Chapter 2 Expensions cards, Storage Devices, Power Supplies Flashcards
What’s an alternative word for expansion card?
Adapter card
What do you still need to install for integrated components?
A driver, so the operating system is able to talk to the hardware
What are the four most common categories of expansion cards installed?
- Video
- Multimedia
- Network Interface
- Input/Output
What are the two types of classes of video cards?
- Onboard cards (intergraded cards)
- Add-on cards
In what type of bus slot do you need to plug the expansion card in?
Into a matching bus type on the motherboard. Ex. a PCIe expansion card must go into a PCIe bus slot.
What does a video card do?
It sends information to a display. It converts data sent to it by the CPU into pixels and addresses and other info for the display.
What are 2 multimedia expansion cards?
- Sound cards
- video capture cards
To insert a microphone, headphone or speakers into a sound card, what type of connector are you using?
1/8” jack connector, also known as a mini-jack connector
What kind of port did older systems use to connect MIDI devices to the computer?
DA15 game port
What does MIDI stand for?
Musical Instrument Digital Interface
How many pins does a MIDI connector have?
5 pins
What type of connector is nowadays used to connect MIDI to a computer?
USB
What does a video capture card do?
It saves a video stream on a computer so it can be edited later or shared
Name two types of connections used to connect a video capture card to the computer?
- PCIe
- USB
Before buying a video capture card, what do you need to check first?
- If it saves on your preferred resolution
- if it also records the audio
What does NIC stand for?
Network Interface Card
What are two types of NICs?
- Wired NIC
- Wireless NIC
What does a NIC do?
It connects a computer to a network so it’s able to communicate with other computers by translating the data from the parallel data stream used inside the computer to the serial data stream that makes up the frames used on the network.
What type of connections does an internal NIC use?
- PCI
-PCIe
What type of connection does an external NIC use?
USB
What do you need to install when physically installing a NIC?
drivers
What kind of cables can be used for a connection to a NIC?
- UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
- COAX (legacy)
- Fiber connection
What kind of interfaces are being used to connect with a NIC?
- RJ-45 (Registered Jack 45) for UTP/STP and fiber connection
- BNC for legacy COAX
- Antenna for wireless
What is a unique characteristic of a wireless NIC?
You need to configure the devices the NIC is going to connect to first. i.e. if the NIC is going to connect to an AP (Access Point), the AP needs to be configured first, like for SSID, Password etc. Also configure Ad Hoc devices.
What are input/output cards?
Cards that enhances the computer with interfaces that give input to or output from the computer, like expansion USB cards, PCIe card, Storage cards like eSATA.
What does PnP mean?
Plug and Play, it’s means that certain devices like an USB expansion card will be recognized immediately by the computer without installing any drivers.
What do you need to do when a expansion card isn’t recognized by the computer?
Check the BIOS settings or install necessary drivers.
Name the 6 steps you need to do when installing and configuring an expansion card?
- Make sure the power of the computer is off.
- Install the adapter (of the expansion card) in an open slot.
- Connect power to the power supply if the expansion card needs additional power.
- Boot up the computer and install drivers. (PnP might install drivers automatically)
- If the card isn’t recognized or isn’t working as expected, check the BIOS for the configuration settings.
- For other configuration settings check for the manufacturers utilities.
What does HDD stand for?
Hard Disk Drive
How are HDD also known for?
Conventional drives
What kind of storage medium do HDD use?
Magnetic storage medium
What are the 3 critical components of a HDD?
- Controller
- Hard Disk
- Host Bus Adapter (HBA)
What does the controller chip of a HDD do?
It controls the drive. So it controls how the motors and actuator arms of the drive work. And it receives signals from the read head.
What is the Hard Disk on the HDD?
It’s the physical storage, where the data is written to small disk or multiple disks stacked upon each other called platters.
What are platters in a HDD
The actual disks where data is written to or read from.
What does HBA stand for?
Host Bus Adapter
What is the range in diameters of platters used in HDD’s
From 1 - 5 inches
What does the Host Bus Adapter do?
The HBA is the translator, that converts signals from the controller to signals that the computer (‘s system bus) can understand and vice versa.
Where can you most likely find the HBA?
On the motherboard
When talking about HDD, on modern systems, where can you find the controller?
On modern drives it’s incorporated in the drive assembly itself.
IDE PATA nowadays is obsolete, but standard did it follow?
ATA/100 with a maximum of 100MB/s
other types were ATA/133 and ATA/167, but they were rare.
What does SAS (in computing) stand for?
Serial Attached SCSI (pronounced “scuzzy”)
Name 6 components on a HDD?
- Platters
- Read/write heads
- Cylinder
- Tracks
- Sectors
- Clusters
What is another name for clusters in HDD?
Allocation units
What did older drives use to move the actuator arm?
stepper motors
What do newer drives use to move the actuator arm?
voice coils, which use magnetism to move around. The controller tells the coil to turn and the magnetism pushes the actuator arm in a direction.
Before you can store data on a HDD, what must be done beforehand?
It must be prepared. A factory preparation makes sure that the controller will know which parts of the drive have flaws so it will not use those parts to store data on. It will also create magnetic tracks (rings) and sectors (domains).
What are tracks on a HDD?
They are magnetic rings that contains sectors. So the controller know on which track and which sector to store certain data.
What are sectors?
Sectors are magnetic domains and they are the smallest storage units on the platters. The size of the drive is the number of sectors it contains.
What are the common size of sectors?
Sectors commonly have a size of only 512 bytes.
What are cylinders in a HDD?
The cylinder is basically the spindle where the platters are attached to and it spins with the platters.
What does LBA stand for?
Logical Block Addressing
What is LBA?
Logical Block Addressing is a method how the BIOS communicates with the controller of the drive. The BIOS knows globally where the data is stored, but will ask the controller, which knows exactly where it’s stored, to provide the data.
How many files can be stored in a HDD sector?
A sector only allows one file to be stored.
What is a cluster in HDD?
A cluster are multiple sectors combined to form bigger blocks where a file can be stored. This is to increase speed and decrease the possibility of fragmentation.
What happens if a file is smaller that the size of a unit?
The files will be stored and the excess storage space will become waste, because only 1 file will be able to be stored in a sector
How many files can be stored in a cluster?
1 file can be stored in a cluster, just like in a sector.
What will happen when the file is smaller than the size of a cluster?
The file will be stored and the remainder of storage will be waste.
When talking about LBA, what kind of address will the BIOS give to the OS?
A linear address space. It’s a simplified address that the OS can give to the BIOS which will then give it to the controller which will know where the file is actually stored.
When the factory preparation of a HDD is done, what will happen next to the drive?
It will be formatted with a Filesystem (i.e. FAT32, NTFS) and sectors will be grouped into allocation units (clusters). This is because OS designers have to settle on a finite number of addressable units of storage.
Why did HHD spin faster with newer generations?
Because the HBA technology became better and it could handle higher speeds of data. So the drives had to spin faster to give that data at a higher speeds as well.
Name 5 speeds used in HDD?
- 5400 RPM
- 7200 RPM
- 10.000 RPM
- 12.000 RPM
- 15.000 RPM
What disadvantages are there for higher speeds of HDD?
- More heat production
- More power consumption.
E.g. a laptop without software that needs high speed drives, like video editing, audio editing software, slower speed drives might be better.
What form factors are there for HDD?
- 2,5” drives
- 3,5”drives
(extra drives not necessary to learn):
- 5,25”
-1,8”
- 8,9”
What does SSD stand for?
Solid State Drive
What is a SSD?
It’s a drive without moving parts and more comparable with a flash drive. It can produce higher speeds than HDD and have smaller form factors.
Name some advantages of SSD.
- Faster start-up and read times
- Less power consumption
- Less heat production
- Silent
- More reliable with heat and physical shocks
- Higher data density per cm2
What are disadvantages of SSD?
- More expensive than HDD
- SSD has a finite write and erase operations.
What are Hybrid-drives?
Hybrid drive use the advantage of SSD and HDD through SRT (Smart Reponse Technology).
What ways can Hybrid drives be implemented?
- SSHD: Solid State Hybrid Drive
- Dual-drive solutions
What does SSHD stand for?
Solid State Hybrid Drive
What does SSHD do?
SSHD is a conventional HDD with a lot of SSD flash memory which is used as cache. So if a program or file is being used often then it will load that into the SSD part of the drive for quicker access in the future. It only stores in its SSD part when it’s used often, and only then it has the use of its faster SSD speeds.
What is Dual Drive Solutions?
Dual Drive Solutions is when two separate drives are being used, a HDD and a SSD. The files are manually placed of either drive by its user. For example the OS and other software are being placed on the SSD and the bulk of less important data is being placed on the HDD.
Name 3 SSD Communication Interfaces.
- SATA
- NVMe
- PCIe
What is the slowest communication interface for SSD?
SATA
Although SSD on SATA 3 has a 600 MB/s speed it is still a lot slower than PCIe and NVMe
What does NVMe stand for?
Non Volatile Memory express
What does GT/s stand for?
GigaTransfers per second
What is GT/s?
It’s the amount of data transfers it can do per second. So how many transfers per second instead of how many data per second.
What is the 8b/10b scheme?
It means that for every 8bits, another 8 bits are added for things as synchronization, error detection.
What is the lowest bidirectional speed of a x1 PCIe SSD?
it’s 250 MB/s single lane and 500 MB/s bidirectional.
What is NVMe
NVMe is a standard produced by multiple manufacturers together to create a standard to optimize data transfer speeds through the PCIe buses. It does not have it’s own connector.
Name two SSD Form Factors.
- mSATA
- M.2
What does mSATA stand for?
mini SATA
What is the difference between mSATA and mPCIe?
The pins are routed differently, where mSATA uses the SATA technology and mPCIe uses the PCIe technology. mSATA is mainly used for storage whereas mPCIe is like PCIe used for different applications like wifi, gps, videographics etc.
What is the similarity between mSATA and mPCIe?
They have the same physical layout and they both use a 30 mm 52 pin connector.
What kind of connector does mSATA use
30mm 52pin connector
What sizes of mSATA are there?
- mSATA Full-size: 30mm x 50.95 mm
- mSATA Half-size: 30mm x 26.8 mm
What do need to do when you want to install a mSATA or mPCIe card?
Check the motherboard manual to see which of the two the slot will support.
What was the original name of M.2
NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor)
Although M.2 is primarily used for storage, what does it also support?
- GPS
- WI-FI
- Bluetooth
- NFC
- SATA
- PCIe
What size of connector does M.2 have?
22 mm 66 pin connector
Why are the characters A - M given to M.2 cards?
To differentiate the keyed slots on the cards which corresponds with a certain interface and a certain use of the card.
What does 22110 mean on a SSD NVMe card?
It’s the size of the card, the first two numbers are the size in mm and the rest is the length in mm.
The motherboard also has screw holes with the corresponding lengths.
Which sizes of M.2 are there?
-1630
- 2242
-2280
-22110
-3042
What is the interface of M.2 A key?
- PCIe x2
- USB 2.0
What is the interface of M.2 B key?
- PCIE x2
- USB 2.0
- USB 3.0
- SATA
- Audio
What is the interface of M.2 E key?
- PCIe x2
- USB 2.0
What is the interface of M.2 M key?
- PCIe x4
- SATA
What are the uses of M.2 A key?
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- Cellular cards
What are the uses of M.2 B key?
- SATA SSD’s
- PCIe SSD’s
What are the uses of M.2 M key?
- PCIe x4 SSD’s
The cards A - M are all single specific cards, but there is one unique card, which one?
B+M
Why is the B+M card unique?
It is able to fit into a B keyed slot and also into a M keyed slot. The type of slot will determine if the card will use SATA or PCIe x2 (B-key) or if it will use the PCIe x4 protocol (M-key)
What does RAID stand for?
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
What two ways are there to create RAID?
- Through BIOS
- Through hardware enclosure
RAID 0 is also known as?
Disk striping
What does RAID 0 do?
RAID 0 (disk striping), creates 1 bigger volume with at least two drives with equal volume. It stripes parts of a file and places parts on one drive and other parts on the other.
What is the advantage of RAID 0?
Speed, because it can read or write to one drive when the other drive is busy.
What is the disadvantage of RAID 0?
No redundancy. If one of the drives fails, all data will be lost.
If unequal drives are being used for RAID 0, what happens?
RAID 0 can’t work with unequal drives. When unequal drives are being used it just creates a bigger volume, without the speed attribute. This is because it will place complete files on one drive or the other. It doesn’t stripe the file creating the speed.
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 0?
2
RAID 1 is also known as?
Disk mirroring
What does RAID 1 do?
RAID 1 mirrors the other drives. So a file is being placed on one drive and also on the other, creating an exact copy of the primary drive. If one fails the other takes over.
What is the advantage of RAID 1?
Redundancy, 1 of the drives can fail and no data will be lost.
What is a disadvantage of RAID 1?
No speed advantage of RAID 0, because it has to copy files to two different drives.
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 1?
2
RAID 5 is also known as?
Stripe set with parity (or stripe with parity)
What does RAID 5 do?
It combines the speed like RAID 0 and it has redundancy, but not like RAID 1. Stripes of the data are being placed on the drives and one drive gets the parity part. The parity part changes drives so that if a drive fails all data can be calculated and placed back on a new drive.
What is the advantage of RAID 5?
- It has speed, because of the striping
- It has redundancy, because 1 drive can fail and no data is lost
What is the disadvantage of RAID 5?
- Only 1 drive can fail
- The space of 1 whole drive is lost because of the parity
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 5?
3
RAID 6 is also known as?
Double parity (or striped with double parity)
What does RAID 6 do?
It’s basically the same as RAID 5, but with an extra drive for parity
What is the advantage of RAID 6?
That you have more redundancy. With RAID 6 two drives can fail and no data is lost.
What is the disadvantage of RAID 6
It’s more expensive, because you have to buy an extra drive that will only be used for parity.
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 6?
4
RAID 10 is known as?
RAID 1+0
What does RAID 10 do?
Process: Mirror first, then stripe.
Fault Tolerance: Higher; can tolerate one drive failure per mirrored pair without losing data.
What does RAID 0+1 do?
Process: Stripe first, then mirror.
Fault Tolerance: Lower during rebuilds; can lose data if multiple drives fail during rebuild.
So, RAID 0+1 can lose up to 2 drives, but they must be from different mirrored sets. If both failed drives are from the same mirrored set, data will be lost.
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 10?
4
What is the minimum amount of drives needed for RAID 0+1
4
What does SD stand for?
Secure Digital
What is SD?
It is a small form of flash drive
What are benefits of a USB Flash Drive?
- Small form factor
- large portable storage
- PnP
What does a USB flash drive do when it is inserted in a computer?
It will announce itself to the OS as a removable drive with a filesystem and the OS will give the drive a letter
What do you have to use when the OS can’t find the drive letter?
Disk Management Utility
What are the dimensions of an SD card?
32 mm x 24 mm
What are the dimensions of a miniSD card?
21,5 mm x 20 mm
What are the dimensions of a microSD card?
15 mm x 11 mm
What are the dimensions of a MMC card?
32 mm x 24 mm
What are the dimensions of a CF card?
36 mm x 43 mm
What are the dimensions of a xD-Picture card?
20 mm x 25 mm
What is a hot-swappable device?
It’s a device that can be plugged in or plugged out of a computer with the computer being turned on.
What is another way of saying hot-swappable?
warm-swappable
What is a non-hot-swappable device?
It’s a device where the computer must be turned off when being plugged in or plugged out of the computer.
What is another way of saying non-hot-swappable?
cold-swappable
What does SCA stand for?
Single Connector Attachment
What is the benefit of SCA?
It has data and power in one single connector.
What is with the ground pin of a SCA device?
The ground pin is longer than the power pins so when it’s plugged in the ground will be the first pin being connected and when plugged out it will be the last pin being connected so it won’t damage the devices.
Name a device that uses SCA?
Hardware RAID systems
Name the three most common types of optical storage?
- CD
- DVD
- BD
What does CD stand for?
Compact Disc
What does DVD stand for?
Digital Versatile Disc
What does BD stand for?
Blu-ray Disc
What are the 4 storage capacities of CD(-ROM)?
- 650MB
- 700MB
- 800MB
- 900MB
What is the storage capacity of a basic DVD with one side and one layer?
4.7GB
What is the storage capacity of a basic BD with one side and one layer?
25GB
When talking about optical storage, what does Dual Layer mean?
It’s when there are two layers for data storage stacked upon each other on one side of the optical disc.
Why isn’t the amount of storage with a dual layer optical disc exactly twice the amount of a single layer disc?
Because of the 10% reduction due to the wider space between the tracks of both layers so the laser can burn one layer without affecting the other.
When talking about optical storage, what Double sided mean?
Double sided discs are optical discs where there is a layer for storage on both sides of the disc. Some discs have even Double sided Dual Layer discs, meaning there are two layers on both sides of the discs making it almost (10% reduction per side) 4 times as big as a basic single sided disc.
What does DVD DS stand for?
Digital Versatile Disc Double Sided
What is the capacity of a DVD DS?
9.4GB
What is the capacity of a DVD DL?
8.5GB, because of the 10% reduction for the wider tracks of both layers for the laser to burn the layers without affecting the other.
What is the CD 1X data transfer speed?
150KBps
What is the DVD 1X data transfer speed?
1.4MBps
What is the BD 1X data transfers speed?
4.5MBps
Until what data transfer rate were CDs physically spinning faster
8X, after this the disc could potentially fly apart inside the CD drive.
What type of lasers do CD-ROM drives use?
Red lasers
What type of lasers do BD drives use?
Violet lasers
What are (CD/DVD/BD) burners?
Drives that can increase the power of the lasers to read, write and for setting 3 neutralize the crystalline material and erase the data on a compatible disc.
What does CD-R stand for?
CD-Recordable, it could be written to only once.
What does CD-RW stand for?
CD-Rewriteable, it could be written to and it could be erased to overwrite the existing data.
Who created the standard DVD+R and DVD+RW?
DVD+RW Alliance
Who created the standard DVD-R and DVD-RW?
DVD Forum
Who created BD-R and BD-RE
Blu-ray Disc Association
What does BD-RE stand for?
Blu-ray Disc Re-recordable, it’s their name for the RW.
What are the capacities for a CD SS?
- 650 MB
- 700 MB
- 800 MB
- 900 MB
What is the capacity of a DVD-R/RW SS, SL?
4.7 GB
What is the capacity of a DVD+R/RW SS, SL?
4.7 GB
What is the capacity of a DVD-R/DVD+R DS, SL?
9.4 GB
What is the capacity of a DVD-R SS, DL?
8.5 GB
What is the capacity of a DVD+R SS, DL?
8.5 GB
What is the capacity of a DVD+R DS, DL?
17.1 GB
What is the capacity of a BD-R/RE SS, SL?
25 GB
What is the capacity of a BD-R/RE SS, DL?
50 GB
What is the capacity of a BD-R/RE DS, DL?
100 GB
What steps do you need to take to remove a storage device?
- Remove the power source to the system.
- Ground yourself and the system to the same source of ground
- Remove cover of the system
- Unplug all connections from the storage device.
- Remove all obstructions that hinder you from taking out the storage device
- Put all storage device and all cables and adapters in antistatic packaging for reuse.
- Remove machine screw holding the storage device to the chassis.
