you may already know that there are a
lot of important parts inside a desktop
computer but what exactly do they do in
this video we're going to take a look
inside to show you the various
components that make a computer work
every computer has a large circuit board
called a motherboard this contains some
of the most important parts of your
computer such as the CPU also called the
central processing unit or processor the
CPU is sometimes called the brain of the
computer because it processes
information and carries out commands
since it tends to get hot it's covered
by a piece of metal called a heatsink
which draws heat away from the processor
the motherboard also contains your
computer's RAM or random access memory
this is the short-term memory that your
computer uses whenever it's performing
calculations however you can't store
your files there because the RAM is
cleared when you turn off the computer
for long term storage your computer uses
a hard drive which keeps all of its data
even when the computer is turned off
most hard drives use a magnetic platter
to store data but many newer computers
have solid-state drives which are faster
and more durable but also more expensive
if you want to upgrade your computer you
can add expansion cards to the
motherboards expansion slots you can add
a video card to get better graphics
performance or you could add a wireless
card to connect to your wireless home
network
of course your computer's components
need electricity to run the power supply
unit is designed to take the power from
the wall outlet and send it to all the
different components that need power a
desktop computer is a pretty complex
machine but now that you've seen what
goes on inside it should be a little
less mysterious
you