CSC103 How Computers Work
Assignment 3

Due Thursday 1 Oct 09 (by midnight)


Last Update:

Please read Assignment and Quiz Rules, updated 27Sep09.

Take Moodle Quiz3 by midnight Thursday 1 Oct 09.

Some of the questions below you can answer while you are dismantling the PC, and for some you will need to do some online research later to answer. So take good notes during the lab!

  1. Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of the PC you dismantled in class?

  2. Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of the CPU?

  3. What is the CPU speed (in MHz or GHz)?

  4. Explain what is the meaning of Hz in terms of the CPU speed. What does it abbreviate? What does it mean for a CPU?

  5. Are the RAM chip modules you find connected into the motherboard DIMMs or SIMMs? How can you tell the difference?

  6. See if you can figure out the total amount of RAM (in MB or GB) for the PC.

  7. Is there a separate video card containing a GPU in the PC, or is the graphics/video "integrated" into the motherboard?

  8. What does GPU abbreviate?

  9. Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of the disk drive?

  10. See if you can determine the number of platters stacked in the disk drive.

  11. See if you can figure out the capacity (in MB or GB) of the disk drive.

  12. At what voltage does the power supply operate?

  13. What is the voltage of the batteries you found (if you did) in the PC?

  14. Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of the CD/DVD drive?

  15. CD-ROM drives are rated with a speed factor relative to music CDs, which are indicated as 1x. Try to determine at what speed factor the drive you found operates.

  16. Name and describe at least one fact you learned during the disassembly process that was new to you!