Motherboard 

• For connecting all components. 
• Form factors: ATX, micro ATX, and ITX. 
• Types of expansion buses: PCI Express (PCIe) and PCI. 
• Intel chipsets link to CPU via DMI or QPI. 
• AMD CPU-to-chipset connection is Hyper Transport. 

Central processing unit (CPU) 

Handles most calculations. Each core contains L1/L2 cache. The entire CPU shares L3 cache. 
 
Intel CPUs use these sockets: 
• LGA775 
• 1150 
• 1155 
• 1156 
• 1366 
• 2011 
 

AMD CPUs use these sockets:AM3 
• AM3+ 
• FM1 
• FM2 
• FM2 

Random Access Memory (RAM) 

• RAM DIMMs include DDR (184 pins), DDR2 (240 pins), DDR3 (240 pins) and DDR4 (288 pins). 
• RAM SODIMMs include DDR (200 pin), DDR2 (200 pin), DDR3 (204 pin), and DDR4 (260 pin). 
• Dual-channel: 2× width of 128-bit bus. 
• Triple-channel: 3× width of 192-bit bus. 
• Quad-channel: 4× width of 256-bit bus. 
• Latency measured as CL or CAS. 

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) 

It consists of a 15-pin power connection and a 7-pin data connector. 
 
Revisions: 
• Rev 1 (1.5 Gb/s), 
• Rev 2 (3 Gb/s), 
• Rev 3 (6 Gb/s), 
• Rev 3.2 (SATA Express) (16 Gb/s), 
• Rev 3.2 (SATA Express) (16 Gb/s). 
 
mSATA = mini-SATA. 

Hard disk drive (HDD) 

Speeds: 5,400 RPM, 7,200 RPM, 10,000 RPM, 15,000 RPM 
Form factors: 3.5”, 2.5” 

Solid-state drive (SSD) 

Communication interfaces: 
• Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) 
• SATA 
• Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe): x1, x2, x8, x16 
Form factors: M.2, mSATA 

Solid-state media 
• SSDs 
• USB flash drives 
• CompactFlash 
• Secure Digital (SD) cards 

Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks (RAID) 

• RAID 0 = striping; not fault tolerant. 
• RAID 1 = mirroring. RAID 1 + two disk controllers = disk duplexing. 
• RAID 5 = striping with parity. 
• RAID 10 = mirrored sets in a striped set. 

Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI)  

Modern SCSI standards: 
• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 
• Internet SCSI 

IPS - In-Plane Switching. Possesses a wider viewing angle. 

TN - Twisted Nematic. 

Optical media - Optical disc drives use changeable media to store and retrieve data. 
Versions: 
• read-only memory (ROM) 
• write-once ® 
• rewritable/write-many (RW) 

Compact Disc (CD) 

Capacity: 650–700 MB 

Digital video/versatile disc (DVD) 

Special formats: 
• DL: dual-layered 
• DS: double-sided 
Capacity: 4.37 – 17 GB 
Recording technologies: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW. 

Blu-ray disc (BD) 

For games and HD movies. 
Capacity: 25–128 GB (Mini-disc capacity: 7.8 or 15.6 GB) 

Laptop - Portable miniaturized versions of desktop computers. 

Uses M.2, Mini PCIe, and Mini PCI (internal) and Express Card /34 and /54 (external). 
Replaceable components: 
• Keyboards 
• Touchpads 
• SODIMM RAM 
• Screens 
• Inverters 
• Batteries 
• Optical disc drives 
• Smart card readers 
• Hard drives (SSD, HDD, or hybrid). 

Heat sink 

• When installing a heat sink, use thermal paste or pads for filling in gaps and increasing thermal conductivity between CPU and heat sink. 

• Liquid-based cooling systems have higher thermal transfer capabilities than air cooling. 

• To minimize overheating, a “dual-rail” power supply unit (PSU) separates and controls the current in each wire. 

Sound card 

Links as x1 PCIe (or PCI cards) and will typically have PC 99 color-coded 1/8” mini-jacks for I/O and speakers and optical I/Os known as S/PDIF. 

Video card - You link them to motherboards through x16 PCIe or PCI expansion slots. 
Video connector types and cables: 
• DVI 
• VGA 
• HDMI 
• Mini-HDMI 
• DisplayPort 
• Mini Display Port 
• S-Video 
• Component Video/RGB 
• Composite 

Typical color depths: 
• 16-bit 
• 24-bit 
• 32-bit 
 

Typical resolutions (aspect ratio): 
• 1280×720 (720p, 16:9) 
• 1920×1080 (1080p, 16:9) 
• 1366×786 (16:9) 
• 1680×1050 (WSXGA+, 8:5) 
• 1920×1200 (WUXGA, 8:5) 
• 640×480 (VGA, 4:3) 

Image processing of laser printing 

1. Processing 
2. Charging 
3. Exposing 
4.Developing 
5. Transferring 
6. Fusing 
7. Cleaning 

Printer configuration settings 

• Duplexing: printing on both sides. 
• Collation: printing many jobs in a row. 
• Orientation: portrait/landscape. Quality: 600 or 1200 DPI. 

BIOS/UEFI 

• Locates, tests, and initializes components and boots to the hard drive, optical disc, USB flash drive, or network by PXE. 
• CMOS stores time/date and passwords. 
• A CR2032 lithium battery powers the CMOS. 

BIOS/UEFI configurations 

• Time/date 
• Boot device order 
• Passwords 
• Power management 
• WOL 
• Monitoring 
• Clock and bus speeds 
• Virtualization support (Intel VT or AMD-V) 
• Enable/disable devices 
• Diagnostics 
• Security 
• Intrusion detection 

Networking 

LAN - Local area network 

WAN - Wide area network 

MAN - Metropolitan area network 

PAN - Personal area network 

SAN - Storage area network 

WLAN - Wireless local area network 

Network Address Translation (NAT) - Modifying IP address as it crosses a router 

Port forwarding - Forwards outside network port to internal IP address and port 

Switch - Connect computers in LAN 

Router - Connects ≥2 LANs to the Internet 

Firewall - Safeguards computers and networks against unauthorized access 

IDS - Intrusion detection system 

IPS - Intrusion prevention system 

UTM - Unified threat management 

Network Cables 

Twisted pair - RJ45, RJ11 

Fiber optic - SC, ST, LC 

Coaxial - F-connector, BNC 

Plenum-rated - Fire-resistant cable designed for airways, conduits, and regions where sprinklers cannot reach. 

Cabling Standards: 

3 - 10 Mb/s 

5 - 100 Mb/s 

5e - 100 Mb/s and gigabit networks 

6/6a - gigabit and 10 Gb/s networks 

7 - gigabit and 10 Gb/s networks 

Wiring Pattern 

T568A: 

1. White/green 
2. Green 
3. White/orange 
4. Blue 
5. White/blue 
6. Orange 
7. White/brown 
8. Brown 

T568B: Swap “green” and “orange” in T568A. 

Connection Methods 

Thunderbolt: 

• Version 1 is 10 Gb/s and uses DisplayPort; 
• Version 2 is 20 Gb/s and uses DisplayPort; 
• Version 3 is 40 Gb/s and uses USB-C. 

Universal Serial Bus (USB): - Can support up to 127 devices. 
• USB 1.1 (full speed) runs at 12 Mb/s by a max cable length of 3m. 
• USB 2.0 (high-speed) runs at 480 Mb/s by a max cable length of 5m. 
• USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) runs at 5 Gb/s. 
• USB 3.1 (SuperSpeed+) runs at 10 Gb/s.  

 
Version 3.x ports are blue. 

Desktop/laptop computers use USB-A/B connectors. 
 
Tablets/smartphones use mini- and micro-connectors. 
USB-C: one-third the size of USB-A plug; compatible with USB 3.1. 

Bluetooth - Short-range technology for simplifying communication and connectivity among network devices 

Bluetooth transmission range lengths: 

• Class I: 100m (about the length of a football field) 
• Class II: 10m (most popular) 
• Class III: 1m (unpopular) 

Bluetooth maximum data transfer rate: 

• Version 1: 721 Kb/s 
• Version 2: 2.1 Mb/s 
• Version 3: 24 Mb/s 

Internet Protocol (IP): 

IPv4 address: 

32-bit number, consisting of four decimals from 0 to 255 separated by period (.), e.g., 192.168.1.1 
Manual entry or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) determines your IPv4 address. 

IPv4 loopback: 127.0.0.1 

APIPA/link-local: 169.254.x.x 

Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR): 

CIDR IPv4 addresses have a prefix; e.g., “/24” in “10.150.23.58/24” denotes a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask. 

IPv6 address: 128-bit hexadecimal number, e.g., 2001:7120:0000:8001: 0000:0000:0000:1F10 

IPv6 loopback: ::1 (unicast) 

Network speed: 

• 1000 Mb/s (gigabit Ethernet) 
• 10 Gb/s (10 Gb Ethernet) 

IPv4 address classes: 

A: 1–126 (Range 1^st Decimal) 255.0.0.0 (Subnet Mask) 10.x.x.x (Private) 

B:  128–191 (Range 1st Decimal) 255.255.0.0 (Subnet Mask) 172.16.0.0–172.31.255.255 (Private) 

C: 192–223 (Range 1^st Decimal) 255.255.255.0 (Subnet Mask) 192.168.x.x (Private) 

Wireless Ethernet:  

Ports & Protocols: 

21 - File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 

22 - Secure Shell (SSH) 

23 - Telnet 

25 - 587, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) 

53 - Domain Naming System (DNS) 

80 - Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 

110 - Post Office Protocol (POP3) 

137–139 - NetBIOS 

143 - Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) 

443 - HTTP Secure (HTTPS) 

445 - Server Message Block (SMB) 

548 - Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) 

3389 - Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 

Virtualization and Cloud Computing:  

AaS - Infrastructure as a service 

PaaS - Platform as a service 

SaaS - Software as a service 

VDI - Virtual desktop infrastructure 

Virtual machines (VMs) come in these two types: 

HYPERVISOR, ELABORATION 

Type 1 - Bare or native metal 

Type 2 - App-like VM on the operating system 

Core 2 220-1102: 

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in 

Examples: Computer Management, Performance Monitor 

Master boot record (MBR) - Hard drive has up to four partitions but only one extended partition. 

GPT (GUID Partition Table) - Hard drive has 128 partitions and may exceed MBR’s 2 TB limit. Stored in multiple locations. Requires UEFI-compliant motherboard. 

Logical drive - Segment of an extended partition 

Active partition - Computer boots from here, usually contains operating system 

Volume - Any section of a drive with a letter 

Samba - File- and printer-sharing service 

EOL - End-of-life 

CDFS - Compact disc file system 

NFS - Network file system 

NTFS - New Technology File System 

FAT32 - File Allocation Table 32 

ext3, ext4 - Third and fourth extended file systems 

APFS - Apple File System 

ExFAT - Extensible File Allocation Table 

Common system tools in Windows: 

Command Prompt - Command-line program. 
For elevated privileges: Click START (bottom left corner) > type “cmd” > select “Run as administrator.” 

Control Panel - View/change settings 

Registry - Store settings 

Task Manager - Monitor and start/end processes 

Device Manager - Monitor and (dis)connect devices 

Remote Desktop software - View/control a remote computer 

User State Migration Tool (USMT) - Move user data 

System Restore - Revert to earlier system configuration (“restore point”) 

Windows upgrade minimum prerequisites: 

Security: 

WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access 

TKIP - Temporal Key Integrity Protocol 

AES - Advanced Encryption Standard 

RADIUS - Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service 

TACACS+ - Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System 

Social Engineering: 

Phishing - Attack by email; single target 

Vishing - Attack by telephone or voicemail 

Shoulder surfing - Look over someone’s shoulder, often with a recording device 

Whaling - Phishing that targets high-ranking people, such as C-suite executives 

Tailgating - Unauthorized entity follows authorized party into secured premises 

Impersonation - Attacks using stolen credentials or personal information 

Dumpster diving - Recover information from trash 

Evil twin - Setting up a fake Wi-Fi access point, hoping people choose it over the genuine one. 

Threats: 

Denial of service (DoS) - Overwhelming a target using a single machine 

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) - DoS using multiple machines 

Zero-day attack - Vulnerability unbeknownst to developers 

Spoofing - Gain unauthorized access by pretending to be authorized 

On-path attack - Setting up Wi-Fi networks to trap unsuspecting users 

Brute-force attack - Trying character combinations 

Dictionary attack - Using lists of probable passwords 

Insider threat - Potential for an insider to use their authorized access or understanding of an organization to harm that organization 

Structured Query Language (SQL) injection - Manipulating SQL to modify remote database (such as by using SQL map)  

Cross-site scripting (XSS) - Injecting malicious scripts into normal websites 

Malware: 

Virus - Runs on a computer without the user’s knowledge. 
Examples: Boot Sector, Macro, Program, Polymorphic, Stealth, and Multipartite. 

Worm - Replicates itself across a network 

Trojan Horse - Performs useful functions superficially but runs malicious programs covertly 

Spyware - Spies on a computer and records its activities. 
Examples: keylogger and browser-hijacking adware 

Rootkit - Gains administrator-level access to the system core undetected 

Ransomware - Holds a computer hostage until the user pays