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Most Popular Peripherals

When it comes to adding stuff to your PC, what are the most popular peripherals? Here's a list of hardware you can add to or upgrade on your system:

Video card— To display higher-resolution pictures and graphics, provide smoother playback with visually demanding PC games , or power a second monitor for some high-end programming or development activities.
Monitor— To upgrade to a larger viewing area or a space-saving flat-screen monitor.
Sound card— To improve the audio capabilities of your systems; this is particularly important if you're listening to CDs or MP3 files, watching surround-sound DVD movies, playing PC games, or mixing and recording your own digital audio.
Speakers— To upgrade the quality of your computer's sound system. (Speaker systems with subwoofers are particularly popular.)
Keyboard— To upgrade to a more ergonomic or wireless model.
Mouse— To upgrade to a different type of controller (such as a trackball ), a more fully featured unit, or a wireless model.
Joystick or other game controller— To get better action with your favorite games.
Modem— In case your PC doesn't have one, or if you're upgrading to broadband DSL or cable service.
CD-ROM drive— In case your computer doesn't have one.
CD-R/RW drive ( burner )— To add recordable/rewritable capabilities to your system.
DVD— To add DVD capability to your system.
DVD-R/RW (burner)— To let you burn your own DVD movies or to back up entire hard disks.
Hard drive— To add more storage capacity to your system. (Can be either external or internal.)
Removable drive— To add more removable storage capacity to your system. (The most popular removable drives today are the so-called "USB drives ," which pack a tremendous amount of storage into a keychain- sized device, using flash memory. These devices plug in to your PC's USB port.)
Memory card reader— So you can read data from devices (such as digital cameras ) that use various types of flash memory cards.
Printer— To improve the quality of your printouts, to add color to your printouts, or to add photo-quality printing to your system.
Scanner— So that you can scan photographs and documents into a digital format to store on your computer's hard drive.
PC camera— So that you can send real-time video to friends and family or create your own Webcam on the Internet.
Network card— So that you can connect your computer to other computers in a small home network.
Wireless network adapter— So that you can connect your computer to a wireless network.
Digital media server— To connect your PC to your home audio system so that you can listen to digital audio files and Internet radio on your home system.

Understanding Ports

Everything that's hooked up to your PC is connected via some type of port . A port is simply an interface between your PC and another device—either internally (inside your PC's system unit) or externally (via a connector on the back of the system unit).

Internal ports are automatically assigned when you plug a new card in to its slot inside the system unit. As for external ports, many types are available—each optimized to send and receive specific types of data. Different types of hardware connect via different types of ports.

The most common types of external ports are shown in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1. External Ports

Type	Uses	Description
Serial	Modems, printers, mice	Enables communication one bit at a time, in one direction at a time.
Parallel	Printers, scanners	Enables communications going in two directions at once.
USB	Almost anything— portable devices, printers, scanners, modems, external sound cards, mice, keyboards, joysticks, CD/DVD drives, hard drives , digital cameras	A newer , faster, more intelligent type of serial port. USB devices can be added while your computer is still running, which you can't do with older types of ports.
FireWire	Digital cameras, digital camcorders, hard drives, CD/DVD burners	Also called IEEE 1394, this is a newer interface standard that enables hot-pluggable, high-speed data transmission.
SCSI	Hard drives, CD/DVD drives, tape backups	The small computer system interface (SCSI) port is a high-speed parallel interface.
Gameport	Joysticks and other game controllers, MIDI devices	This port is typically used to connect gaming controllers; also functions as a MIDI port with the appropriate adapter.
Keyboard/Mouse	Keyboards, mice, other input devices	Sometimes called a PS/2 port, used to connect both wired and wireless input devices.