Yeah, of course you do. It would be a discredit to your intelligence if I attempted to give you information on such a basic level. So instead of trying to actually do the assignment directly out of some musty tome, (IE. the CSIS 110 Handbook that I don't even have access to at my house.) I will try to give you some real world computing insight as a 15+ year hobbyist. Hopefully this information will act as an additional way to understand more specifically how modern computer hardware is installed and interacts with one another.
I will be the first one to admit computers are not an easy thing to get into. As with most technical fields there is a lot of jargon that intimidates people at first, so instead I will supplement and associate these terms with pictures that can clearly identify the microprocessor and memory modules in a modern system, and how they are installed onto the main board, or motherboard of a computer system. I will also
For time, and space constants I won't be giving a step by step guide on HOW to build a computer system, this simply will give a visual aid to understand a bit more about a system that is similar to what you are working on right now.
Overview of the Mainboard
Think of the mainboard as the place where all the rest of your computer hardware is plugged into. It has places where the power is plugged into, where the CPU is seated, and also where the ram, and graphics card can be slotted.
Motherboards come in different Form Factors. This represents a standard size that has been around since the mid 1980's that hasn't changed much since. These sizes represent how the mainboard will fit inside the computer chassis
The most common form factor is ATX. I could cloud your eyes over with specifics, but just understand that this form factor is usually the most robust form in terms of features, for the consumer market. These features include things like how many hardware ports hard disk drives and CD/DVD/BD-ROM's have access to, as well as other things like how many expansion slots, and DIMM(Memory Slots.) are available. It is also the largest form factor I am going to list, however there are larger form factors that can accommodate the needs of server, and professional workstation systems.
The second Form Factor is called mATX. This is a board that has been cut down in features, and is smaller not just to save space, but to ease power consumption as well; they also tend to be a lot cheaper than their larger ATX counterparts, as well as be made with lower quality components.
However, it should be pointed out that while there are enthusiast versions of this form factor, they are considered the exception, rather than the norm. It is important to note that even though these types of boards are smaller they can still be fitted into any type of standard full or midtower case.
I bought this as a cheap platform for computer gaming. I upgraded to a newer, faster platform recently, and these are the parts that are left over.
I will take you through the process removing all these parts to show you where they were installed at, and give a look at an actual CPU processor die, that has been removed from the system.
There are two plastic tabs on the sides of the DIMM slot that will "latch" on to the RAM module as it is getting pushed into the slot.
You will know you are doing it wrong if the plastic tabs don't perform this action correctly. It does NOT take any pressure to do this, so don't force it.
Removing RAM is as simply as taking these tabs on the side and unhooking them from the module. Once both tabs are released it should fall right into your hands with no effort to force it out of the slot.
Overview of the CPU
The CPU or central processing unit, as it's name implies does all the "thinking" of the computer and it's systems.
CPU, are categorized in technical terms by what is called Socket Types. These socket types determine what platform and features the CPU has, as well as the features of the mainboard it is socketed into. When buying parts for a new computer, you first have to know what the socket is of the platform you are buying, so the first place to look is what the socket type of the CPU is.
The socket type of the shown mainboard is socket LGA 775. This is a socket type for the Intel Core 2 line of processors. To get to the CPU socket, we first have to remove the skyscraper of what is known as my heatsink from the processor die.
Intel made it difficult to install heatsinks. They decided it would be prudent to have little plastic pins in place of a locking mounting bracket. Don't even get me started on how hard it was to install this. In simple terms, you have push down on the heat sink, and put the pins though these mounting holes near the CPU socket. They will "click" and lock into place. Then you take the flat black part on the top and turn them each a quarter turn with a flat head screwdriver.
(I make this sound way easier than it actually is. Trust me.)
Removing the heatsink however, is a much easier task. Simply take the aforementioned screwdriver and turn them each back a turn. The pins pop back out of place allowing you procure the heatsink unit from the mainboard.
Now that the heatsink is removed, you can actually see the contact point of where heat is dissipated from the CPU into the heatsink, by the flat copper contact point on the back of it. Copper is widely used since it is a excellent heat conductor, as evidenced by the six copper "Heatpipes" of my CPU cooler. This is a contact point where the copper touches the flat part of the cpu, or "die" with a bit of pressure with the addition of what is called thermal paste. This flat part makes it so heat can transfer up into the "fins" of the heatsink and be blown away by the outtake fan. The thermal paste is used to fill up the microscopic cracks in the metal to make a uniform contact point.
Before the socket is revealed the CPU has to be removed from the mainboard as well. The metal you see around the CPU is used to lock the CPU in place, and it uses a bit of pressure to do so. The little metal arm has to be pushed down and up away from the locking tab and this allows the CPU bracket housing to be flipped up and the CPU removed from the socket.
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| The grey goop is thermal grease. The particular brand I used is called Artic Silver 5, it has trace amounts of silver that gets into grooves of the metal and makes a uniform contact point between the bottom of the heatsink, and the CPU die. Pure silver, is one of best conductors of heat. (The flat part on top of the CPU! :D) |
With the CPU removed from the CPU socket you can see that there are a lot of pins sitting inside of it. These are points of contact for the CPU die to relay information to the rest of the system.
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| Yes... Crappy pic. |
This helps you line up the CPU with the socket pins so there isn't any misalignment. This can result in irreversible damage to the socket pins, in the form of bending or even the breaking of pins from the socket itself. So it's is always prudent to be mindful where the tabs line together at.
(It is important to note that the pins shown in this picture USED to be on the CPU die itself just a few years ago. It is actually a good thing they changed this, as it is cheaper to replace a mainboard than a processor, both for the manufacturer and the consumer.)
Here is a picture of the underside of the CPU, the gold dots are the contact points that allow it to communicate with the mainboard using the socket pins.
The square things are the internal memory cache of the CPU itself. This includes the L1, L2, and L3 cache.
Overview of the Video Card/Graphics Processing Unit(GPU)
If you plan to game, having a decent video card, or GPU is a must to maintain high frame rates with all the graphic options turned up. Video cards, for the most part have transitioned from displaying colors on a 2D screen, to rendering 3D images.
Modern GPU's are actually a powerful form of parallel processing. In simple terms, parallel processing represents a processing unit that computes a very linear set of instructions. In this case, video cards are simply computing what is known as frame data using calls from the CPU to what is called the display driver.
The card shown above is a card from around 2008 called the Geforce 275 GTX. Often shopping for video cards is confusing because the model numbers for these cards might not be a higher number from their predecessors. For example, the model line before this series of cards was called the Geforce 8000 series, with notable entries being the Geforce 8600, 8800 GT and the 8800 GTX being rated in power lowest to highest.
Nvidia, and ATI/AMD are the only companies that actually create the reference designs for video cards, for their vendors that resell them to the consumer. Vendors include, ASUS, PNY, EVGA, PALIT, and ZOTAC among others.
As you can see, modern GPU's tend to become larger as opposed to smaller in a attempt to squeeze as many transistors on a wafer of silicon as possible. This is ironically a foil to the the rest of the industry in their attempts to make things smaller. After all, these cards are essentially workstation grade video cards, with instruction sets streamlined for the OpenGL and Direct X protocols, and labeled for the consumer market.
Modern video cards rest is what is known as the PCI-E x16 interface. I can tell you specifics if you want, but really just think of it as a long expansion slot for a graphics card to sit in. In systems it is usually longer than the shorter PCI and PCI-E x1 slots buy some degree.
Sometimes in high end systems, mainboards will have two or even MORE of these slots together, to run multiple video cards in tandem.
PCI-E replaced the older AGP interface, which was effectively phased out around 2005-2006 when card manufacturers stopped supporting the AGP 3.0 interface.
Removing a video card is easy, usually your power supply will have two PCI-E power connectors on the side of the video card.
Take the tab on the connector itself and remove them from the two PCI-E power connectors on the video card. (Not shown in example.)
Then you move a latch on the bottom of the PCI-E x16 expansion slot, and remove the video card.
I give you credit for actually reading this far, maybe if you want some more information I can update this blog for storage devices.
See you next time! ^~^
