Computer Cabinet

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

It is the most important part of the computer. It has various chips, connectors, and circuits set up on it. RAM, HDD, hub, essential ports, optical devices, etc. are plugged into the motherboard. The motherboard has a microprocessor also placed on it. Advanced Technology Extended (ATX) is the most common design of motherboard for desktop computers. There are different chipset and type of microprocessor sockets used in a motherboard. The chipset controls the majority of resources counting bus interference with the processor, cache memory, and RAM. The processor socket is a rectangular connector into which the processor is mounted vertically or maybe square in which it fits directly.

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Fig: Motherboard

• BIOS

BIOS stands for the Basic Input Output System. ROM stores it and we cannot rewrite it. BIOS contains the instructions for starting up the computer system. It manages the data flow between the computer’s Operating System and other input and output devices. BIOS also performs a self-power on a test that checks the proper functioning of hardware devices. It also requests the bootstrap loader to load the operating system inside the memory.

• CMOS

CMOS stands for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. It is a memory chip that follows with the BIOS. When the computer is turned off, and then turned on again, it can display the documents again. This is because the CMOS chips save the system information in the correct clock time. It also works after the shutting down of the computer.

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Fig: CMOS Battery

• Expansion slots

The motherboard has many slots attached to it. They hold the cards for the proper functioning of the computer. These are expansion slots. It can be a network card, sound card, and so on. There are several types of slots. ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) which connects input devices, PCI (peripheral Component InterConnect) which connects sound cards and video cards, PC card that are used in the laptop computers and include WI-FI card also.

• Ribbon Cables

These are cables on the components of the motherboard. These cables contain many connecting wires inside. These move information as required. It also connects floppies, HDDs, CD-ROM, etc.

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Fig: Ribbon Cables

• RAM

Random Access Memory is a chip on a small board on the motherboard. Desktop Computers use both types of memory. They are (SIMM) Single In-line Memory Module and (DIMM) Dual In-line Memory Module. These are the capacities of RAM to increase the operation speed of the computer.

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Fig: RAM

• Storage Devices

They are present near the motherboard inside the cabinet. Mostly used storage devices are CD, DVD drive, Hard Disk drive, floppy drives, etc. They can store huge data.