What is the difference between peripheral hardware and system hardware?
Peripheral hardware are the equipment components that are not essential to the basic operation of the computer but that may be necessary to perform certain applications. Peripheral hardware includes printers, scanners, and modems. System hardware, which was described in Technology Fact Sheet Number 3, is the basic equipment — or components — needed to make the computer operate. This includes the computer itself, also called the central processing unit or CPU; the monitor or display terminal; the storage media or disks; and the input device, usually a keyboard or mouse. What should I look for in a printer? The printer is probably the single most important peripheral device because it so integral to the operation of the computer. Printers will be covered in more depth in a future Technology Fact Sheet so this will be just a brief introduction. The chief considerations in buying printers are: quality, speed, noise, and adaptability. Quality or resolution is measured as dots per inch (DP
