Datasheet

This chapter covers a lot of material—in fact, it could easily

be a book in and of itself. One of the things that CompTIA is

notorious for is having overlap between domains and exams,

and the A+ is no exception. This domain is weighted at 27 percent (the highest of any) of

the Essentials exam, and a great deal of the material covered here also appears in other

domains (not to mention in the Practical Application exam).

Because of this, you’ll want to make sure you’re comfortable with the information pre-

sented in this chapter before moving on to other chapters. As a doctor must be intimately

acquainted with human anatomy, so a computer technician must understand the physical

and functional structure of a personal computer.

Identify Principles of Personal

Computer Storage

Any PC is a complex machine. It could be described as a melting pot of various technologies

and products, manufactured by a host of companies in many different countries. This diversity

is a great advantage because it gives the PC its versatility. However, these components don’t

always “melt” together into a uniﬁed whole without the help of a technician. The different

products—whether they’re hard disks, network cards, sound cards, or memory boards—must

share one processor and one motherboard and therefore must be designed to work in harmony.

For this reason, conﬁguration of the computer components is especially emphasized on the A+

Essentials exam, and nearly one-third of the exam’s question pool pertains to the objectives

reviewed in this chapter.

Before sitting for the exam, you’ll need to have a working knowledge of the components

that make up a computer, and their function within the system as a whole. The exam will

test your knowledge of the types of components and their functions. The objective of this

chapter is to review and identify the main components and their functions.

To pass the exam, you must be able to recognize these components and understand their

relationship to one another.

Critical Information

This ﬁrst objective is on storage devices, but to put it in perspective, you must blend together

many diverse topic areas as they relate to PCs. Figure 1.1 shows a typical PC, its components,

and their locations.

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