The System Unit

The System Unit

The system unit houses the main internal electronic components of the system or device. These devices include (but are not an exhaustive list) the motherboard, processor, memory and adapter slots, which, in turn, hold the processor chip, memory modules, and adapter cards, internal drive bays, the hard drive and the power supply.

The system unit houses the main external components of the system unit. These devices include bays, slots, and ports.

The type of computer user will impact which type of system unit will support the user’s requirements. User type would be classified home user, small business/home business user, mobile user, power user and enterprise user.

Input, Output, and Storage

The devices that are employed for entering data into the computer and the methods by which the information is presented to the user or stored for future use provide us with a list of peripherals that help to complete the system unit. Typical peripheral devices for input include a keyboard, mouse, scanner, digital,web or video camera, and microphone. Typical peripheral devices for output include the monitor, printer or plotter, and speakers. Peripherals that provide a means of storing information for future use include the internal hard drive, read/write disks (CD, DVD, Blu-ray), thumb drives, external hard drives, and cloud storage.

Network Components

To round out the picture of your computer system and all its components, we took a quick look at home networks – the required hardware, media for sending signals between computers, and some very basic home computer network setups.

The complex electronic components required for operating and controlling the PC system, running programs, processing and storing data, and outputting information are located inside the system unit. Regardless of whether the system unit is in a desktop or mobile PC system, it will contain some of the same key internal components. This list outlines some of these...