PC Sound Circuitry
Actual physical sound is an analog phenomenon while the computer is digital. To output a sound stored on a computer disk to a speaker the sound circuit uses a digital-to-analog converter. Sound input to the computer for recording uses an analog-to-digital converter. So PC sound circuitry is primarily an AD/DA-converter or a "coder/decoder", usually shortened to "codec". More ...
What You Need To Know About Server Memory
DDR is Double Data Rate which is what all memory is now. Since DDR came out it's gone through a few generations DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and now DDR4. These different generations of memory have different peak transfer rates. More ...
PC Technician Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA A+ Skills
Hit the ground running with the street-smart training you'll find in this practical book. Using a 'year in the life' approach, it gives you an inside look at the common responsibilities of PC Technicians, with key information organized around the actual day-to-day tasks, scenarios, and challenges you'll face in the field. More ...
PC Video
The video circuits of a computer take digital data and arrange it for display on a screen. In the past, PCs used CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) for video display. Today's PCs use LCDs (Liguid Crystal Displays). Whether the display is CRT or LCD, the image is created with a matrix of dots (called pixels for picture elements). More ...
Video - How to Buy a Motherboard
In this video James, computer hardware training coordinator for Interconnection, shows you how to buy a motherboard. There are a few things you want to keep in mind when buying a motherboard, like Will the motherboard support 64-bit processors? More ...
SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card Basics
SD cards come in a variety of sizes, storage capacities, and transfer speeds. This makes it confusing for users to choose the correct memory card for their products. This article touches on the SD technologies to help you get the correct SD memory card. More ...
Network Interface Card (NIC)
A Network Interface Card (NIC) is an expansion card that allows a PC to connect to a network. Though there are many different types of networks, PCs almost always use a NIC that interfaces to a wireless network or an Ethernet network. More ...
General Overview Of Motherboards
Everyone hears the term motherboard and wonders exactly what it is? The motherboard will contain connection points for your CPU (Central Processing Unit), Hard drive, RAM (Random Access Memory), Video Card, and Power Supply. More ...
Buffered, Unbuffered, Registered Memory, What is the Difference?
Buffered and Registered memory are the same thing. The buffer is a register that resides between the system's memory controller and the RAM. The buffer is often, but not always, used to provide ECC (Error Checking and Correction). More ...
How to Build Your Own PC - The Smart Way
So you think you can build your own PC? A little knowledge is a dangerous and expensive thing if it all goes wrong. This article dissects a PC build component by component illuminating the points about which you need to make wise choices. More ...
The Universal Serial Bus
In 1996 the Universal Serial Bus (USB) was developed to replace the serial and parallel ports. Today, the USB port is used to connect scanners, digital cameras, and external storage devices like CD-RW drives. More ...
The RS-232 Serial Port
The RS-232 serial port was used to connect a mouse, modem, and/or printer. The RS-232 serial port is now totally obsolete. I would be very surprised if you ever run into a PC with an RS-232 serial port except possibly in a third-world country. However, I'll briefly describe the it in this article because you may run into a question about it in the CompTIA A+ Certification Exam. More ...
History of the QWERTY Keyboard
In the late 1860s, American inventor Christopher Scholes developed the first typewriter. The keys were originally laid out in alphabetical order, but this led to problems with the type bars jamming when typing at speed. To remedy this, Scholes relocated the keys to keep the most frequently used letters apart, resulting in the QWERTY keyboard. More ...
Understanding PC Data Buses
Physically, a data bus is the connection between the CPU and other devices on the PCs motherboard. A data connection can be serial or parallel. The data bus used in first-generation PCs used 8-bit architecture. PCI Express uses switched serial connections. More ...
