# Hardware

> How the machine is actually built and talks to itself - from the chip to the device on your desk.

7 guides.

- [How a Computer Actually Works - The Parts, Explained Plainly](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/how-a-computer-works) _(beginner)_ - What the handful of parts inside a computer actually are, how they work together to run a program, and why that explains everything from 'my laptop is slow' to which specs to care about when you buy one.
- [CPU, RAM & Storage, Explained](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/cpu-ram-and-storage) _(beginner)_ - The three components that decide whether a computer feels fast - the CPU, the RAM, and the storage - each properly explained, plus the one idea (the memory hierarchy) that ties them together.
- [Storage Deep-Dive: HDD vs SSD vs NVMe](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/storage-hdd-ssd-nvme) _(intermediate)_ - How data is physically stored on HDDs, SSDs, and NVMe drives - why a spinning disk is slow at random access, why flash makes an old machine feel new, and why the cable an SSD plugs into can quietly cap its speed.
- [How Data Moves Inside a Machine](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/how-data-moves-inside-a-machine) _(intermediate)_ - The roads and traffic signals inside your computer: what a bus is, how the CPU reads and writes RAM by address, how it reaches out to devices, and how interrupts let a device get the CPU's attention the instant something happens.
- [How Devices Connect (USB, PCIe, GPUs & Peripherals)](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/how-devices-connect) _(intermediate)_ - How the outside world and expansion cards plug into a computer: the USB host/device model, the PCIe highway inside the case, and how GPUs and everyday peripherals present themselves to the system.
- [Inside a Server & Data-Center Hardware](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/inside-a-server-and-data-center) _(advanced)_ - What a server actually is as a physical machine, why it's built differently from your laptop, how it's made not to stop, and what 'the cloud' is really made of - rooms full of these machines.
- [Why Your Computer Is Slow](https://themissingmanual.dev/guides/why-your-computer-is-slow) _(beginner)_ - What to actually upgrade (RAM versus SSD versus CPU) instead of guessing, by learning to read which part is the real bottleneck.