Power and Cooling
This component converts AC power from the wall into DC power usable by a PC.
What is the PSU?
This is the long slot on a motherboard used for graphics cards.
What is a PCIe slot?
This is the most common interface used to connect internal drives.
What is SATA?
This RAID level mirrors data for redundancy.
What is RAID 1?
This type of memory stores data temporarily while the computer is powered on.
What is RAM (Random Access Memory)?
A modular PSU helps improve this inside the computer case by reducing cable clutter.
What is airflow or cooling?
Before touching any components, you should do this to avoid damaging them.
What is ground yourself or use an anti-static wrist strap?
SSD stands for this.
What is Solid State Drive?
This RAID level uses striping to improve performance, but has no fault tolerance.
What is RAID 0?
This DDR generation offers the highest data rates and largest maximum module size as of 3.3.8.
What is DDR5?
These two items work together to transfer heat away from the CPU. (Not fan).
What are the heat sink and thermal paste?
This type of card improves a computer’s visual display capabilities.
What is a graphics card (or video card)?
This is a spinning magnetic storage device.
What is Hard Disc Drive?
This configuration uses multiple drives and parity for fault tolerance.
What is RAID 5?
This term describes installing identical memory modules in paired slots to double data bandwidth.
What is dual-channel memory?
This is a type of cooling system that pumps coolant around the PC for heat removal.
What is a liquid cooling system?
This is a highly recommended tool for inserting an SSD into an M.2 slot.
What is a screwdriver?
M.2 drives connect directly to this part of the motherboard.
What is the M.2 slot or PCIe bus?
This RAID level has two sets of parity info across all discs.
RAID 6.
These smaller memory modules are typically used in laptops and compact devices.
What are SODIMM?
Having two PSUs in a system to ensure uptime if one fails is called this.
What is redundant power supply?
After physically installing a card, you often need to do this in the OS.
What is install the drivers or configure the device?
These two methods allow a DVD to store more information.
What are multi-layer and double-sided data storage?
NAS (Network Attached Storage)
This type of RAM can detect and correct single-bit memory errors to improve system reliability.
What is ECC (Error-Correcting Code) Ram?