A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
STORAGE DEVICES
 FLOPPY DRIVE
• A Floppy Drive is a magnetic storage device that
is used to read and store data using Floppy
disks.

• A Floppy Disk is data storage medium that is

made up of a thin magnetic disk enclosed in
plastic.

2
 FLOPPY DRIVE
• In this disk is where data is stored to and it
enables the information to be transferred from
one computer to another.
• The Floppy Disks and Drive are slowly dying out
because of their small storage capacities and
have almost become obsolete because of the
invention of networking and larger storage
mediums such as CD/DVD ROMS.

3
 HARD DRIVE
• Hard disk drive is secondary memory storage
that permanent storage.
• Hard disk drive is a sealed case that contain
disks where the actual data is stored on.
• These disks rotate at high speeds
• The actuator arm will either write data to the disk
or read data from the disk.
• Hard disks are non-volatile

4
HARD DRIVE TYPES

5
 PATA
• Parallel ATE (also known as EIDE)
• Its older standard hard drive that uses a 40 pin ribbon as
its connector.
• The cable has a connector at each end and one in the
middle which enable it to support two devices such as two
hard drive, two CD ROM drives or a combination of one of
each.
• The hard drive connected to the end of the cable will be
considered as the master drive an d the one attached to
the middle connector will be considered the slave drive.
• All the motherboards have two PATA connection interfaces
so they can support upto a total of four drives.
• The latest standard of these drives is called the ATA 1333

6
 Serial ATA (SATA)
• Another type of Hard drive is called Serial ATA.
• SATA is the newer standard and is faster than PATA.
• Instead of data travelling in a parallel path the data travels
in a serial path which means that the data travels 1bit
at time.
• SATA drive have fast transfer
speed up to 6 Gb/s which
considerable faster.
• Also the cables are smaller
making cable management
a lot easier.

7
 SOLID STATE DRIVE(SSD)
• This is the latest standard of hard drives.
• They have no moving parts
• Use memory chips to store data
• Data transfer is very fast

8
 CD-ROM DRIVE
• Is the standard component in computers today.
• It’s a device that reads data from a CD-ROM which is a
disk that store permanent data.
• CD-ROM stands for compact disk read only memory,
which means the data can only be read and can not be
changed or written to.

9
 CD-RW DRIVE
• It’s a device that reads data from a CD-ROM which is a
disk that store permanent data.
• CD-W stands for compact disk rewritable, which means
the data can be changed or written to CD.
• There are two different kinds of CD that can be written to
• CD-R –CD Recordable which can only be written once.
• CD-RW – CD Rewritable which allows data to be written
multiple times.
• A can hold approximately 700mb of data.

10
 DVD-ROM DRIVE
• A DVD-ROM is a device that reads DVD disks.
• A DVD-ROM has largely replaced the CD-ROM drives
because of their large storage capacity.
• A DVD can store can store approximately 4.7 Gb of data.
• Like a CD-RW Drive there is also a DVD-RW Drives

11
 BLUE-RAY DRIVE
• This is the latest optical drive to date that was released in
2006.
• Blue-ray will eventually replay DVD format because of its
high capacity.
• Blue-ray can hold 25GB of data which is five times more
than a DVD.

12
 SECURE DIGITAL CARD (SD)
• Are popular types of flash cards
• This are primarily used in digital cameras for storing
photographs and videos.
• The photographs and videos can then be easily
transferred to a computer that has SD card reader.
• They come with various capacities as from 2GB to 64Gb

13
 THUMB DRIVE
• Another type of removable is what is known as the solid
state removable disk.
• This type of memory uses memory chips to store data.
• This includes THUMB Drives.
• Thumb Drive is a miniature device with a USB interface.
• This devices can store from 250MB to 128GB.
• Their size is small to fit on a key chain.
• They are fast and convenient way to store data on the go

14
 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
• An External Hard Drive is a hard drive that is enclosed in
a Case.
• It’s a portable hard drive that can be externally attached to
any computer typically using a USB or Firewire interface.
• External hard drives are primarily used to back up data
from a computer hard drive for safe keeping.

15
 EXTERNAL CD-R DRIVE
• Portable CD Burner that can be externally attached to a
computer for purpose of burning data to a CD.
• It attaches to a computer typically using a USB or firewire
interface.

16
A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
POWER SUPPLY
Overview Of Power Supply

18
 Overview
• A power supply is a device that supplies power to
the computer.
• It is small squired metal box with a bunch of
wires emerging from one end.
• It fits inside a computer case
• It is usually located at the top or the bottom at
the standard tower case.
• It converts AC current into the specific voltage
that the computer requires i.e 12v
• The most common Form Factor of a power
supply is the ATX.
19
 Power Supply Connectors

• The power supply is equipped with different

types of connectors
• One connector is the P1 connector.
• This is the main power connector which
connects directly into the motherboard
supplying it with power.
• The P1 connector has either 20 or 21 pins

20
 Power Supply Connectors

• Another type of connector is called the P4

connector.
• This is a four pin connector that also connects
into the motherboard
• Its purpose is to supply power to the CPU.
• This connector is used with modern
motherboards

21
 Power Supply Connectors

• Another type of connector is called the

MOLEX connector.
• The MOLEX connector is a four pin connector
• It is used to connect disk drives such as Hard
drives, CD and DVD- ROM disks.
• This connector is used with modern
motherboards

22
 Power Supply Connectors

• Another type of connector is called the Serial

ATA connector (SATA) connector.
• The SATA connector is a 15 pin connector
• It is used to connect disk drives that have a
Serial ATA (SATA) power points i.e plugs
• This connector is also used with modern
motherboards

23
 Power Supply Connectors

• Another type of connector is called the 4 PIN

BERG or Mini connector.
• The Mini connector is a 4 pin connector
• It is used to connect to supply power to the
floppy drive thus sometimes referred to as
Floppy drive connector.
• This connector is not used with modern
motherboards

24
 Power Supply Connectors

• Finally there is a SIX PIN connector.

• It is used to connect to supply power to
certain PCI-E video Cards.

25
A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
MOTHERBOARD
FORM FACTOR
Overview of the Motherboard

27
 Overview

• The Motherboard is the main component of a

computer.
• It is basically a large circuit board where all
the computer components connect to such a
processor socket.
• A processor socket is where the CPU or the
Central Processing Unit is placed.

28
 Overview

• There is also the memory slots where the

PRIMARY memory modules known as RAM
are placed/inserted.
• And there is also the BUS slots which are
used to install various components that are
used to add more capabilities to a computer
such as a video card, sound card, network
card and so on.

29
 FORM FACTOR

• Motherboards comes in different forms and sizes.

• This is known as the Form Factor
• The most common Form Factor motherboard that
is used in PCs today is known as the ATX.
• ATX stands for Advanced Technology Extended.
• It was created in 1945 by intel.
• It is now the standard de facto form factor for PCs
today.
• ATX motherboard are 12 inches by 9.6 inches.

30
 FORM FACTOR

• Prior to the development of ATX was the AT

form factor.
• AT stands for Advanced Technology.
• AT was a form factor that was used in the
1980s that was developed by IBM.
• AT motherboard are 12 inches by 13.8 inches
in sizes.
• There are no longer in development since the
succession of ATX form factor.

31
 FORM FACTOR
• Another version of the ATX motherboard is the micro-
ATX.
• Micro ATX motherboards are smaller is size compared
to the ATX boards as its name suggests.
• Micro ATX boards are 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches.
• Therefore, Micro ATX are squared designed
compared to the rectangular standard ATX boards.
• There are cheaper and were designed to fit into
smaller computer cases.
• They also have fewer features and consume less
power than the standard ATX board

32
 FORM FACTOR
• Another version of the ATX motherboard is the BTX.
• BTX form factor was designed by Intel to make further
improvement to from the standard ATX board form factor.
i.e.
• Such an improved board design which creates a more
inline AIR flow which in turn improves cooling.
• Eg notice how the memory and bus slots are horizontally
aligned flowing with the direction of the air flow instead of
hipping compared to the ATX form factor.
• Another improvement is the structured design which is
flexible enough to work in both small cases and large tower
cases.
• BTX takes full advantage of the new input/output
technologies such as Serial ATA (SATA), USB 2.0 and PCI-
Express.
33
 FORM FACTOR
• Another form factor is the ITX motherboard.
• ITX are even smaller form factor than Micro ATX and
BTX.
• The ITX form factor came out in 2001, starting with a
Mini ITX
• Mini ITX was designed for the ever increasing
demand for smaller space saving computers.
• The ITX standards consumes less power and are
only cooled by the use of heat sinks (no fans)
• ITX was developed by VIA technologies.
• There are only four sizes that are forming the ITX
form factor.

34
 FORM FACTOR
• Nano ITX which came out in 2005.
• It was designed to be used in devices such as digital
video recorders.
• There is also Pico ITX which came out in 2007.
• In 2009 VIA Technologies introduced the smallest x86
CPU module specification in the industry with a
release of Mobile ITX.
• The Mobile ITX measure 6cm by 6cm and it was
designed to provide developers with a standardized
ultra-compact specification for building new
computers based products.

35
 FORM FACTOR
• Another form factor is the NLX.
• NLX was created by Intel and was designed for low-
end / low profile computers.
• Instead of extension cards that plugged
perpendicularly into the motherboard, the NLX board
used a riser card
• The Expansion Card can plug in parallel with the
motherboard.
• You will typically find
NLX boards in slim
-line computer cases.

36
A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
MOTHERBOARD
I/O INTERFACES
 OVERVIEW
• Motherboard comes with several input/output
interfaces.
• This interfaces are largely located on the rare
input/output panel of the motherboard.

38
 PS/2 CONNECTOR
• The PS/2 is a 6 pin-Multi-din connector.
• A motherboard will typically have two of these and are
usually located toward the top of the motherboard.
• One connector is for plugin in the mouse and the
other for the keyboard.
• Green PS/2: Used for Plugging the Mouse
• Purple PS/2: Used for Plugging the Keyboard
The PS/2 connectors are older technology and are
slowly being phased out in favor of the USB port.

39
 USB PORT
• The most common interface on a motherboard is the
USB port.
• USB stands for Universal Serial Bus.
• The motherboard will typically have several USB ports
because several peripherals that utilize the USB
interface. Keyboards, mice, external drives ,cameras
and even printers.
• In addition to connectivity a USB port also supplies
electric power to that specific peripheral.
• Some USB port are mounted on the rare of the
input/output panel and some are directed on the
surface of the motherboard.

40
 USB PORT VERSION
• The first USB interface was version USB 1.0 in 1996
with a transfer speed rate of 1.5Mb/s
• Another version was USB 1.1 in1998 with a transfer
speed rate of 12Mb/s.
• Version USB 2.0 which was released in 2001 with a
transfer speed rate of 480Mb/s.
• The latest version is USB 3.0 with a data transfer
speed rate of unto 5Gb/s

41
 SERIAL PORTS
• Another interface that can be found in older
motherboards is the serial port.
• The term serial refers to sending data 1 bit at a time.
• The serial port is rarely seen in the modern
motherboards.
• It was mainly used to connecting terminals and
modems.
• Now it has been widely replaced by the faster USB
interface
• The most common interface of serial port is the RS-
232 standard which uses the common D-connector
such as DE-9

42
 PARALLEL PORTS
• It was mainly used for connecting printers
• Like serial port, the parallel port is also being replaced
by the faster performance USB port
• Uses a wide D-sub connector known as the DB-5
• Unlike serial port that sends data 1 bit at a time, the
parallel ports send data simultaneously to several
parallel channels.

43
 VIDEO PORTS
• A video port can appear in some motherboard and not in
others.
• Motherboard that have video adapter is known as
integrated video because the video adopter and the
motherboard are essentially one unit.
• The video adopter generates images from the computer to
the monitor.
• The most common kind of port on an integrated video
adapter is VGA which stands for Video Graphics Array.
• The VGA port carries analog data and has 15 pins divided
into three rows and usually blue in color.
• They are good for light applications as they are not very
powerful for extensive graphics applications such as
gaming.
44
 FIREWIRE
• The IEEE connector is formally known as Firewire.
• Firewire is D-Shaped.
• It is commonly used to attach devices such as digital
cameras and printers.
• It is very similar to a USB port as both are used to attach
peripherals and have similar transfer speeds.
• However, Firewire is not as popular as USB and that’s why
in modern motherboards you may likely not see one.
• Firewire has transfer speed of 400Mb/s

45
 NETWORK INTERFACE CARD (NIC)
• This port is usually used for networking purposes such as
connecting to the internet or sharing data on a networked
computers.
• The port is design for an Ethernet Cable with RJ-45
connector.
• It provides the computer with a dedicated network
connection.
• Each NIC has its own unique Identifier called a MAC
Address.
• The transfer speed ranges from 10 bits to 1000Mb/s.

46
 SOUND CARD
• A sound card is another interface that is found on a
motherboard.
• Just like integrated video, if a motherboard has sound card
built in then this is know as integrated sound.
• A sound card is what processes audio through the
computer speakers.
• A basic sound card will have an audio output port for
attaching speakers and an input port for microphones for
recording purposes.
• More sophisticated sound cards will have extra ports such
as ports for subwoofers and for other digital audio
equipment.

47
 eSATA
• Some motherboards have a SATA port on the rare
input/output panel.
• This is known as eSATA or External SATA which is used for
attaching external SATA drives.
• It functions similar to USB and Firewire ports but the
transfer speed is faster and requires a separate power plug
to supply the drive with power.
• Due to this, there is a new eSATA that is called eSATAp.
• eSATAp port combines data transfer and power in an all in
one port (similar to USB and Firewire ports).

48
A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
ADAPTER/EXPANSION
CARDS
 OVERVIEW
• Adapter/expansion cards are circuit boards that can be
installed into the expansion slots of the motherboard.
• These adapter cards are installed to increase the
functionality of the computer.
• Some of the examples of Adapter cards are the video
cards, audio cards, storage cards, etc.

50
 VIDEO CARD
• One of the most common Adapter/expansion cards is a
Video Card.
• A video card is what generate images from your computer
to your monitor.
• Is a printed circuit board that directly attaches to
computers motherboard.
• Video cards are also known as graphics cards, graphics
adapters etc.
• A video card several key components such as Graphics
Processor Unit (GPU), Memory Chips, Bus Type and Video
Ports.
• The video is normally transferred through the video ports.

51
 TYPE VIDEO CARD PORTS – S-VIDEO
• There are several video types of video ports that are used
today.
• One port is known as S-Video or Separate Video , also
known as Super video.
• S-Video is an analog transmitter that transmit two signals
over one cable.
• One signal is for color and the other one for brightness.
• The S-Video is round in shape and usually is black
colored.

52
 TYPE VIDEO CARD PORTS - VGA
• Another type is the VGA or Video Graphics Array that is
represents an older technology developed in 1987.
• The VGA port carries analog data and has 15 pins divided
into three rows and usually blue in color.
• Like we saw earlier they are normally blue in color.

53
 TYPE VIDEO CARD PORTS - DVI
• Another video port is called the Digital Visual
Interface(DVI).
• This is a newer technology designed to succeed the older
VGA port.
• It was developed in 1999 and was designed to deliver
uncompressed high quality video to LCD monitors.

54
 TYPE VIDEO CARD PORTS - HDMI
• The newest video port is called the High Definition
Multimedia Interface (HDMI).
• This is a newest technology in 2002 and was designed to
deliver uncompressed high quality video and audio data
through a single cable.
• The HDMI is the De facto standard for delivering crystal
clear video and audio (HD) in consumer electronics.

55
 SOUND CARD
• A sound card is another common Adapter Card that
processes audio through the computers speakers.
• A basic sound card will have an audio output port for
attaching speakers and an input port for microphones for
recording purposes.
• More sophisticated sound cards will have extra ports such
as ports for subwoofers and for other digital audio
equipment.

56
 FIREWIRE CARD
• It is commonly used to attach devices such as digital
cameras and printers.
• It is very similar to a USB port as both are used to attach
peripherals and have similar transfer speeds.
• However, Firewire is not as popular as USB and that’s why
in modern motherboards you may likely not see one.

57
 USB CARD
• The most common interface on a motherboard is the USB port.
• USB stands for Universal Serial Bus.
• The motherboard will typically have several USB ports because
several peripherals that utilize the USB interface. Keyboards,
mice, external drives ,cameras and even printers.
• In addition to connectivity a USB port also supplies electric
power to that specific peripheral.
• Some USB port are mounted on the rare of the input/output
panel and some are directed on the surface of the motherboard.

58
 NIC CARD
• This port is usually used for networking purposes such as
connecting to the internet or sharing data on a networked
computers.
• The port is design for an Ethernet Cable with RJ-45
connector.
• It provides the computer with a dedicated network
connection.
• Each NIC has its own unique Identifier called a MAC
Address.

59
 WIRELESS NIC CARD
• This port is usually used for networking purposes such as
connecting to the internet or sharing data on a networked
computers.
• Its like the port an Ethernet Cable with RJ-45 connector
however this one connects wirelessly.
• Has an inbuilt Antenna that is used to wirelessly connect to
a network to send and receive data.
• Very convenient way for computers to connect to a
network without the hassles of cables.

60
 PCMCIA CARD
• Some laptops have extra ports for inserting a PC Card.
• A PC car is an extension card for laptop computers.
• It was originally called a PCMCIA card that stands for Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association.
• Slides into the external slot giving the laptop added capability
such as a Wi-Fi card, Network Card or Modem Card.

61
A+ Guide to Hardware

Chapter
RAM SLOTS
 OVERVIEW
• RAM is a temporary memory storage.
• It is installed on the motherboard on memory slots
• A motherboard can have various number of memory slots.
• The average motherboard can between 2 and 4 memory slots
• Memory module comes in different types depending upon what
type of Ram it accepts

63
 RAM TYPES
• DIMM which stands for Dual inline Memory Module
• Can have either 168, 184, or 240 pins.
• A DIMM is a dual memory module because it has 2
independent rows of pins. 1 row per side.
• They have 64bit data path.

64
 RAM TYPES
• Another type of memory module is a SIMM which stands for
Single inline Memory Module
• It is an older technology and has since been replaced by DIMM.
• Has pins on both sides however the pins are redundant
compared to a DIMM which are independent.
• A SIMM have either 32 or 72 pins and a 32bit data path.

65
 RAM TYPES
• Another type of memory module is a RIMM which stands for
Rambus inline Memory Module
• It was developed by the company Rambus Inc.
• Has 184 pins and looks similar to a DIMM with exceptions that
the bottom notches are located in the center in the module.
• In 1999 RIMM was a breakthrough in memory speed but has
quickly fallen behind due to the advancement in Technology in
DIMMs .

66
RAM BITS VS BYTE

67
A+ Guide to Hardware

PRINTERS
 OVERVIEW
• Printers are electronic devices that output data from a computer.
• There are several different ways that a computer can connect to
a printer.
• The most common way Is by using a USB or a parallel cable.
• This is known as local connection because the printer is
connected directly to a printer.

69
 OVERVIEW
• One can also connect a printer through a network.
• Network printers connect using an Ethernet port or a wireless
connection.
• Networked printer are always convenient as they can be placed
at home or office as long as it is connected to the network.

70
 Chapter Summary

• STORAGE DEVICES
• POWER SUPPLY
• MOTHERBOARD FORM FACTORS
• MOTHERBOARD I/O INTERFACES
• ADAPTER/EXPANSION CARDS
• RAM SLOTS
• PRINTERS

71