What is a Computer System?

This article will go over a few the basics of what a computer system is. A computer system is a group of hardware pieces that create a fully functional computer. A computer system is a combination of components that work together to receive and send information to and from various devices.

Let us now list the basic components of a computer system.

Part 1 - The Tower

The computer tower, this is also known as the box, is a metal box that houses many components that work together to create our computer tower. These components are the following.
1. The Case
2. Power Supply
3. Mother board or Main board
4. CPU/Processor
5. Memory
6. Hard Drive
7. Video Card - (Can be built-in or separate)
8. Sound Card - (Can be built-in or separate)
9. Network and or Wireless Card- (Can be built-in or separate)
10. DVD-Drive

These basic 10 components make up most of the computer towers built today. They can come in various sizes and levels of power but pretty much all computer towers have these basic 10 components. Not all these components are required to make the computer work. But if you want full function and capability of your computer system they are all good idea. I have not included the operating system or Windows in the list of the basic 10 components; this is because software is not required for computer to work. Granted you can't do much without it, but it still does function without software.

Part 2 - The Monitor

The monitor displays input and output information it process through the computers CPU. This display comes in various sizes qualities of picture. The quality of the picture is a combination of the quality of the screen and the capabilities of the video card. This is a necessary component for if we can't see what we are doing, then what good is a computer.

Part 3 - Input Devices

Input devices are critical for us to interact with our computer. Without being able to input information into the computer we cannot tell at what we wanted to do. The most important input devices are the keyboard and the mouse. The keyboard and mouse allow us to type in information as well is to point click to activate or choose functions of a program. Without these two devices computer be pretty much worthless. Other input devices include microphones, cameras, scanners, and any other device that gathers information to be processed by the computer.

Part 4 - Printers and Scanners

Printers and scanners are a crucial part of our computer systems today as well. Most of our printers built today we call all-in-one units. We used to have to buy separate components to print or input information into our computer. Today for about $100 you can buy a printer/scanner/copier that is all built in one unit. This device allows you to print out information, pictures, documents as well as scan in information, pictures and documents to the computer for saving or further processing.

Part 5- Software

Software is what helps our computer interaction between the world and us the user. Most computers today require an Operating System or, OS, as the main program that controls the flow of information and hardware processes. The number one operating system is made by Microsoft and is called Microsoft Windows; there are many versions of the software. The second most common is Apples OS X, this operating system is used in all Apple computer products. There are many other operating systems that are trying to emerge in the market but none of dominated as much Microsoft. There are hundreds of thousands of other software programs that allow us to use our computer for various things. There's graphics software, gaming software, Internet browsers that allow us to browse the Internet and many many other programs, almost too many to count. Software is an integral part of our computer system and without it our computer would just sit there and stare us.

Part 6 - User

The six the final part of our computer system is us, the user. Without a user to control the computer and to use the software and input information with the mouse the keyboard our computer system would not work.

There are many different definitions of what makes up a computer system, but these basic six components are the most common and in my opinion. They all work together to make your computer experience a fun and productive one.