A+ Hardware Final Key Terms Part 3

A cooling system that sits on top of a processor and consists of a fan and a heat sink.

A piece of metal, with cooling fins, that can be attached to or mounted on an integrated chip(such as the CPU) to dissipate heat.

• - For the most part, they are used by hobbyists attempting to overclock to the max a processor in a gaming computer.
• - Recently, however, Intel has recommended using a liquid cooling system with its processors that use the LGA2011 socket on a motherboard.
• - Using liquid cooling, a small pump sits inside the computer case, and tubes move liquid around components and then away from them to a place where fans can cool the liquid, similar to how a car radiator works.

The battery on the motherboard used to power the CMOS chip that holds BIOS setup data so that the data is retained when the computer is unplugged.

RAM chips that retain information without the need for refreshing, as long as the computer’s power is on. They are more expensive than traditional DRAM.

The most common type of system memory, it requires refreshing every few milliseconds.

A miniature circuit board installed on a motherboard to hold memory. DIMMs can hold up to 16 GB of RAM on a single module.

A type of memory module used in notebook computers that uses DIMM technology. A DDR3 SO-DIMM has 204pins. A DDR2 or DDR SO-DIMM has 200 pins.Older, outdated SO-DIMMs can have 72 pins or 144 pins.

A type of memory module developed by Rambus, Inc.

• - The main secondary storage device of a computer. Two technologies are currently used byhard drives: magnetic and solid state. Also called hard disk drive (HDD).
• - comes in two sizes for personal computers: the 2.5" size is used for laptop computers and the 3.5" size is used for desktops.
• - In addition, a smaller 1.8" size hard drive (about the size of a credit card) is used in some low-end laptops and other equipment such as MP3 players.

• - is called solid state because it has no moving parts.
• - The drives are built using nonvolatile memory, which is similar to that used for USB flash drives.
• - Recall this type of memory does not lose its data even after the power is turned off.
• - In an SSD drive, flash memory is stored on EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) chips inside the drive housing.
• - Therefore,the memory in an SSD is called NAND flash memory.

• - has one, two, or more platters, or disks,that stack together and spin in unison inside a sealed metal housing that contains firmware to control reading and writing data to the drive and to communicate with the motherboard.
• - The top and bottom of each disk have a read/write head that moves across the disk surface as all the disks rotate on a spindle

A disk on the magnetic hard drive

Read/write head on a magnetic hard drive

• - Data is organized on a magnetic hard drive in concentric circles, called tracks
• - Each track is divided into segments called sectors (also called records).

A drive capacity

A drive capacity

-A process (usually performed at the factory) that electronically creates the hard drive tracks and sectors and tests for bad spots on the disk surface

- Before an SSD or magnetic drive leaves the factory, sector markings are written to it in a process

A nonprofit organization dedicated to creating trade and communications standards.

A system BIOS and hard drive feature that monitors hard drive performance, disk spin up time, temperature, distance between the head and the disk, and other mechanical activities of the drive in order to predict when the drive is likely to fail.

• - The 80-conductor IDE cable has 40 pins and 80 wires.
• - Forty wires are used for communication and data, and an additional 40 ground wires reduce crosstalk on the cable.
• - For maximum performance, an 80-conductor IDE cable is required by ATA/66 and above.

An older IDE cabling method that uses a 40-pin flat or round data cable or an 80-conductor cable and a 40-pin IDE connector. See also serial ATA.

• - An ATAPI interface standard that uses a narrower and more reliable cable than the 80-conductor cable and is easier to configure than PATA systems. See also parallel ATA.
• - Uses a 7 pin data serial cable.
• - Uses a 15 pin power cable.

transfer mode used by devices, including the hard drive, to transfer data to memory without involving the CPU.

A transfer mode that uses the CPU to transfer data from the hard drive to memory. PIO mode is slower than DMA mode.

A fast interface between a host adapter and the CPU that can daisy chain as many as 7 or 15 devices on a single bus.

- If you are mounting a hard drive into a bay that is too large, a universal bay kit can help you securely fit the drive into the bay. 

- These inexpensive kits should create a tailor-made fit.

• - The adapter spans the distance between the sides of the drive and the bay.
• - Bracket kit.

- Primary Windows 7/Vista/XP tool for managing hardware.