3.5 Motherboards / CPU / BIOS / Cooling / Expansion Cards

Question 1

What are the standard motherboard form factors?

Answer 1

ATX, mATX (Micro ATX), ITX, and mITX (Mini ITX).

Question 2

What is the size of a standard ATX board?

Answer 2

12” by 9.6”.

Question 3

What size is a micro ATX board?

Answer 3

9.6” by 9.6”.

Question 4

Can you fit a micro ATX board into a standard PC case?

Answer 4

YES. It also fits into the much smaller micro ATX cases.

Question 5

What is the size of a mini ITX board?

Answer 5

6.7” by 6.7”. It competes head to head with the micro ATX board.

Question 6

What is a chip set on a motherboard?

Answer 6

A chip set facilitates communication between the CPU and other devices in the system.

Question 7

What does PCI and PCIe usually connect?

Answer 7

PCI and PCIe are usually used to connect expansion cards, and high end graphics cards.

Question 8

What is a riser card?

Answer 8

It is a special adapter card, usually inserted into a special slot on a motherboard, that changes the orientation of expansion cards relative to the motherboard. Riser cards are used extensively in slimline computers to keep total depth and height of the system to a minimum. Sometimes called a daughterboard.

Question 9

What are the different socket types on a mother board?

Answer 9

Intel uses LGA (Land Grid Array) where the underside of the CPU is flat with hundreds of contact points that line up with the socket pins. AMD uses PGA (Pin Grid Array) where the underside of the CPU has hundreds of pins that line up with the holes on the socket.

Question 10

How much force is required to install a CPU?

Answer 10

No force at all is required. CPU sockets use ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) which means you never have to use any force at all.

Question 11

How can you identify SATA ports on the motherboard?

Answer 11

SATA ports feature a connector that looks like a little “L”.

Question 12

What do SATA ports connect?

Answer 12

SATA ports connect hard drives.

Question 13

What is IDE?

Answer 13

IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics. The term IDE refers to any hard drive with a built-in controller. All hard drives are technically IDE drives, but we only use the term IDE when discussing older PATA drives.

Question 14

What are IDE cables?

Answer 14

IDE cables are usually 40-pin ribbon cables that plug into old PATA drives.

Question 15

What are front panel connectors?

Answer 15

There are several types of front panel connectors on a computer. These include headphone plug ins, USB ports, mic plug in.

Question 16

What are internal USB connectors?

Answer 16

Internal USB connectors are sockets to plug in dongles for additional external ports.

Question 17

What are to basic common settings found within a BIOS or UEFI?

Answer 17

Boot options, firmware updates, security settings, interface configurations, security.

Question 18

What are the basic settings you can change in the “security” section of a BIOS?

Answer 18

Passwords, drive encryption.

Question 19

What is required to be able to encrypt a HDD with bitlocker?

Answer 19

Bit locker requires a special trusted platform module (TPM) chip on the motherboard to function. The TPM chip validates on boot that the computer hasn’t changed.

Question 20

What is Lojack?

Answer 20

Lojack is a security feature included in some BIOS/UEFI that enables a user to track the location of a stolen PC, install a key logger, or remotely shut down the stolen computer.

Question 21

What is secure boot?

Answer 21

This is a UEFI feature that secures the boot process by requiring properly signed software. This includes boot software and software that support specific essential components.

Question 22

What are boot options?

Answer 22

Settings in the system setup program that define which devices the system will attempt to boot from (and in what order).

Question 23

What are firmware updates?

Answer 23

It’s the process by which the BIOS of a motherboard can be updated to reflect patched bugs and added features. Performed usually through CMOS, though some motherboard manufacturers provide a windows program for performing a firmware update.

Question 24

Explain what a CMOS battery is used for.

Answer 24

CMOS RAM needs a continuous trickle charge of power to keep the internal clock running and remember its settings. Motherboards use some type of battery usually a 3 volt lithium coin battery to give the CMOS RAM the charge it needs when the PC is turned off. This is called the CMOS battery. TYPICAL SYSTEMS USE CR2032 BATTERY.

Question 25

What are the basic features of a CPU?

Answer 25

Single core, multi-core, virtualization, hyperthreading, speed, overclocking, integrated GPU.

Question 26

Can you use Intel and AMD CPU’s interchangeably without having to replace the mother board?

Answer 26

NO. Intel CPU’s can not be installed on a motherboard designed for AMD because it uses a totally different form factor. Remember, Intel chips are flat on the bottom (LGA) and AMD chips have the pins on the bottom (PGA).

Question 27

What is the primary reason for 64-bit processors?

Answer 27

The primary benefit of 64 bit computing is to support more than 4 GB of RAM which was the limit with 32 bit processing.

Question 28

What is virtualization?

Answer 28

Virtualization is running more than one operating system at a time. Virtualization support on a CPU allows the ability to run virtual machines (which use resource pooling).

Question 29

Explain multi cores and hyper-threading.

Answer 29

In every CPU there are cores. Each core can handle one thread at a time. In a 4 core processor, it can handle 4 threads at a single time, which would be multi core processing. Hyper threading allows for 2 threads to run through 1 core, making “virtual cores”. So if you have a hyper threaded 4 core processor, that means you have 8 cores (4 physical, 4 virtual).

Question 30

What is an integrated GPU?

Answer 30

Some processors have integrated graphics built right into the chip. This allows for basic graphic needs, and would allow you to build a PC without a dedicated graphics card.

Question 31

Explain overclocking.

Answer 31

Overclocking means to intentionally run your system at clock speeds that are higher than the CPU was rated.

Question 32

What are the different cooling mechanisms to cool a CPU?

Answer 32

Fans, heat sink, liquid cooling, thermal paste.

Question 33

What is thermal paste?

Answer 33

It is a paste like material with very high heat-transfer properties. It is applied between the CPU and the cooling device, and it ensures the best possible dispersal of heat from the CPU.

Question 34

How would you install an after market heat sink assembly?

Answer 34

Before you install the motherboard, make sure you screw in the heat sink bracket on the bottom of the board, then secure it with screws. Put a small amount of thermal paste on the CPU, and make sure it spread thin and even.

Question 35

Name the basic types of expansion cards.

Answer 35

Video cards, sound cards, network interface cards (NIC cards), USB expansion card, eSATA card.

Question 36

What is eSATA?

Answer 36

eSATA means External SATA. It extends the SATA bus to external devices, although the external port is keyed differently to not mistake the standard SATA port.