When it comes to adding stuff to your PC, what are the most popular peripherals? Here's a list of hardware you can add to or upgrade on your system:
Video card To display higher-resolution pictures and graphics, provide smoother playback with visually demanding PC games, or power a second monitor for some high-end programming or development activities.
Monitor To upgrade to a larger viewing area or a space-saving flat-screen monitor.
Sound card To improve the audio capabilities of your systems; this is particularly important if you're listening to CDs or MP3 files, watching surround-sound DVD movies, playing PC games, or mixing and recording your own digital audio.
Speakers To upgrade the quality of your computer's sound system. (Speaker systems with subwoofers are particularly popular.)
Keyboard To upgrade to a more ergonomic or wireless model.
Mouse To upgrade to a different type of controller (such as a trackball), a more fully featured unit, or a wireless model.
Joystick or other game controller To get better action with your favorite games.
Modem In case your PC doesn't have one, or if you're upgrading to broadband DSL or cable service.
CD-ROM drive In case your computer doesn't have one.
CD-R/RW drive (burner) To add recordable/rewritable capabilities to your system.
DVD To add DVD capability to your system.
DVD-R/RW (burner) To let you burn your own DVD movies or to back up entire hard disks.
Hard drive To add more storage capacity to your system. (Can be either external or internal.)
Removable drive To add more removable storage capacity to your system. (The most popular removable drives today are the so-called "USB drives," which pack a tremendous amount of storage into a keychain-sized device, using flash memory. These devices plug in to your PC's USB port.)
Memory card reader So you can read data from devices (such as digital cameras) that use various types of flash memory cards.
Printer To improve the quality of your printouts, to add color to your printouts, or to add photo-quality printing to your system.
Scanner So that you can scan photographs and documents into a digital format to store on your computer's hard drive.
PC camera So that you can send real-time video to friends and family or create your own Webcam on the Internet.
Network card So that you can connect your computer to other computers in a small home network.
Wireless network adapter So that you can connect your computer to a wireless network.
Digital media server To connect your PC to your home audio system so that you can listen to digital audio files and Internet radio on your home system.
