What are "computer components"?

[Kozouki]

Hello guys, so I'm doing a research for my class and it is about computer components and I'm confused if it is the parts eg. motherboard, ram, cpu, gpu or if it's the "ouput unit, input unit and storage unit". I tried googling it but I get mixed answers so I'm not sure what is the right one. Thank you to whoever can help me :))

[fuzz0r]

Components, as I understand it, is the CPU, MOBO PSU etc.

[LukePiewalk3r]

Components are parts

[minibois]

"component" is a synonym for "part", as in part of a whole.

Anything you use to construct a "computer" is a part of said computer, thus a computer component.

 

This includes parts such as a CPU, videocard, case, storage devices (HDD, SSD, etc.), Etc. Etc.

"Computer component" can also be an item not everyone uses in their PC, such as fan/RGB controllers and those types of optional components.

 

Reason I put computer in quotes above, is because some people may not think of a desktop PC as consisting of parts, but think of a computer in a whole sense.

These are generally the people who don't know too much about PC's, or those that won't have the time to work with individual parts of the PC .

 

Someone like this might not say "my video card is broken, let's replace that", but would rather replace the entire desktop. This is because in their mind, a computer is a full singular device and doesn't hold value as individual parts.

People like this, might classify a whole setup (including the desktop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.) As a computer and their concept of a computer component/part would then be different as to what you or I think off when saying computer component.

 

So in short, a component is a piece of one whole, it just depends on how far you want to specify something as a part.