Anatomy of a computer

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  1. 4. Motherboards often have integrated sound chips. If your motherboard does not have a sound chip or if you want better sound quality, you can buy a sound card. Most sound cards attach to one of the mother-board’s PCI slots.
  2. 7. The ____________ is a large PCB (printed circuit board) that houses most of your computer’s components and directs data traffic to and from the appropriate devices. The most popular ____________ sizes are ATX and microATX.
  3. 9. If you have an older printer or scanner, you probably connect the device to the ________ ____. USB and FireWire connections are quickly replacing ________ ____ on most peripherals, including scanners and printers. Keep that in mind the next time you buy a peripheral; you’ll want to be sure that you have an available USB port and you may need to buy a USB cable.
  4. 11. ______ ____ are much slower than new USB and FireWire ports. You can attach some older keyboards, mice, and modems to the serial port, but chances are your ______ ____ is free. The ______ ____ is also known as a COM (communications) port.
  5. 13. Many peripherals, such as MP3 players, modern printers, and PDAs (personal digital assistants) require ___ connections. Some devices are able to draw power from the computer in addition to data through the ___ port. ___ 1.1 ports transfer data at 12Mbps (megabits per second), while new USB 2.0 ports can transfer data at up to 480Mbps. Keep in mind that if you have a ___ 1.1 peripheral and a ___ 2.0 port, data will transfer at the ___ 1.1 speed.
Down
  1. 1. Current ________ ports transfer data as fast as 400Mbps (megabits per second). (The next genera-tion of ________ offers speeds as fast as 3,200 Mbps.) You can use ________ to connect many different types of peripherals, including digital cameras and digital video cameras. Like USB ports, ________ ports are hot-swappable, which means you can connect a device to the ________ port, unplug it, and connect another device without rebooting the computer.
  2. 2. The CPU stores temporary information, such as data relating to open programs, in ___. When the ___ reaches its capacity, the processor redirects the excess data to your hard drive. Because the hard drive isn’t nearly as fast as ___, this virtual memory stores and releases data at a slower rate. If your computer performs slowly when you have multiple programs open, you can usu-ally increase the performance by adding ad-ditional ___.
  3. 3. Although some newer mice and keyboards include USB cables, most require ____ ports. Manufacturers generally color the keyboard port purple and the mouse port green.
  4. 5. The ___ is the brain that carries out your computer’s instructions. You won’t be able to see your ___ when you open your case because a heatsink covers it. Heatsinks are metal blocks (often copper or aluminum) that cool the processor by dissipating the heat. Many heatsinks use fans to augment the cooling process.
  5. 6. The ___ houses your graphics card, which supplies the image to the monitor. Some mother-boards include an integrated graphics card. ___ graphics cards, which often include additional RAM, generally pro-vide better quality images than generic integrated chips.
  6. 8. The ___ isn’t the prettiest component by any means. It funnels power through the multicolored cables (many cables have more than one connector) to each device.
  7. 10. The motherboard manufacturer installs a basic OS (oper-ating system) in the ____ chip. The ____ activates when you turn on the computer and per-forms system checks before starting your main OS. It also lets the processor communicate with the PC’s peripherals. Many ____es let you configure some system activities, such as powersaving functions. Newer ____ chips store information in flash ROM, which lets users upgrade the ____ software.
  8. 12. the ___ slots let peripherals communicate quickly with the processor. You can add devices, such as modems and sound cards, to the ___ slot. ___ device ports protrude from the back of the computer.