Getting to Know Your Personal Computer System

We'll start by looking at the physical components of your system the stuff we call computer hardware. As you can see in Figure 1.1, there are a lot of different pieces and parts that make up a typical computer system. You should note, however, that no two computer systems are identical because you can always add new components to your system or disconnect other pieces you don't need.

Figure 1.1. A typical personal computer system.

These items are the basic elements you'll find in almost all computer systems. Of course, you can add lots of other items to your personal system, including printers (to make printouts of documents and pictures), scanners (to change a hardcopy document or picture to electronic format), PC cameras (to send live video of yourself to friends and family), digital cameras (to transfer your snapshots to electronic format), and joysticks (to play the most challenging PC games). You can even add the appropriate items to connect multiple PCs together in a network.