SYS 140 Week 2 Journal - ryanm292002/Ryans-Repository GitHub Wiki

Chapter 3 of: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/complete-a-guide/9780135291542/ch03.xhtml

In every computer the main component that everything revolves around is the motherboard. The motherboard contains all the slots for wires, RAM, the processor and other expansion spots. Another component every computer has is the processor which is considered a motherboard chip. The processor or central processing unit (CPU) is the component that does anything from perform calculations, to executing instructions and also coordinating input and output operations. In simple words its the component that processes data. When a CPU is running its important that something is keeping it cool, without something keeping it cool the processor will just use all of its energy up and overheat. To prevent an overheated processor you can use a couple different methods. A heat sink is almost always found on top of a processor its basically big metal block with a fan, before you apply the heat sink you stick thermal paste on top of the processor, the thermal paste helps the heat sink keep the CPU cool. Another component that can largely affect a computer is the GPU or the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Sometimes a GPU can be integrated inside of a CPU, this is often the case with many AMD and Intel processors, which are the most dominant brands in processors for PCs. Without a GPU the CPU takes a much longer time to process the data but if you have a separate processing unit dedicated to specifically processing video/graphical information it takes a big weight off the shoulders of the CPU.