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Figure 2-1 shows a typical personal computer system. It may not match what you have, because I’m trying to label the pieces and not stalk you.

Figure 2-1: A typical computer system.

Here are the important items to note in a typical computer system:

Console: The main computer box, and centerpiece of the computer system, is the console. It is not the CPU, though plenty of dorks out there refer to it as such. The console contains the computer’s electronic guts. It’s also home to various buttons, lights, and holes into which you plug the rest of the computer system.

Monitor: The monitor is the device where the computer displays information – its output. On an all-in-one PC, the monitor and console are the same thing. Otherwise, don’t assume that the “computer” is inside the monitor. The monitor merely displays stuff.

Keyboard: The keyboard is the thing you type on and is the primary way you communicate with the computer.

Mouse: No rodent or pest, the computer mouse is a helpful device that lets you work with graphical objects displayed on the monitor.

Speakers: PCs bleep and squawk through a set of stereo speakers, which can be external jobbies you set up (refer to Figure 2-1), speakers built into the console or monitor, or headphones. Pay more money and you can even get a subwoofer to sit under your desk. Now, that will rattle the neighbor’s windows.

External hard drive: You may or may not have one (yet), but an external hard drive is used to back up, or create a safety copy of, the important stuff you store on your computer.

Printer: The printer is where you get the computer’s printed output, also called hard copy.

You may find, in addition to these basic items, other gizmos clustered around your computer, such as a scanner, a second monitor, a high-speed modem, or one of many, many other toys – er, vital computer peripherals.

One thing definitely not shown in Figure 2-1 is the ganglion of cable that dwells behind each and every computer. What a mess! These cables are required when you want to plug things into the wall and into each other. No shampoo or conditioner on Earth can clean up those tangles.

✔ Take a moment to identify the basic PC pieces in your own computer system.

✔ The printer can be attached directly to the console, or it might be available through the computer network.

✔ Chapters in Part II go into more detail on the computer components introduced and illustrated earlier, in Figure 2-1.

✔ CPU stands for central processing unit. It’s another term for the computer’s processor. See Chapter 5.