La Expansion Card They have been used in computers for a long time, but few know what the functions of it are inside your computer. And that they expand the response capacity of our team so it is important to know about them.
Expansion Card
As its name indicates an Expansion Card, it is that card that increases the functionality of your computer, that is, this card adds new features to the motherboard of your PC. These features may not be out of the box on your motherboard, but installing an expansion card can help extend the life of your computer.
When the computer age began, these boards did not have all the integrated components that computers have today. So it was normal for the user to add Expansion Cards to their boards, to have extra USB ports, network cards, sound card among others and all added manually and thus achieve the performance required for the activity in which they are. using the computer.
The motherboards have slots, it is there where the Expansion Cards are mounted, therefore the greater the number of slot we can place more expansion cards to our PC. The number of grooves is standard regularly, according to the type of plates that we get to mount.
There are cases in which the expansion card that we are mounting occupies more than one slot, as is the case with graphics cards, since they usually occupy between one or two expansion slots by the width of their heatsinks. But these days most motherboards have all the functions built into one board.
So the use of Expansion Cards has decreased for a long time, but they are still an option for many users who have to resort to it, to expand the performance of their computers. So it can still be said that these are still in force.
Advantage and disadvantage
Within the Advantages and Disadvantages of these expansion cards we can say:
Advantages of the Expansion Card: these cards relieve the load on the CPU and RAM memory, which help smooth the video output, in addition to helping the most advanced video applications work correctly without any type of failures in Computer Performance. And if you are one of those who like video games, an expansion card is one of the best options for our games to run in the best way on the computer.
Disadvantages of the Expansion Card: one of the disadvantages could be that while the expansion card is the best it must have a more expensive value, so that sometimes the installation of a card is more expensive, also that it will ask for more resources like more RAM and processor memory a better cooling system and sometimes a more powerful power source. Everything will come to depend on the card you want.
What would cause that many times you will have to change various things in the computer, such as RAM, power supply, heatsink, among other things. So that your computer is working without major problem.
Characteristics of an Expansion Card
Because the Expansion Card gives more capacity to display graphics on screens, we will name some characteristics of this:
- They integrate within themselves an integrated circuit or chip that will be in charge of processing the graphics, which in turn frees the microprocessor from these activities called GPU / VPU.
- They also integrate their own RAM memory and avoid the use of the main RAM.
- It has one or more ports for connecting other external devices such as monitors and projectors.
- It has a special connector that allows you to insert expansion slots on the main card.
- They can work with the video cards already integrated in the main card, since when they are installed they replace their place in the system.
Expansion Card Types
Among the types of Expansion Cards on the market we have:
Graphics accelerator cards: They are exclusively responsible for the demonstration of the graphics. Helping to free the microprocessor and RAM from this activity.
Local network cards: it is an expansion card with the capabilities of the equipment and that by means of it it can send and receive data by means of cables in the computer networks. These are inserted into the expansion slots built into the main card.
Wireless network cards: also called WIFI cards, they are those cards that will help you send and receive data without the need for a cable. Since it has an integrated reception antenna for signals.
Fiber optic network cards: are those that have the function of sending and receiving data through fiber optics between computer networks. Since these have a data transmission speed in Megabits per second.
Sound cards: these are the cards that allow the input and output of the audio on your computer to the outside through audio ports. These come with several ports so that you can connect other external devices such as speakers, microphones and musical keyboards.
IDE controller cards: it is an expansion card that will allow several internal IDE devices to be connected, such as the hard disk, optical drives. This type of card allows us to connect the mouse, the printer, the scanner, among others.
Diagnostic cards: it is a card that is used to locate equipment faults, when connecting through digital tests. That signals the errors and will send a code to a small led-based screen.
Maintenance
Expansion card maintenance requires maintenance from time to time because dust can cause component failure or damage. So it is necessary to do it by following these steps:
- When we uncover the unit we must have all devices disconnected.
- Different materials will be used to clean the motherboard or cards, such as: antistatic bracelet, stiff bristle brush, compressed air and contact cleaner.
Any of these elements must be completely dry and using it without much pressure, the use of compressed air is one of the best ways because we can remove the accumulated dust without damaging any circuit. The contact cleaner will be placed in all expansion slots, as these will prevent the contacts from failing.
In conclusion, it can be said that these expansion cards that we have been talking about in this article in the case of using them in our equipment will help us to have a greater increase in their functions and a longer useful life. And so not to load the basic card with these activities.
It is important to emphasize that everyone who has a computer should have some basic computer knowledge, in order to know the computer from which they are working and what their functions will be. As well as the possible additions that can be made to it so that it has an excellent performance in its performance and works in an easier way.
In turn, this is why he invited you to continue learning about the components of computers and their functions, in order to take advantage of all their functions in an appropriate and easier way. And thus to be able to solve at any time the problem or error that it gives you.
To continue learning about basic computer knowledge, I invite you to go through the following link and continue reading about this interesting topic, which will surely be of use to you at any time Network card.