Understanding the different headers can be daunting if you are new to PC building. A motherboard typically has several headers (connectors) for connecting various devices. One such header type is the USB header. So what are USB Headers? USB headers are the physical connectors on the motherboard for connecting the extra USB ports on the …
If you are new to PC building or planning on upgrading your GPU, you can get confused about whether a graphics card is compatible with your motherboard and PC. There is no hard and fast rule to check whether a graphics card is compatible with your PC. Instead, you have to check a couple of …
A motherboard is pretty hard to miss. It is, after all, the most extensive board by size on a computer. You may ask, “what does a motherboard look like” if you are new to PCs and PC building. Again, a motherboard is a large board with various chipsets, slots, ports, and sockets for CPU, expansion …
An internal motherboard speaker, a beep code speaker, a system speaker, or a buzzer is essential in identifying and troubleshooting a hardware issue with your PC. But if you are new to PC building, you can get confused about properly connecting the motherboard’s internal speakers. An internal motherboard speaker needs to connect to their designated …
All motherboards have different types of fan headers that serve other purposes. The two most common fan headers that people confuse are System and CPU Fan Headers. Which begs the question: what is the difference between a system fan and a CPU fan? The fundamental difference between the system and the CPU fans is that …
If you are new to PC building and all the technical jargon involved, one of the first questions you may ask is what SATA ports are used for and what components use them. Well, SATA ports are used to connect storage devices to your PC. The hard disk drives, optical drives, and SATA SSDs connect …
SATA is one of the primary interfaces for installing storage drives. In some instances, the version of the SATA interface does matter when installing a drive (particularly with SATA SSDs). In this write-up, I will discuss identifying SATA 1 2 3 versions on your motherboard and hard drive. There are three ways to identify the …
If you want to benefit from the tremendous speed gains of PCIe 4.0, then you need to have the correct motherboard. Even if you have the right CPU that conforms to PCIe 4.0, your system will not adhere to the newer 4.0 protocol if you do not have the correct motherboard. This brings us to …
Simply put, the answer to the question “is PCIe backward compatible?” is a resounding yes! The PCIe interface is not just backward compatible but also forward compatible. If you have an older PCIe expansion card, you can install it on a motherboard with a newer PCIe version. Conversely, if you have an older version of …
To add more RAM to your PC, you must first learn how much RAM your motherboard can support – total and per slot. The only definitive and easiest way to check how much RAM your motherboard can support is to read the spec sheet. However, if you have a laptop, check its spec sheet to …