@connorsoliver said in Installing and Configuring Expansion Cards - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

I've seen that people have used two graphics cards in a setup. How does this work exactly? I'm assuming you don't use the video outputs of both graphics cards.

Generally it is handled by a proprietary "bridge" for those specific cards that makes two (or more) cards act as one. Same as have two CPUs in a single PC.

DDR2 uses a clock speed twice as high as the bus speed. So DDR2 is double the speed of DDR given the same bus. The clock that the computer provides to the RAM is the same speed. But the memory clock speed in these cases as either 1x or 2x the bus speed from the computer. So the clock speed is double.

@connorsoliver said in An Overview of Storage Devices - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

What did he mean when he said there's only a limited number or writes on a USB flash drive.

So this is a small mistake on the A+ material. They are making assumptions about the storage media based on the communications protocol. But it's based on very common things. A standard USB flash drive using a flash memory technology that "wears out" as you write to it, but essentially never wears out as you read it.

So the way that a USB stick is "meant to be used" is that you store things on it and read it a lot. You can change it, but it isn't meant for constant writes.

So under "normal" use, USB sticks last a long time. But it you write to it constantly (like when using it as swap) you will cause the memory chip(s) to die quickly.

@connorsoliver said in An Overview of RAID - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

Is using a RAID 1 configuration faster as well? Or is its main purpose so if you lose one of the drives you have a backup?

Primary purpose is definitely data protection. But RAID 1 provides a 200% read performance benefit over using a single drive. Write performance is the same as a single drive.

@connorsoliver said in Understanding PC Memory - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

What exactly does registered memory do?

Wikipedia has about the best explanation of this. Mostly we ignore this, IT people really don't think about registered vs non-registered memory, that's something bench people worry about or your server vendor, but not IT. CompTIA mentions it because it is a bench exam.

Registered (also called buffered) memory modules have a register between the DRAM modules and the system's memory controller. They place less electrical load on the memory controller and allow single systems to remain stable with more memory modules than they would have otherwise. When compared with registered memory, conventional memory is usually referred to as unbuffered memory or unregistered memory. When manufactured as a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), a registered memory module is called an RDIMM, while unregistered memory is called UDIMM or simply DIMM.

Registered memory is often more expensive because of the lower number of units sold and additional circuitry required, so it is usually found only in applications where the need for scalability and robustness outweighs the need for a low price – for example, registered memory is usually used in servers.

@Dashrender said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@scottalanmiller said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@Dashrender said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@JaredBusch said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@scottalanmiller said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@JaredBusch said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@scottalanmiller said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@mary said in An Overview of Motherboard Types - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

Are there more issues with heat with the smaller boards? Also what are the expansion slots used for?

Definitely, way more of an issue. It's what keeps boards so often so big.

Not really. Heat issues are almost exclusively related to the CPU and GPU any more. Memory just a little. Almost no other component gets hot.

So heat dissipation is needed for those 3 things. That has little to do with the board size.

The smaller the board, though, the less capacity for cooling.

That is not the board. The board does not cool those devices. Well heat radiates, so anything touching them cools it to a minor degree, but that does not affect anything to any degree that matters.

Most memory run cool enough that direct air over the chips suffices.

CPU and GPU need a heatsink and sometimes a fan to push air over the heatsink.

Frequently small mobos also mean small cases, these small cases can run into issues of lack of airflow... but really, the issue isn't the size of the mobo, but other things.

Mostly, yes. Although you have less board space for cooling, too. Giant server boards have room for front to back high volume airflow, for example.

Again, the board has zero to do with it. The case has everything to do with it. Granted, typically, small boards equal small cases, but this is in no way a requirement.

True

@travisdh1 said in Motherboard Jumpers and Connectors - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@Dashrender said in Motherboard Jumpers and Connectors - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@travisdh1 said in Motherboard Jumpers and Connectors - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@connorsoliver said in Motherboard Jumpers and Connectors - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

Why are jumpers a thing? It seems like there would be a more effective way of doing the things that they are used for.

I think the last jumper I used was the last IDE HDD I used. That was at least only a single jumper to deal with.

Anyone else remember the days of 486 boards and the masses of jumpers to set all the board settings instead of having everything set in the BIOS?

486, you youngin'. 😛

I was messing with computers all the way back to the 80-86 days, just didn't have one at home till the 486 era.

The first computer I purchased (at age 13) was an 8086. though I think 286 or 386's were out at the time.

@connorsoliver I went on an image search of motherboards this morning. The Asus 99 deluxe only has a south bridge if you want to take a look.

@connorsoliver said in Motherboard RAM Slots - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

What exactly does RAM affect in a computer? I'm assuming it has to do with speed right?

Not really. But kind of. It's complex. "Speed" is not at all the simply idea that it seems like with computers. There is so much more to it. Speed under what workloads, for example.

@connorsoliver said in CPU Sockets - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

Is the LGA or PGA configuration more common in CPUs?

LGA is more common. And getting even more common in the future.

@connorsoliver said in Motherboard Expansion Slots and Bus Speeds - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

I sawn in this video that it talked about 32 bit and 64 bit connections. Does this have anything to do with wether your computer is determines as a 32 or 64 bit machine?

The system bus has nothing to do with weather your CPU is 8/16/32/64 bit. ISA/VESA/AGP/PCI/PCIx are all independent of the CPU.

@IRJ awesome, looks like Prof. Messler has 10-series videos out now!

I am just about to add the first RAID video, I want to watch it all first and see what all it has.

@mary said in BIOS Configurations - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

If your graphics card was failing would that show up in the diagnostics as well? This will be a great tool if you suspect hardware failure. As to the fake BIOS, if you make changes in the virtual environment will it show you a reflection of those changes?

Depends on the diagnostics. As external hardware, diagnostics of it tend to be more limited.

@connorsoliver I was wondering the same thing. I know we can download equivalents on our phones, but didn't think it was an option on the BIOS.

@Pete-S said in BIOS and UEFI - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@travisdh1 said in BIOS and UEFI - CompTIA A+ 220-901 220-902 Video Training by Prof. Messer:

@Pete-S How long did you spend holding UV lights over those chips? Me = many hours, way to long.

Haha, spent a lot of time doing that. But I had an UV eraser which basically meant you could put it in and walk away.

I spend enough time doing it so I could immediately tell that the EPROM I posted a pic of above, is made by Texas Instruments (from the logo) and it's 256 kbit (from 27C256) so 32 kilobyte memory.

@JaredBusch said in Advocacy Programs for the Tech Newbie?:

Newbs don’t know enough to know what is good and bad. That is why they are new.

That's a big deal. Any valuable advocacy program for newbs needs to be vendorless. This is a key reason why many university programs are so terrible - they are teaching newbs by definition, and are mostly just marketing arms of vendors.

@travisdh1 said in Evaluation time of year - self evaluation:

@IRJ said in Evaluation time of year - self evaluation:

Think of it this way.... You get to put focus with your evaluation on specific areas you care about. Sure they ask you general questions, but most of the time they are very open ended and you can really take them anywhere you want.

You can, yes, but most of us aren't good at sales, and all that's really all these things are. Selling them on what you've done over the past year.

Self marketing is extremely important. If you cannot master it, you will never get paid what you are worth. It's like job hunting, the minor details can mean the difference between $70k and $130k salary.

I personally like to pick what the evaluation will be about, and move things in the direction I want. For example, you can show that you've mastered your current role by showing vast improvement in specific areas over the past year where you have implemented automation of some sort.