EXPANSION SLOTS

Expansion slots play a significant role among all the functions of a motherboard because they allow you to insert an expansion card, which could be used for a variety of functions. An expansion slot may allow you to add extra memory, sound or graphics cards and even Ethernet.

There are five commonly used graphics cards which are used by most avid PC users. The first is a video graphics card, which boosts the graphical processing power of your PC. this may be needed in order to play high end video games, watch high definition movies, or use a decent image-editing software. An SCSI controller may be used to bridge the connection between certain devices like a hard drive and your motherboard. A USB port card can give you extra USB slots for your PC, and also allow you to upgrade the speed of these slots if your stock USB ports are too slow. If you’re an avid TV watcher then I would suggest a TV Tuner card. A TV Tuner card can stream and record live TV, in addition to recording in multiple different formats. A RAID card can be used to set up multiple hard disks in the interest of creating a back up server. This may be useful for people who need to protect their data in the event of a loss.

Plug and play devices are devices that are easily configurable and aid in the discovery of a hardware component in a system without setting up the actual device. This allows for little intervention for the user, which leads to ease of use.

PCMCIA is short for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. However, it’s normally referred to as a PC card. PC cards were originally designed to be the standard for memory expansion for computer storage. The ExpressCard replaced the PC card, however in these modern times it’s considered decrepit technology. It’s original use was to connect a variety of devices to a computer including mobile broadband modems (sometimes called connect cards), USB connectors, Ethernet network ports, Serial ATA storage devices, solid-state drives, external enclosures for desktop-size PCI Express graphics cards and other peripheral devices, wireless network interface controllers (NIC), TV tuner cards, Common Access Card (CAC) readers, and sound cards.