CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide

Chapter 1. Personal Computer System Components

THE FOLLOWING COMPTIA A+ ESSENTIALS EXAM OBJECTIVES ARE COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• 1.2 Explain motherboard components, types and features

  • Form Factor

    • ATX / BTX,

    • micro ATX

    • NLX

  • I/O interfaces

    • Sound

    • Video

    • USB 1.1 and 2.0

    • Serial

    • IEEE 1394 / FireWire

    • Parallel

    • NIC

    • Modem

    • PS/2

  • Memory slots

    • RIMM

    • DIMM

    • SODIMM

    • SIMM

  • Processor sockets

  • Bus architecture

  • Bus slots

    • PCI

    • AGP

    • PCIe

    • AMR

    • CNR

    • PCMCIA Chipsets

  • BIOS / CMOS / Firmware

    • POST

    • CMOS battery

  • Riser card / daughterboard

  • [Additional subobjectives covered in Chapter 2]

• 1.4 Explain the purpose and characteristics of CPUs and their features

  • Identify CPU types

    • AMD

    • Intel

  • Hyper threading

  • Multi core

    • Dual core

    • Triple core

    • Quad core

  • Onchip cache

    • L1

    • L2

  • Speed (real vs. actual)

  • 32 bit vs. 64 bit

• 1.5 Explain cooling methods and ...