Answer Description

VGA uses a 15 pin DE connector

Wikipedia

The Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector is a standard connector used for computer video output. Originating with the 1987 IBM PS/2 and its VGA graphics system, the 15-pin connector went on to become ubiquitous on PCs, as well as many monitors, projectors and high-definition television sets. Other connectors have been used to carry VGA-compatible signals, such as mini-VGA or BNC, but "VGA connector" typically refers to this design.Devices continue to be manufactured with VGA connectors, although newer digital interfaces such as DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort are increasingly displacing VGA, and many modern computers and other devices do not include it.

Answer Description

M.2 drives mount directly to the motherboard without the use of power or data cables.

Wikipedia

M.2, pronounced m dot two and formerly known as the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a specification for internally mounted computer expansion cards and associated connectors. M.2 replaces the mSATA standard, which uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical card layout and connectors. Employing a more flexible physical specification, M.2 allows different module widths and lengths, which, paired with the availability of more advanced interfacing features, makes M.2 more suitable than mSATA in general for solid-state storage applications, particularly in smaller devices such as ultrabooks and tablets.Computer bus interfaces provided through the M.2 connector are PCI Express x4 (up to four lanes), Serial ATA 3.0, and USB 3.0 (a single logical port for each of the latter two). It is up to the manufacturer of the M.2 host or module to select which interfaces are to be supported, depending on the desired level of host support and the module type. Different M.2 connector keying notches denote various purposes and capabilities of both the M.2 hosts and modules, and also prevent the M.2 modules from being inserted into incompatible host connectors.The M.2 specification supports NVM Express (NVMe) as the logical device interface for M.2 PCI Express SSDs, in addition to supporting legacy Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) at the logical interface level. While the support for AHCI ensures software-level backward compatibility with legacy SATA devices and legacy operating systems, NVM Express is designed to fully utilize the capability of high-speed PCI Express storage devices to perform many I/O

Answer Description

Thermal paste helps facilitate the transfer of heat from a processor to a heat sink. Without thermal paste heat will remain in the CPU and overheating will occur.

Wikipedia

Thermal paste (also called thermal compound, thermal grease, thermal interface material (TIM), thermal gel, heat paste, heat sink compound, heat sink paste or CPU grease) is a thermally conductive (but usually electrically insulating) chemical compound, which is commonly used as an interface between heat sinks and heat sources such as high-power semiconductor devices The main role of thermal paste is to eliminate air gaps or spaces (which act as thermal insulation) from the interface area in order to maximize heat transfer and dissipation Thermal paste is an example of a thermal interface material As opposed to thermal adhesive, thermal paste does not add mechanical strength to the bond between heat source and heat sink

Answer Description

RAID 0 uses striping and does not use a mirror or parity disk. This means corrupted data cannot be recovered and that an issue on one disk could cause information on other disks to be unreadable.

Wikipedia

RAID (; "redundant array of inexpensive disks" or "redundant array of independent disks") is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives referred to as "single large expensive disk" (SLED).Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways, referred to as RAID levels, depending on the required level of redundancy and performance. The different schemes, or data distribution layouts, are named by the word "RAID" followed by a number, for example RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each scheme, or RAID level, provides a different balance among the key goals: reliability, availability, performance, and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 provide protection against unrecoverable sector read errors, as well as against failures of whole physical drives.

Answer Description

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) supports both audio and video signals. VGA only supports video, SCSI is an older standard used for items like hard drives and printers.

Wikipedia

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, to a compatible computer monitor, video projector, digital television, or digital audio device. HDMI is a digital replacement for analog video standards. HDMI implements the EIA/CEA-861 standards, which define video formats and waveforms, transport of compressed and uncompressed LPCM audio, auxiliary data, and implementations of the VESA EDID.: p. III  CEA-861 signals carried by HDMI are electrically compatible with the CEA-861 signals used by the Digital Visual Interface (DVI). No signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of video quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used.: §C  The Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) capability allows HDMI devices to control each other when necessary and allows the user to operate multiple devices with one handheld remote control device.: §6.3 Several versions of HDMI have been developed and deployed since the initial release of the technology, occasionally introducing new connectors with smaller form factors, but all versions still use the same basic pinout and are compatible with all connector types and cables. Other than improved audio and video capacity, performance, resolution and color spaces, newer versions have optional advanced features such as 3D, Ethernet data connection, and CEC extensions. Production of consumer HDMI products started in late 2003. In Europe, either DVI-HDCP or HDMI is included in the HD ready in-store labeling specification for TV sets for HDTV, formulated by EICTA with SES Astra in 2005.

Answer Description

RAID 10 (also called RAID 1 + 0) combines RAIDs 1 and 0 into a single disk array and provides both data redundancy faster performance.

Wikipedia

RAID (; "redundant array of inexpensive disks" or "redundant array of independent disks") is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives referred to as "single large expensive disk" (SLED).Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways, referred to as RAID levels, depending on the required level of redundancy and performance. The different schemes, or data distribution layouts, are named by the word "RAID" followed by a number, for example RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each scheme, or RAID level, provides a different balance among the key goals: reliability, availability, performance, and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 provide protection against unrecoverable sector read errors, as well as against failures of whole physical drives.

Answer Description

Liquid or Water Cooling provides the best cooling mechanisms for internal computer components but is uncommon due to the higher costs.

Answer Description

Serial ATA (SATA) is used internally by computers to connect hard drives to the motherboard.

Wikipedia

Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices. Serial ATA industry compatibility specifications originate from the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) which are then promulgated by the INCITS Technical Committee T13, AT Attachment (INCITS T13).

Answer Description

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a protocol that allows very high speed access to Solid State Drives (SSDs). The important thing to understand about NVMe is that it only defines how the data is read and transferred. The NVMe protocol can be used on M.2 based drives and PCIe based drives. NVMe is not comparible to M.2 because M.2 is not a protocol but instead a physical form factor specification. You can think of NVMe as the logical side while M.2 is the physical side.

Wikipedia

NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) is an open, logical-device interface specification for accessing a computer's non-volatile storage media usually attached via the PCI Express bus. The initialism NVM stands for non-volatile memory, which is often NAND flash memory that comes in several physical form factors, including solid-state drives (SSDs), PCIe add-in cards, and M.2 cards, the successor to mSATA cards. NVM Express, as a logical-device interface, has been designed to capitalize on the low latency and internal parallelism of solid-state storage devices.Architecturally, the logic for NVMe is physically stored within and executed by the NVMe controller chip that is physically co-located with the storage media, usually an SSD. Version changes for NVMe, e.g., 1.3 to 1.4, are incorporated within the storage media, and do not affect PCIe-compatible components such as motherboards and CPUs.By its design, NVM Express allows host hardware and software to fully exploit the levels of parallelism possible in modern SSDs. As a result, NVM Express reduces I/O overhead and brings various performance improvements relative to previous logical-device interfaces, including multiple long command queues, and reduced latency. The previous interface protocols like AHCI were developed for use with far slower hard disk drives (HDD) where a very lengthy delay (relative to CPU operations) exists between a request and data transfer, where data speeds are much slower than RAM speeds, and where disk rotation and seek time give rise to further optimization requirements. NVM Express devices are chiefly available in the form

Answer Description

Processors run calculations using threads and each processor core can only handle one thread at a time. Additional cores improve processor performance by enabling multiple threads to be run simultaneously. When an application uses multiple threads on a single core processor the threads do not execute simultaneously limiting performance.

Wikipedia

A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such as add, move data, and branch) but the single processor can run instructions on separate cores at the same time, increasing overall speed for programs that support multithreading or other parallel computing techniques. Manufacturers typically integrate the cores onto a single integrated circuit die (known as a chip multiprocessor or CMP) or onto multiple dies in a single chip package. The microprocessors currently used in almost all personal computers are multi-core. A multi-core processor implements multiprocessing in a single physical package. Designers may couple cores in a multi-core device tightly or loosely. For example, cores may or may not share caches, and they may implement message passing or shared-memory inter-core communication methods. Common network topologies used to interconnect cores include bus, ring, two-dimensional mesh, and crossbar. Homogeneous multi-core systems include only identical cores; heterogeneous multi-core systems have cores that are not identical (e.g. big.LITTLE have heterogeneous cores that share the same instruction set, while AMD Accelerated Processing Units have cores that do not share the same instruction set). Just as with single-processor systems, cores in multi-core systems may implement architectures such as VLIW, superscalar, vector, or multithreading. Multi-core processors are widely used across many application domains, including general-purpose, embedded, network, digital signal processing (DSP), and graphics (GPU). Core count goes up to even dozens, and for

Answer Description

DDR2 and DDR3 memory are not compatible and will not physically fit into each other's slots on a motherboard. In this case you will need to purchase new DDR3 memory as the documentation states it uses DDR3. However as an open standard you do not need to purchase the memory from the same manufacturer as the motherboard. As long as both the memory and the motherboard support DDR3 any brand will be fine.

Answer Description

Raid 0 stripes data across multiple hard drives which improves performance but provides no data recovery after a failure.

Wikipedia

RAID (; "redundant array of inexpensive disks" or "redundant array of independent disks") is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives referred to as "single large expensive disk" (SLED).Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways, referred to as RAID levels, depending on the required level of redundancy and performance. The different schemes, or data distribution layouts, are named by the word "RAID" followed by a number, for example RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each scheme, or RAID level, provides a different balance among the key goals: reliability, availability, performance, and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 provide protection against unrecoverable sector read errors, as well as against failures of whole physical drives.

Answer Description

Ordering for speed first, the correct order is:

1. SATA
2. IDE
3. SCSI

Answer Description

PCIe, or PCI-Express, comes in x1, x4, x8, x16, x32 speeds. The size of the expansion slot also varies depending on type used. While PCIe x32 is defined in the official standard, x16 is generally the largest you will find on the market.

Wikipedia

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common motherboard interface for personal computers' graphics cards, sound cards, hard disk drive host adapters, SSDs, Wi-Fi and Ethernet hardware connections. PCIe has numerous improvements over the older standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism (Advanced Error Reporting, AER), and native hot-swap functionality. More recent revisions of the PCIe standard provide hardware support for I/O virtualization. The PCI Express electrical interface is measured by the number of simultaneous lanes. (A lane is a single send/receive line of data. The analogy is a highway with traffic in both directions.) The interface is also used in a variety of other standards — most notably the laptop expansion card interface called ExpressCard. It is also used in the storage interfaces of SATA Express, U.2 (SFF-8639) and M.2. Format specifications are maintained and developed by the PCI-SIG (PCI Special Interest Group) — a group of more than 900 companies that also maintains the conventional PCI specifications.

Answer Description

IDE (also called Parallel ATA) has 40 or 80 pins but the 40 pin was far more common.

Wikipedia

Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT Attachment, also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connection is used for storage devices such as hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, and optical disc drives in computers. The standard is maintained by the X3/INCITS committee. It uses the underlying AT Attachment (ATA) and AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) standards. The Parallel ATA standard is the result of a long history of incremental technical development, which began with the original AT Attachment interface, developed for use in early PC AT equipment. The ATA interface itself evolved in several stages from Western Digital's original Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface. As a result, many near-synonyms for ATA/ATAPI and its previous incarnations are still in common informal use, in particular Extended IDE (EIDE) and Ultra ATA (UATA). After the introduction of SATA in 2003, the original ATA was renamed to Parallel ATA, or PATA for short. Parallel ATA cables have a maximum allowable length of 18 in (457 mm). Because of this limit, the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. For many years, ATA provided the most common and the least expensive interface for this application. It has largely been replaced by SATA in newer systems.

Answer Description

Parity memory or Parity RAM (Random Access Memory) uses a parity bit to detect errors. Parity memory is great for detecting errors but offers no way to correct the error once it occurs. Automatic error correction is possible using Error-correcting code memory (ECC) but not parity memory. Note: The question asks which option is incorrect.

Wikipedia

RAM parity checking is the storing of a redundant parity bit representing the parity (odd or even) of a small amount of computer data (typically one byte) stored in random-access memory, and the subsequent comparison of the stored and the computed parity to detect whether a data error has occurred. The parity bit was originally stored in additional individual memory chips; with the introduction of plug-in DIMM, SIMM, etc. modules, they became available in non-parity and parity (with an extra bit per byte, storing 9 bits for every 8 bits of actual data) versions.

Answer Description

Molex connectors are found in older desktop PCs and provide power to components like hard drives and CD drives. As most modern PCs use SATA drives with special SATA Power cables the use of Molex connectors has dropped significantly.

Wikipedia

Molex connector is the vernacular term for a two-piece pin and socket interconnection. Pioneered by Molex Connector Company, the two-piece design became an early electronic standard. Molex developed and patented the first examples of this connector style in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First used in home appliances, other industries soon began designing it into their products from automobiles to vending machines to minicomputers. In such a connector, cylindrical spring-metal pins fit into cylindrical spring-metal sockets. The pins and sockets are held in a rectangular matrix in a nylon shell. The connector typically has 2 to 24 contacts and is polarized or keyed to ensure correct orientation. Pins and sockets can be arranged in any combination in a single housing, and each housing can be either male or female. There are three typical pin sizes: 1.57 mm (0.062 in), 2.13 mm (0.084 in), and 2.36 mm (0.093 in). The 1.57 mm pin can carry 5 A of current, while the 2.36 mm can carry 8.5 A. Because the pins have a large contact surface area and fit tightly, these connectors are typically used for power. In October 1963, AMP (now TE Connectivity) introduced the Mate-n-Lok connector. The AMP connector was similar to the patented Molex connectors but not interchangeable. Both were widely used in the computer industry and the term "Molex connector" is often inaccurately used to refer to all nylon plugs and receptacles. The first 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, the Shugart SA400, introduced in August 1976, used the AMP Mate-n-Lok connector part number 350211-1. This connector became the standard for 5.25-inch format

Answer Description

USB 3.0 has a maximum transmission speed of 5 Gigabits per second. USB 2.0 has a speed of 480 Mbit/s.

Wikipedia

USB 3.0, released in November 2008, is the third major version of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for interfacing computers and electronic devices. The USB 3.0 specification defined a new architecture and protocol, named SuperSpeed, which included a new lane for a new signal coding scheme (8b/10b symbols, 5 Gbps; also known later as Gen 1) providing full-duplex data transfers that physically required five additional wires and pins, while preserving the USB 2.0-architecture and -protocols and therefore keeping the original 4 pins/wires for the USB 2.0 backward-compatibility resulting in 9 wires (with 9 or 10 pins at connector interfaces; ID-pin is not wired) in total. The new transfer rate, marketed as SuperSpeed USB (SS), can transfer signals at up to 5 Gbit/s with nominal data rate of 500 MB/s after encoding overhead, which is about 10 times faster than High-Speed (maximum for USB 2.0 standard). It is recommended that manufacturers distinguish USB 3.0 connectors from their USB 2.0 counterparts by using blue color for the Standard-A and -B receptacles and plugs, and by the initials SS.USB 3.1, released in July 2013, is the successor specification that fully replaces the USB 3.0 specification. USB 3.1 preserves the existing SuperSpeed operation mode (8b/10b symbols, 5 Gbps), giving it the new label USB 3.1 Gen 1, The USB 3.1 specification introduced an Enhanced SuperSpeed system – while preserving the SuperSpeed-architecture and -protocol – with an additional SuperSpeedPlus-architecture adding a new coding schema (128b/132b symbols) and protocol named SuperSpeedPlus (aka SuperSpeedPlus USB, for some time period marketed as SuperSpeed+ or SS+) while defining

Answer Description

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) has two main connector types. The power connector is larger with 15 pins, while the data connector is 7 pins.

Wikipedia

Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices. Serial ATA industry compatibility specifications originate from the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) which are then promulgated by the INCITS Technical Committee T13, AT Attachment (INCITS T13).

Answer Description

Digital Visual Interface - Integrated (DVI-I) can send both digital and analog signals. DVI-D (Digital), HDMI and Mini-HDMI are digital only cable types.

Wikipedia

Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a computer monitor. It was developed with the intention of creating an industry standard for the transfer of uncompressed digital video content. Featuring support for analog connections, DVI devices manufactured as DVI-I are compatible with the analog VGA interface by including VGA pins, while DVI-D devices are digital-only. This compatibility, along with other advantages, led to its widespread acceptance over competing digital display standards Plug and Display (P&D) and Digital Flat Panel (DFP). Although DVI is predominantly associated with computers, it is sometimes used in other consumer electronics such as television sets and DVD players.