NetAcadMaterial Flashcards
This is the most common power supply on the market today
ATX12V
This was originally designed for network servers but is now commonly used in high-end desktop models
EPS12V
This connects hard drives, optical drives, or other devices
Molex
This connector has two rows of three to four pins and -supplies power to internal components
6/8- pin PCIe power connector
6This is the only choice that does not allow for +3.3 V.
AT
Motherboard Components
CPU
RAM
Expansion slots
Chipset
BIOS/UEFI chip
CPU
Central Processing Unit
This is the brain of the computer
RAM
Random Access Memory
This is a temporary location to store data and applications
Expansion slots
These provide locations to connect additional components
Chipset
This consists of the integrated circuits on the motherboard that control how system hardware interacts with the CPU and motherboard. It also establishes how much memory can be added to a motherboard and the type of connectors on the motherboard.
Basic input/output system (BIOS) chip and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) chip
BIOS is used to help boot the computer and manage the flow of data between the hard drive, video card, keyboard, mouse, and more. In modern computers BIOS has been replaced by UEFI. UEFI specifies a different firmware for boot and runtime services. Firmware is programming that allows a computer operating system to control the hardware.
Northbridge
Controls high speed access to the RAM and video card. It also controls the speed at which the CPU communicates with all of the other components in the computer. Video capability is sometimes integrated into the Northbridge.
Southbridge
Allows the CPU to communicate with slower speed devices including hard drives, Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, and expansion slots
Motherboard Form Factors
Advanced Technology eXtended (ATX)
Micro-ATX
ITX
Advanced Technology eXtended (ATX)
This is the most common motherboard form factor. The ATX case accommodates the integrated I/O ports on the standard ATX motherboard. The ATX power supply connects to the motherboard via a single 20-pin connector.
Micro-ATX
This is a smaller form factor that is designed to be backward-compatible with ATX. Micro-ATX boards often use the same Northbridge and Southbridge chipsets and power connectors as full-size ATX boards and therefore can use many of the same components. Generally, Micro-ATX boards can fit in standard ATX cases. However, Micro-ATX motherboards are much smaller than ATX motherboards and have fewer expansion slots.
ITX
The ITX form factor has gained in popularity because of its very small size. There are many types of ITX motherboards; however, Mini-ITX is one of the most popular. The Mini-ITX form factor uses very little power, so fans are not needed to keep it cool. A Mini-ITX motherboard has only one PCI slot for expansion cards. A computer based on a Mini-ITX form factor can be used in places where it is inconvenient to have a large or noisy computer.
CPU Architecture
Pin Grid Array (PGA)
Land Grid Array (LGA)
Pin Grid Array (PGA)
In PGA architecture, the pins are on the underside of the processor package and is inserted into the motherboard CPU socket using zero insertion force (ZIF). (AMD)
Land Grid Array (LGA)
In an LGA architecture, the pins are in the socket instead of on the processor. (INTEL)
Passive cooling
Heat sink
Active cooling
Fan
ROM and RAM
ROM is nonvolatile meaning the contents of the memory wont be erased when turned off.
RAM is volatile, meaning the contents of the memory will be erased when turned off.
Cache Memory
L1 - internal cache and is integrated into the CPU
L2 - External Cache and was originally mounted on the motherboard near the CPU.
L3 - used on High-End workstations and server CPU’s.
Nonparity memory
Does not check for errors in memory.
Parity memory
Contains eight bits for data and one bit for error checking.
ECC
Error Correction Code memory can detect multiple bit errors in memory and correct single bit errors in memory.
Adapter cards
Sound adapter
Network Interface Card
Wireless NIC
Video Adapter
Capture Card
TV Tuner card
USB controller card
eSATA card
HDD
standard size 3.5 inch
Hard Disk Drive
Optical Drives
CD, Blu-ray, DVD
Uses laser light to record or read data.
Magnetic
HDD, Tape Drive
Records bits as magnetized areas on magnetic media.
Solid state
Flash Drive, 2.5” SSD
Uses non-volatile memory chips to store data
POST
When a computer is booted, the basic input/output system (BIOS) performs a hardware check on the main components of the computer. This check is called a power-on self-test (POST)
BIOS and CMOS
All motherboards need BIOS to operate. BIOS is a ROM chip on the motherboard that contains a small program. This program controls the communication between the operating system and the hardware
The BIOS settings are retained by CMOS using a batter
Power Fluctuation Terms
Noise - Interference from generators and lightning
Spike - Sudden increase in voltage exceeding 100% of the normal voltage on a line.
Power surge - Dramatic increase in voltage above the normal flow of electrical current.
Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) - Supplies a consistent level of electrical power to a computer or other device.
Standby power supply (SPS) - provides a backup battery to supply power when the incoming voltage drops below the normal level
What is overclocking?
This sets your CPU to run at speeds higher than originally designed by the manufacturer
What can be used to draw heat away from the CPU and is installed directly on top of the CPU?
`Heat sink
If the computer has an extremely fast CPU and produces more heat than can currently be dispelled, what type of cooling system would you use in the computer?
Water cooling system
RAID concepts
Storage devices can be grouped and managed to create large storage volumes with redundancy. To do so, computers can implement redundant array of independent disks (RAID) technology. RAID provides a way to store data across multiple storage devices for availability, reliability, capacity, and redundancy and/or performance improvement. In addition, it may be more economical to create an array of smaller devices than it is to purchase a single device of the combined capacity provided by the RAID, especially for very large drives. To the operating system, a RAID array appears as one drive.
Striping
This RAID type enables data to be distributed across multiple drives. This provides a significant performance increase. However, since the data is distributed across multiple drives, the failure of a single drive means that all data is lost.
Mirroring
This RAID type stores duplicate data on one or more other drives. This provides redundancy so that the failure of a drive does not cause the loss of data. The Mirror can be recreated by replacing the drive and restoring the data from the good drive.
Parity
This RAID type provides basic error checking and fault tolerance by storing checksums separately from data. This enables the reconstruction of lost data without sacrificing speed and capacity, like mirroring.
Double Parity
This RAID type provides fault tolerance up to two failed drives.
Raid levels
0
1
5
6
10 (0+1)
Raid 0
Minimum number of drives: 2
Features: striping
Advantages: Performance and Capacity
Disadvantages: All data is lost if one drive fails
Raid 1
Minimum number of drives: 2
Features: Mirroring
Advantages: Performance and reliability.
Disadvantages: Capacity is half of total drive size.
Raid 5
Minimum number of drives: 3
Features: Striping with parity
Advantages: Performance, Reliability, and capacity.
Disadvantages: It takes time to rebuild array if a drive fails.
Raid 6
Minimum number of drives: 3.
Features: striping with double parity.
Advantages: Same as RAID 5 but can tolerate the loss of two drives.
Disadvantages: It takes time to rebuild array if one or more drives fails.
Raid 10 (0+1)
Minimum number of drives: 4.
Features: Mirroring and striping.
Advantages: Performance, Capacity, and high reliability.
Disadvantages: Capacity is half of total drive size.
The Troubleshooting process
- Identify the problem
- Establish a theory of probable cause
- Test the theory to determine the cause
- Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution
- Verify full system functionality and if applicable, implement preventive measures
- document findings, actions, and outcomes.
Basic functions of an OS
Control hardware access
Manage files and folders
Provide a user interface
Manage applications
Windows Terminology
Multi-user: Allows two or more users to log in and work with programs and peripheral devices at the same time
Multitasking: Allows access to multiple applications at the same time.
Multiprocessing: Allows support for two or more CPU’s.
Multithreading: Allows different parts of a program to be run at the same time.
Hard Drive Paritioning
MBR (old)
GPT (new)
File systems
File Allocation Table, 32 bit (FAT32)
New Technology File System (NTFS)
exFAT (FAT 64)
Compact Disc File System (CDFS)
NFS (Network File System)
Windows Boot Sequence
After POST, the BIOS locates and reads the configuration settings that are stored in the CMOS memory. The boot device priority, as shown in the figure, is the order in which devices are checked to locate the bootable partition. The boot device priority is set in the BIOS and can be arranged in any order. The BIOS boots the computer using the first drive that contains a valid boot sector. This sector contains the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR identifies the Volume Boot Record (VBR) which loads the boot manager, which for Windows is bootmgr.exe.
File attributes
R - The file is read-only.
A - The file will be archived the next time that the disk is backed up.
S - The file is marked as a system file, and a warning is given if an attempt is made to delete or modify the file.
H - The file is hidden in the directory display.
