Study Lab

Don't miss the Study Lab materials found on the CD accompanying this book. Each Study Lab is tailored to the individual chapters in this book, meaning that you'll quickly be able to determine which topics you understand well enough to pass the exam and which topics need more study. The Study Labs are presented in printable PDF format so that you can take them with you to study at work, on the road, or even in your car just before test time!

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the high points of this chapter. Review these just before you take the exam to brush up on the major topics and help you identify what you need to review.

• The motherboard is the heart of the computer because it contains connectors for the CPU, main and cache RAM, I/O ports, and expansion slots.

• Motherboards can be categorized by their shape, the presence of I/O ports, their processor, and the type(s) of expansion slots they use.

• The most common motherboard family today is the ATX family.

• Choosing the correct expansion cards for a particular task will improve system performance and allow for the best use of the system interior.

• Most systems in use today use PCI and AGP cards. ISA cards are obsolete but can still be found in some systems.

• The most important part of the motherboard is the CPU or processor.

• CPUs can be classified by their internal and external clock speed, internal and external data bus, memory address size , and amounts and speeds of L1 and L2 cache.

• Recent processors have full-speed L2 cache and fit into sockets. Older processors might lack L2 cache or have slow L2 cache.

• Upgrading the processor improves performance if the core clock speed is faster, the FSB is faster, and the L2 cache is larger and/or faster than with the old processor.