Lesson 2: Installing System Devices Vocab

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

hardware component that provides electrical power to a computer by converting AC power from an outlet to DC power for the internal components.

Alternating Current (AC) Power

Electrical power that alternates direction periodically, commonly used in homes and businesses for powering devices.

Direct Current (DC) Power

The flow of electric charge in one direction. Commonly used in batteries and electronic devices.

Rectifier

Component that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) by allowing current flow in one direction. Commonly used in power supplies.

Transformer

A device that changes the voltage of electricity, either stepping it up for transmission or stepping it down for safe use in homes and businesses.

Wattage Rating

The measurement of electrical power consumption by a device, typically expressed in watts.

P1 Connector

A standard power connector used to supply power to the motherboard in a computer system.

Field-replaceable unit (FRU)

Refers to components in a system that can be replaced quickly and easily by the user or technician in the field.

Modular Power Supply Units

Power supplies that allow users to detach unused cables, reducing clutter and improving airflow in computer systems.

Redundant Power Supply Units

Backup power units that ensure continuous operation in case of a primary power supply failure, minimizing downtime and maintaining system reliability.

Heat Sink

Component that absorbs and disperses heat generated by a computer's central processing unit (CPU) to prevent overheating and maintain optimal performance.

Passive cooling device requiring no extra electricity

Thermal Paste

A heat-conductive compound applied between a CPU and a heat sink to improve heat transfer and cooling efficiency in electronic devices.

Liquid Cooling System

A cooling method that uses a liquid coolant, such as water or a specialized fluid, to transfer heat away from a component or system.

Mass Storage Devices

Non-volatile electronic devices used to store large amounts of data for long-term use, such as hard drives, solid-state drives, and external storage devices.

Fixed Disk

A storage device that is permanently installed in a computer and used for long-term data storage.

Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS)

Measures the performance of a storage device by the number of read and write operations it can perform in one second.

Solid State Drive (SSD)

A storage device that uses flash memory to store data, providing faster access times and improved reliability compared to traditional hard disk drives.

Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)

A technical standard that enables software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices, optimizing performance and enabling advanced features.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

A type of storage device that uses spinning disks to store data.

• Slower access speeds compared to SSDs

• Speed is determined by the speed at which the disks spin

Internal Transfer Rate

The speed data moves within a device, like a hard drive or SSD. It measures how quickly data can be read or written internally.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)

Technology that combines multiple drives into a single unit to improve performance, redundancy, or both for data storage and retrieval.

RAID 0

Type of RAID configuration

• Stripping without parity

• No redundancy or fault tolerance

• Used for performance only

• Requires at least two disks

• Disk Stripping - divides data into blocks and spreads the blocks in fixed order among all the disks in the array.

RAID 1

Type of RAID configuration

• Mirrors data across multiple drives

• Provides data redundancy

• Requires at least two drives

• Offers fault tolerance and data protection

• Only 50% disk space utilization.

RAID 5

Type of RAID configuration

• Distributed parity- error correction information is spread across all the disks in the array.

• Redundant and fault tolerant

• Requires a minimum of 3 drives

• Fault tolerance and available disk space are inverse. The more fault tolerance, the less disk space and vice versa

RAID 10 (1+0)

Type of RAID configuration

• Combines mirroring and striping.

• Provides high performance and fault tolerance by mirroring data across multiple drives.

• Redundant and fault tolerant

• Only 50% disk capacity available to volume

• Requires at least 4 disks/drives

Removable Storage Drives

Removable Storage Drives are portable devices used to store data externally, such as USB flash drives, external hard drives, and SD cards.

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

A storage device that connects to a network, allowing multiple users to access and share files over a network.

Optical Drive (OD)

A hardware device that uses laser light to read and write data on optical discs such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.

Virtual RAM

A memory management technique that uses a portion of a storage drive as additional RAM to improve system performance and handle memory-intensive tasks.

Address Space

The range of memory addresses that a device or system can access or reference for storing and retrieving data.

Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)

Type of dynamic random-access memory that synchronizes itself with the system bus speed, allowing for faster data access and processing.

Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM)

A type of memory module that can read and write data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal, doubling its data transfer rate.

Error Correcting Code (ECC) RAM

Type of memory that detects and corrects data corruption in real-time, enhancing system stability and reliability.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The primary component of a computer that executes instructions and processes data.

x86 CPU Architecture

A family of backward-compatible instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086 CPU, commonly used in PCs and servers.

x64 CPU Architecture

A type of processor that uses 64-bit registers and memory addresses, allowing for increased performance and memory capacity.

ARM CPU Architecture

A type of processor design commonly used in mobile devices and embedded systems due to its energy efficiency and low power consumption.

Workstation

A workstation is a high-performance computer designed for professional work like design, engineering, or scientific tasks, offering advanced processing power and graphics capabilities.

Server

A powerful computer that provides data, resources, or services to other computers on a network, often used for hosting websites or applications.