The computer cabinet consists of the components that are required for running the computer system effectively with fewer errors. There are various elements in the cabinet to which some of them are Motherboard, memory chips, cables, processors, ports, etc.
Motherboard
The motherboard is the computer's main circuit board. It's a thin plate that holds the CPU, memory, connectors for the hard drive and optical drives, expansion cards to control the video and audio, and connections to your computer's ports (such as USB ports). The motherboard connects directly or indirectly to every part of the computer.
Fig: Motherboard
Ports and interfaces
Motherboard has a certain number of I/O sockets that are connected to the ports and interfaces found on the rear side of a computer. We can connect external devices to the ports and interfaces, which get connected to the computer’s motherboard.
· Serial Port— to connect old peripherals.
· Parallel Port— to connect old printers.
· USB Ports—to connect newer peripherals like cameras, scanners and printers to the computer. It uses a thin wire to connect to the devices, and many devices can share that wire simultaneously.
· Fire wire is another bus, used today mostly for video cameras and external hard drives.
· RJ45 connector (called LAN or Ethernet port) is used to connect the computer to a network. It corresponds to a network card integrated into the motherboard.
· VGA connector for connecting a monitor. This connector interfaces with the built-in graphics card.
· Audio plugs (line-in, line-out and microphone), for connecting sound speakers and the microphone. This connector interfaces with the built-in sound card.
· PS/2 port to connect mouse and keyboard into PC.
· SCSI port for connecting the hard disk drives and network connectors.
Expansion Slots
The expansion slots are located on the motherboard. The expansion cards are inserted in the expansion slots. These cards give the computer new features or increased performance. There are several types of slots:
· ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) slot—To connect modem and input devices.
· PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot—To connect audio, video and graphics. They are much faster than ISA cards.
· AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port) slot—A fast port for a graphics card.
· (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express slot—Faster bus architecture than AGP and PCI buses.
· PC Card—It is used in laptop computers. It includes Wi-Fi card, network card and external modem.
Memory Chips
The RAM consists of chips on a small circuit board. Two types of memory chips— Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM) and Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM) are used in desktop computers. The CPU can retrieve information from DIMM chip at 64 bits compared to 32 bits or 16 bits transfer with SIMM chips. DIMM chips are used in Pentium 4 onwards to increase the access speed.
Processor
The processor or the CPU is the main component of the computer. Select a processor based on factors like its speed, performance, reliability and motherboard support. Pentium Pro, Pentium 2 and Pentium 4 are some of the processors.
Storage Devices
The disk drives are present inside the machine. The common disk drives in a machine are hard disk drive, floppy drive and CD drive or DVD drive. High-storage devices like hard disk, floppy disk and CDs are inserted into the hard disk drive, floppy drive and CD drive, respectively. These storage devices can store large amounts of data, permanently.
