ADAPTER CARDS

AND SLOTS
COMPUTER SYSTEMS SERVICING NC II
AGP SLOT
(ACCELERATED GRAPHICS PORT)
AGP SLOT
 designed to be a direct connection between the video circuitry and the
PC’s memory.
 they are also easily recognizable because they are usually brown,
located right next to the PCI slots on the motherboard, and are shorter
than the PCI slots.
 a motherboard will have a PCI Express x16 slot or an AGP slot, but not
both.
PCI SLOT
(PERIPHERAL COMPONENT
INTERCONNECT)
PCI SLOT
 easily recognizable because they are short (around 3 inches long) and
usually white
 used by the computer to connect to peripheral add-on devices, such as a,
network cards, sound cards, tv tuners, firewire cards, graphics cards and
many other types of extension cards
PCIe SLOT
PCIe SLOT
 The newest expansion slot architecture that is being used by
motherboards
 It was designed to be a replacement for AGP and PCI
 It has the capability of being faster than AGP while maintaining the
flexibility of PCI
 currently comes in four different slot sizes called PCI Express x1
(pronounced “by one”), x4, x8, and x16
ADAPTER CARDS
 ALSO KNOWN AS
EXPANSION CARDS
 A CIRCUIT BOARD
THAT INCREASES THE
CAPABILITIES OF THE
COMPUTER SYSTEM
Five of the most common
expansion cards:
1. Video Card
2. Network Interface Card
(NIC)
3. Modem
4. Sound Card
5. I/O Card
THIS IS WHERE YOU INSTALL
THEM….
VIDEO CARD
 Video adapter (commonly called a video card) is the expansion card you
put into a compute in order to allow the computer to display information
on some kind of monitor or lcd display
 Responsible for converting data sent by the CPU into pixels, addresses,
and other items required for display.
 can be installed in expansion slots such as AGP, PCI, or PCIe
PARTS OF A VIDEO CARD
NETWORK INTERFACE CARD
(NIC)
 Also known as network interface controller, LAN card, or network
adapter card
 Enables the computer system to network with other devices
 can come in wired or wireless form
 It has a connector for the type of network (RJ-45 for UTP and BNC for
coax
 Some computers have NIC circuitry integrated into their motherboards.
Therefore, a computer with an integrated NIC wouldn’t need to have a
NIC expansion card installed, unless you were using the second NIC for
load balancing, security, or fault-tolerance applications.
WIRELESS NETWORK
ADAPTER CARD
WIRED NETWORK ADAPTER
CARD
NIC WITH BNC (BAYONET NEILL–
CONCELMAN) PORT
SOUND CARD
 Connect to microphones, headphones, and speakers, as well as other
sound equipment
I/O CARD
 any adapter card that expands the system to interface with
devices that offer input to the system, output from the system, or both