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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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- 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. 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. Although some newer mice and keyboards include USB cables, most require ____ ports. Manufacturers generally color the keyboard port purple and the mouse port green.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.