Chapter 2 Flashcards
What would you do if you had a 4 pin chassis-fan connector but only a 3-pin slot?
Use the 3-pin anyway, but know we would lose the extra fan control signal
How would you install a heat sink for a CPU?
Using a small bead of thermal paste in the center of the heat sink and spreading slightly. Any oozing compound would be cleaned off immediately.
Alternatively, a thermal pad could be used
When would you use a liquid cooling over air cooling?
When more space is available and a quieter fan is needed
What liquid cooling systems are available?
AIO which are easy to install, coming in 120mm with one fan, 240mm with two fans, or 360mm with three fans and custom loop systems which are higher performance
What type of fan would you use for a multicore overclocked CPU?
a 360mm three fan AIO system (liquid cooling)
What type of fan would you use for hardcore gaming?
A custom loop, which is more expensive and requires more assembly. For gaming with a lower budget, I would use a 360mm three fan AIO system to support overclocking at less cost
Why might a motherboard shut down?
If no cooling fans are active
How would you install a storage device?
Check it will fit
Remove power source
Ground self and computer to same source of ground
Remove cover
Locate available bay
Remove any obstructions and store in antistatic packaging
Find the proper screws and set any jumpers on the drive, then insert into the bay from the correct direction
Line up screw holes and screw in at least two screws on one side of the device before screwing in the other sides
Connect the data cable from the device to the adapter card or motherboard header
Attach a power connector from the power supply
Once attached, unground self and turn computer on
If working properly, replace the computer cover
How would you remove a storage device?
Remove power source
Ground self and computer to same source of ground
Remove cover
Unplug all connections to the storage device, gripping connector not wires
Remove any obstructions and store in antistatic packaging
Remove related adapter cards and store in antistatic packaging
Remove machine screws holding the storage device to the chassis
Pull gently in the correct direction
Which way do hard drives usually pull during removal?
Towards the rear of the chassis
Which way do optical drives usually pull during removal?
Towards the front of the chassis
How do you configure a storage device after inserting one?
Usually taken care of by plug and play, but hard drives need partitioned and formatted before they will allow the OS to be installed
What are the three main components of a HDD?
Controller, hard disk and host bus adapter
What are the main speeds of HDD platters available?
5,400rpm
7,200rpm
10,000rpm
15,000rpm
Which type of HDD drive uses SAS rather than SATA?
15,000rpm
What are the data transfer speeds of different HDD platters?
5,400rpm - 100MBps
7,200rpm - 150MBps
10,000rpm - 200MBps
15,000 - 300+MBps
Where are SAS drives most likely to be used?
In engineering
Are higher or lower speed HDDs more liekly to be used in laptops/smaller devices?
Lower, as cooling can be difficult in laptops and small spaces and higher speeds would produce more heat
What form factors of HDD are available?
2.5” and 3.5”
What are the cons of SSDs?
More available per byte and limited to a finite number of write and erase operations
How can SSDs increase speed?
By including a small amount of DRAM as a cache
What are the pros and cons of hybrid drives?
Hybrid drives offer increased performance for lower cost than SSDs. However, they only offer increased performance after data is accessed enough times for the SRT to identify higher value data and prioritise that data into the SSD portion for faster read access (or where this is manually allocated), and it similarly does not benefit any randomly accessed data
What are the three main forms of communications interfaces?
SATA, PCIe and NVMe
What limits the speeds of an NVMe chip?
The data rates of the bus that uses the NVME memory chip; e.g. SATA, PCIe or M.2
What size is PCIe most often available in?
x4
What is the size and pin number of M.2 ffs?
22mm 66-pin
What is the size and pin number of a mSATA connector?
30mm 52-pin
What does M.2 support?
Hard drives, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC as well as PCIe and SATA
How do the keys on a M.2 connector work and what are the most common keys?
They’re keyed so only a specific card will fit a specific slot. Most commonly, these are A and E and B and M keys - with a combination of A and E and B and M also being possible
What is an M.2 connector keyed A mostly used for?
PCIe x2, USB 2.0 for WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular cards
What is an M.2 connector keyed E mostly used for?
PCIe x2, USB 2.0 for WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular cards
What is an M.2 connector keyed B mostly used for?
PCIe x2, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, SATA, audio for SATA and PCIe x2 SSDs
What is an M.2 connector keyed M mostly used for?
PCIe x4, SATA, PCIe x4 SSDs
How are M.2 cards named?
For their size - first 2 numbers for width and remaining for length
Where is mSATA mostly used?
In laptops and other small devicesW
hat sizes are mSATA available in?
30mmx50.95mm at full size or 30mmx26.8mm
What are the main types of RAID?
0,1,5,10
How is RAID implemented?
Either in software through the OS or in hardware through BIOS or RAID hardware enclosure
Which type of RAID would you use for maximum redundancy with no limitations on storage size?
RAID 10/RAID 1+0
Which type of RAID would you use for both fault tolerance without using too much space?
RAID 5
Which type of RAID uses only 2 drives?
RAID 1
Which type of RAID uses at least 2 drives?
RAID 0
Which type of RAID uses at least 3 drives?
RAID 5
Which type of RAID uses at least 4 drives?
RAID 10/RAID 1+0
Explain RAID 0
Splits data in stripes across 2 drives of equal space. No fault tolerance but faster data acces
Explain RAID 1
Mirrors data exactly across two drives, no increased speed but provides redundancy (at double cost)
Explain RAID 5
Benefits of 0 and 1 together - each stripe placed data on n-1 disks and places parity data on the remaining disks, so if one fails the parity information can be used with the remaining data to rebuild that set once the failed drive has been replaced. Requires 3 or more drives and can cope with loss of one drive
Explain RAID 10/RAID 1+0
Adds fault tolerance to RAID 0 through RAID 1 mirroring each disk - requires at least 4 drives and uses half the storage space for mirroring
Where are flash drives mostly used?
In small form factors such as USBs
Where are memory cards mostly used?
In cameras and other small devices
What size is a miniSD memory card?
21.5mmx20mm
What size is a microSD memory card?
15mmx11mm
Are SATA connectors hot swappable?
No
Are RAID devices hot swappable?
Yes, if hardware based
What are the 4 types of DVD?
Single/double sided and single/double layer
What are the memory capacities of different types of DVD and Bluray?
DVD SS,SL - 4.7GB
DVD DS, SL - 9.4GB
DVD SS, DL - 8.5GB
DVD DS, DL - 17.1GB
BR SS, SL - 25GB
BR SS, DL - 50GB
BR DS, DL - 100GB
What are the memory capacities of CDs?
650, 700, 800, 900MB
How would you remove a PSU?
Ground system and self to same ground
Remove cover
Locate power supply and disconnect the wiring harnesses from the PSU to their terminal
Remove any obstructions
Check the dimensions and screws currently used for securing (often in a non-square pattern)
Remove correct screws, supporting power supply
Pull PSU out of case
What do you need to consider when physically installing a new PSU?
Not to reuse screws from the previous PSU
What types of AC voltages are common?
110-220 in US, 220-240 in Europe
What type of voltage outputs for devices are common?
+3.3VDC, +5VDC, -5VDC, +12VDC, -12VDC
What should you always check before powering up a new PSU?
That any slides/switch is adjusted to the correct voltage and country
What is rated in watts?
Power supplies - higher numbers meaning more power
How would you use a 24-pin PCIe in an older ATX motherboard?
Using an adapter
What are the options for redundant power supplies?
Multiple PSUs or backup battery systems
Why would you need a redundant power supply?
For servers where lots of data is stored
Why would you need to switch the power off before swapping out a multiple PSU within a server?
You wouldn’t, they’re hot-swappable
Why would you use a modular power supply?
To avoid needing to plug in unused connectors, freeing up space and keeping the system more simple
In a semi modular power supply option, which components would be hardwired?
The motherboard and CPU, with peripherals being modular
