CPU & Case Components

Question 1

CPU

Answer 1

Central Processing Unit: this chip controls the process- es of all other chips and cir- cuits on a computer mother- board.

Question 2

Drive Bay

Answer 2

A space within the computer case where a hard drive, disk drive, or some other type of drive can be installed. Internal drives mean less clut- ter on your desktop, and fewer power cords to plug in.

Question 3

Expansion slot

Answer 3

Empty dock- ing space which can be filled with an additional card in order to upgrade or customize your computer.

Question 4

MHz, Megahertz, GHz, Giga- hertz:

Answer 4

The speed of a micro- processor, measured in mil- lions of cycles per second. In the past, processor speed was a fairly reliable tool for compar- ing one computer to another, but it is not considered as use- ful today. Instead, look for benchmarks (laboratory test results) which compare how quickly different computers function with the software you plan to use.

Question 5

Multi-Core Processor

Answer 5

A type of CPU with four processors on one chip. Some applications (like Photoshop) take advan- tage of multiple processors and complete tasks in a fourth of the time. Other applications ignore the multiple processors and run at normal speed.

Question 6

Optical Drive

Answer 6

This type of drive reads (and sometimes, writes to) reflective media such as a CD, CD-R, DVD, DVD-R, etc