Customer: What can I do with a computer?

Salesman: Well, you can use computers to do lots of great things like surf the internet, play games, send e-mail and much more!

Customer: That sounds wonderful, but I want help figuring out which one to get.

Salesman: Ok, first I will go over the four basic things a computer does.

Salesman: They are able to take input, give output, process information and store files with information including documents and pictures.

Customer: Wow, can you tell me more?

Salesman: Sure! Input comes from devices that let you enter data. You use a keyboard to type into your computer and click on a mouse to select websites, folders and other places you want to visit using your computer.

Salesman: The output from your computer sends your data to a device like a monitor, projector, speakers or printer.

Customer: Wow this sounds really interesting! Tell me more, please.

Salesman: Now I am going to talk about processors.

Salesman: The processor consists of the CPU, motherboard, sound card, video card, RAM and ROM.

Customer: Do you mean they fit a mother inside of a computer?

Salesman: No, a motherboard holds all of the parts of the computer together.

Customer: That makes sense, because a mother holds the family together!

Salesman: Simply stated, the CPU is the brain of the computer. The sound card is the computer's voice and the video card shows what the computer sees. RAM is temporary storage for data. More RAM allows the computer to do more tasks at the same time. ROM is data that is saved even when the computer is turned off.