and a screwdriver usually isn’t required — just make sure that the PC is
unplugged before you start.
It’s
also worth investing in an anti-static wrist-strap (£2-6) before ventu
Disk drives and
power
What
you see inside a PC depends on how big the case is, how many components it has
and how neatly it’s been assembled. At the very least, you should see one of
more ‘drive cages’ behind the front panel that holds the CD/DVD and hard disk
drives, with cables coming from the back of each — these may be wide or narrow,
depending on the age of the PC.
The
cables can be disconnected and the drives removed from the cages (usually after
undoing some screws) if one needs to be replaced.
You’ll
also see a large metal box at the back of the PC where the mains cable
connects. This contains the power supply and several other cables emerge from
this to connect to other parts of the PC — including the various disk drives at
the front.
Even
when the PC is unplugged, its power supply can still be dangerous, so while
it’s safe to disconnect its cables from other parts of the PC, leave the power
supply itself alone.
Expansion cards
Below
the power supply you may see one or more ‘expansion cards’, or you may just see
the empty expansion slots on the motherboard they plug into.
A
graphics card is a type of expansion card (one with a large fan and/or metal
heatsink, usually) and it’s held in place with a screw at the back of the PC’s
case. The back edge of the graphics card pokes through a hole in the back of
the PC’s case so that a monitor cable can connect to it.
Other
expansion cards use a similar arrangement and you may see power cables from the
power supply connecting to some of them.
The motherboard
Expansion
cards plug into slots on the PC’s motherboard, which is the large circuit board
that covers the bottom or side of the case. Disk drives and other components
connect to this so that they can communicate with the rest of the PC, so don’t
be surprised to see it covered with cables.
You
may also see a large fan, usually with an elaborate heatsink, on one part of
the motherboard — this is the cooling system for the processor that sits beneath
it. In turn, the processor plugs into a square socket on the motherboard,
although you probably won’t be able to see this under its fan.
Memory slots
Long,
thin memory modules — ‘DIMMs’ — are also slotted into the motherboard. There
are usually at least two slots and at least one will be occupied, although this
depends on how much memory is installed. The slots have a small slip at each
end to hold the memory module in place.
Ports
The
back side of a motherboard also pokes through the back of the PC’s case to
expose its various ports — USB, network and so on — although these are only
visible from the outside. The back of the case also often has a large fan to
suck warm air from the inside, keeping the PC cool, and there may also be one
on the front to suck cool air in.
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