1. Pick three and explain their function and role in a modern computer. Explain using examples from your work of the semester:

Motherboard

operating system

floppy drive

Random Access Memory

Networking

optical drive

Hard Drive

The hard drive stores data. It comes with either sata or IDE inputs. Sata runs at 3 Gb/s while IDE is something like 500 Mb/s. Usually Hard drives these days come in sizes larger than 60 Gigabytes. 1 gigabyte is 1000 megabytes. The typical music file is about 3 MB. Inside the Hard Drive are platters, which contain the data. They are usually 4 inches in diameter. Hard Drives can also store the Operating system which controls the motherboard and all other components of the computer.

flash memory

monitor

Power supply

The power supply supplies power to the motherboard and all the peripherals in the case. It usually has a 20 pin connector that connects top the motherboard and usually 6 or more molex connectors(4 pin connectors that power Cd drives, Hard Drives, and floppy drives. They can also be used to power fans.) Power supplies usually have a fan in order to move heat away from the components.

Case

Cooling

Cooling in a computer usually consists of fans. Usually, when something is hot,

it tends to not work to its full capacity. This holds true with computers. Cooling in a compouter usually consists of an intake fan and an output fan. On higher end systems there is water cooling. Water cooling is basically running cool fluid over the compnents, but it can get costly, because you have to get specialized heatsinks so that the fluid can go through them.

mouse

keyboard

sound card/sound system

2. Discuss working within the class group to solve problems and gather information about your projects. How could you use this experience or recreate it to do work in the future?

Working in the group was helpful and harmful at the same time. It was helpful because a lot of people knew what they were talking about, and those people often had good information to contribute to the group. However, there were some that had no idea what they were talking about anmd tried to BS the information, often misleading fellow classmates. The good did outweigh the bad, but in order to have a successful group, every member must work hard. I would use this experience again only if I had a good group to work with, otherwise it would be kind of difficult to get correct information.

3. Describe the most significant challenge you overcame while working on computers this semester. What did you do to overcome the challenge?

One of the most significant things that I overcame was actually diagnosing the iMac ubuntu problem. I was able to figure out that the hard drive that I was trying to install to was not being formatted correctly. Once I had access to another mac to properly format it, it was a breeze to install. Another big challenge was figuring out how to make The Professional work. It was often just piecing it together and trying to make correct holes. Right now, that is running, but the powersupply isn't permanently mounted as of yet. Yet another big challenge was overcoming the lack of operating system when working with our first PC. I was able to fix that by installing SLAX, a distrobution of Linux. However, while installing a fan, I touched 2 wires together by accident and fried the computer.

4. What was the most important thing you learned from this class? Explain.

Not to touch 2 wires together. I would have liked to spend more time with that PC, but after that I was able to move on to a better mac project. I also learned a lot about Mac towers by working with the G4 and the G3. I was also able to practice some fabrication here in class when working on The Professional, and was also able to work on some electronic circuits. Also using my knowledge, I was able to effectively help on the speaker project and provide advice as well as critiscism(lots).

5. What do you wish you learned from this class?

I kinda wish I did more custom projects. I would have liked to build a gaming computer in class, with decent components. I would ahve liked to take one of those pentium 4's and get a new mobo with a decent video card. I would have also liked to work on a simple case mod, like painting one of the taller cases and adding something cooler to it. Other than that, I learned a lot with the class and was able to expand on previous knowledge.