Motherboards
This is the main printed circuit board in a computer system.
What is a motherboard?
This type of storage device uses spinning disks to store data.
What is a Hard Disk Drive (HDD)?
This type of memory is volatile and loses its contents when power is lost.
What is RAM (Random Access Memory)?
This component converts AC power from the wall outlet to DC power for use by a computer's components.
What is a power supply unit (PSU)?
This term describes the brain of the computer responsible for processing instructions.
What is the Central Processing Unit (CPU)?
This is the high-speed communication pathway between the CPU and RAM.
What is the Front Side Bus (FSB)?
This type of storage device uses NAND flash memory and has no moving parts.
What is a Solid State Drive (SSD)?
This is the most common type of RAM used in modern computers.
What is DDR4 SDRAM?
This is the most common form factor for desktop power supplies.
What is ATX?
This is the unit of measurement used to describe the speed of a CPU.
What is Hertz (Hz), MegaHertz (MHz), or GigaHertz (GHz)?
This component in a motherboard provides connectivity between the CPU, memory, and peripherals.
What is a chipset?
This term refers to the arrangement of multiple hard drives to increase performance or provide fault tolerance.
What is RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)?
This is the term for the process of doubling the data rate by transferring data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal.
What is Double Data Rate (DDR)?
This type of power supply provides higher efficiency and generates less waste heat.
What is an 80 PLUS certified power supply?
This term refers to a single physical CPU containing more than one processor core, allowing for more efficient multitasking and parallel processing.
What is a multicore processor?
This type of BIOS chip can be updated without removing it from the motherboard.
What is flash BIOS?
This is the measurement of the time it takes for the read/write head to move to the correct track on a hard disk drive.
What is seek time?
This type of RAM is used primarily for cache memory in the CPU.
What is Static RAM (SRAM)?
This is the term for the power connector that provides power to a SATA hard drive or SSD.
What is a SATA power connector?
This is a technique used by CPUs to predict and fetch the instructions that will be executed next, improving overall processing efficiency.
What is branch prediction?
This is the name of the Intel CPU socket that was introduced in 2011 and supports Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors.
What is LGA 1155?
This is the name of the interface used for connecting SAS and SATA storage devices to a computer system.
What is Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)?
This is the term used to describe the process of reducing the voltage and frequency of memory to reduce power consumption.
What is memory throttling?
This is a safety feature that shuts down the power supply if the output voltage or current exceeds a specified limit.
What is Over Voltage Protection (OVP) or Over Current Protection (OCP)?
This technology, introduced by Intel, allows a single processor core to execute two instruction threads simultaneously, effectively doubling the number of cores in certain situations.
What is Hyper-Threading?