hardware

Computer hardware (usually simply called hardware when a computing context is implicit) is the collection of physical elements that constitutes a computer system. Computer hardware is the physical parts or components of a computer, such as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard disk drive (HDD), system unit (graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard and chips), and so on, all of which are physical objects that can be touched (that is, they are tangible). In contrast, software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Software is any set of machine-readable instructions that directs a computer’s processor to perform specific operations. A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system.