adapter card components: communications: modem network interface card (NIC) I/O: parallel small computer system interface (SCSI) serial universal serial bus (USB) multimedia: capture cards sound card TV tuner cards video: AGP peripheral component interconnect (PCI) PCIe cooling system components: CPU and case fans heat sinks liquid cooling systems thermal compound CPU components and features: 32 bit versus 64 bit hyper threading identify CPU types: AMD Intel multi-core: dual core quad core triple core onchip cache: L1 L2 speed (real versus actual) display device components: connector types: component or RGB DVI pin compatibility HDMi S-Video VGA LCD technologies: contrast ratio native resolution resolution (e.g. XGA, SXGA+, UXGA, WUXGA) projectors, CRT and LCD settings: degauss multi-monitor refresh rate resolution memory components and features: ECC versus non-ECC parity versus non-parity single channel versus dual channel single sided versus double-sided speed: PC100 PC133 PC2700 PC3200 DDR3-1600 DDR2-667 types: DRAM SRAM SDRAM DDR or DDR2 or DDR3 RAMBUS motherboard components: basic input/output system (BIOS), complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or Firmware: CMOS battery POST bus architecture bus slots: AGP AMR CNR PCI PCIe Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) chipsets contrast RAID (levels 0, 1, 5) form factor: ATX or BTX micro ATX NLX I/O interfaces: IEEE 1394 or Firewire modem NIC parallel PS/2 serial sound USB 1.1 and 2.0 video memory slots: DIMM RIMM SIMM SODIMM parallel advanced technology attachment (PATA): EIDE IDE processor sockets riser card or daughterboard serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) eSATA power supply components: AC adapter ATX proprietary pins (20, 24) voltage selector switch voltage, wattage and capacity storage devices and backup media components: floppy disk drive (FDD) hard disk drive (HDD): solid state versus magnetic optical drives, such as CD, DVD, RW or blu-ray removable storage: external CD-RW and hard drive hot swappable devices and non-hot swappable devices solid state (e.g. thumb drive, flash, SD cards, USB) tape drive. |