1.4 Summary
In the beginning of this chapter, you were introduced to the contents of a computer and the safety guidelines that can prevent electrical fires and injuries while working inside a computer. You also learned about ESD and how it can damage the computer equipment if not discharged properly.
Next, you learned about all the components that make up a PC starting with the case that houses all of the internal components. You learned about the various form factors of case and power supplies and how they have evolved over time. Next, the various types of connectors that are used to power various internal components such as the motherboard and storage drives, such as Serial AT Attachment (SATA), Molex, and PCIe were discussed as were the voltages provided by the connectors.
You also learned about motherboards, which is the backbone of the computer that contains buses, or electrical pathways, that connect electronic components. These components include the CPU, RAM, expansion slots, chipset, the BIOS and the UEFI chips.
Different types of storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives were also discussed along with the different versions of PATA and SATA interfaces that connect them to the motherboard.
The commonly used tools were explained, and the computer disassembly process was demonstrated. At the end of the chapter, you disassembled a computer as part of a hands-on lab.