Hardware II

Dion Training wants to install a network cable to run a television signal between two buildings. Which of the following cable types should it utilize?

• Shielded

• Coaxial

• Plenum

• Fiber

Answer explanation

A coaxial cable is a cable used to transmit video, communications, and audio. A coaxial or coax cable is most commonly used as a cable to connect a TV to a cable TV service. Coaxial cables are a specialized type of copper cabling that uses a copper core to carry the electrical signal while being enclosed by plastic insulation and shielding to protect the data transmission from the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Plenum-rated cable has a special insulation that has low smoke and low flame characteristics. Plenum cable is mandated to be installed in any air handling space. Shielded cables contain a braided foil shield around the inner cabling to protect the data from the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI). An optical fiber consists of an ultra-fine core of glass to carry the light signals surrounded by glass or plastic cladding, which guides the light pulses along the core, and a protective coating. The fiber optic cable is contained in a protective jacket and terminated by a connector. Fiber optic cables use light signals to carry data across a cable at extremely high bandwidths.

You have been asked to fix an old computer whose CD-ROM has stopped working. The CD-ROM drive is using a 40-pin ribbon cable, and you suspect the cable is defective. Which cable should you buy to replace the cable?

• SATA

• USB

• IDE

• eSATA

Answer explanation

An IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) cable is an older cable interface that used to be used for the transmission of data between the motherboard and various internal devices like hard drives and CD-ROM drives. An IDE cable is a 40-pin ribbon cable that operated at relatively slow speeds (less than 50 Mbps). IDE cables were also known as PATA (Parallel ATA) cables, as opposed to SATA (Serial ATA) cables. You will rarely come across an IDE cable in use today, but if you are working on a very old computer in an office (legacy machine) then you may find one in use.

Your desktop computer is currently running out of internal storage space. You want to upgrade the workstation with more internal storage to store additional videos, photos, and backups. Which of the following is the BEST storage solution to avoid having to expand again next year while still meeting your need to store more data?

• 5 TB NAS

• 1 TB SSD

• 3 TB HDD

• 50 TB SAN

Answer explanation

Since you need an internal storage solution, you cannot use a NAS or SAN (since these are both network storage solutions). Instead, you have to select from the SSD or the HDD. In this question, we are primarily worried about the size of the storage being installed and not the storage speed. Therefore, we should choose the 3 TB HDD (hard disk drive) over the 1 TB SSD (solid-state drive) due to its larger size.

You are connecting a laptop to a brand new digital high definition TV. Unfortunately, the laptop is a little outdated and only has an analog display output. Which of the following adapters could you use to convert the signal from analog to digital for use with the new television?

• HDMI to VGA

• S-Video to RCA

• VGA to DVI-D

• DVI-D to HDMI

Answer explanation

Since this question asks you to select the converter that can convert a signal from analog to digital, you need to consider which of the connectors are analog and digital. S-Video, RCA, and VGA are all analog. HDMI and DVI-D are both digital. Therefore, the correct answer is VGA (analog) to DVI-D (Digital). HDMI to VGS would be digital to analog. S-Video to RCA would be analog to analog. DVI-D to HDMI would be digital to digital.

You are building a Desktop PC for a newly hired employee at Dion Training. The computer's motherboard doesn't have a wireless network adapter integrated into it, so you need to purchase an expansion card to provide this functionality. Which of the following motherboard connections will most likely be used to connect the wireless network adapter card?

• eSATA

• PCIe x16

• AGP

• PCIe x1

Answer explanation

PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) is an interface standard for connecting high-speed components. Every desktop PC motherboard has several PCIe slots you can use to add GPUs (video cards or graphics cards), RAID cards, network adapters, Wi-Fi cards, or SSD (solid-state drive) add-on cards. The types of PCIe slots available in your PC will depend on your motherboard and are designated as PCIe x1, x4, x8, and x16. Network adapters and Wi-Fi network cards almost exclusively rely on PCIe x1 expansion slots or a USB connection for their connectivity. Graphics cards usually rely on a PCIe x16 expansion slot. eSATA is an external SATA port used to connect an external storage device such as a hard drive. The accelerated graphics port (AGP) is a parallel expansion card standard that was originally designed for attaching a video card to a computer system to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. AGP has been replaced with PCIe due to its faster speeds.

You work as a computer technician for a production company that travels worldwide while filming and editing music videos. Due to the nature of video editing, you will be building a video production workstation for the company that will have the maximum amount of RAM, an 8-core CPU, a dedicated GPU, and a redundant array of solid-state devices for storage. You are now determining which power supply to install in the system. What is the MOST important characteristic to consider when choosing a power supply?

• Efficiency rating

• Amperage of 12V rail

• Number of SATA connectors

• Input voltage

Answer explanation

This question provides you with many details, but the key phrase in finding the answer is in the first sentence. This computer will be traveling worldwide, and the most important consideration will be the input voltage. If you choose a 120-volt power supply, it would be destroyed if plugged into a 240-volt outlet (commonly used outside the United States). Conversely, if you use a 240-volt power supply and plug it into a 120-volt outlet, it will not function due to the lower voltage. Therefore, you need to pick a power supply with dual voltage selection capability for maximum compatibility worldwide.

Which of the following DC voltages are not found within a printer when the laser printer converts AC power into DC power for use?

• +5 VDC

• -24 VDC

• +24 VDC

• -5 VDC