Monday, November 1, 2010

Personal Computer Connectors

Personal Computer connectors are ways how we can interconnect the different PC parts.

You bought a CPU package from online store. The problem is after unpacking the different peripherals from the box is you don't know how to connect them from each other. Don't worry just read my blog on and in no time you can connect all those cables and you can use it all the way.

Desktop computer, laptop, MAC, IBM PC, etc. have common connectorsthat you will notice from time to time. These connections are very important to us and we use it every day. Through the years it evolved and now there are six major types of connectors. These connectors are DIN, USB, FIREWIRE, DB, RJ, and AUDIO.

First we will differentiate terms which are interchange unknowingly that have different meaning. These are plugs, port and jack. Plug is a part with something that is inserted in to something. Example of a plug is
the keyboard plug. Port is what a plug is inserted into, ex keyboard port which can be found at the back of the CPU or motherboard. Jack is another word for port. Connector is the generic term for port or
plug. Now let me discuss it one by one. First is DIN connectors are connectors we used in keyboard and mouse. Early PC’s has a din connection. Today personal computer have a mini-DIN connections also called PS/2 connector.

PS2 and DIN connector

USB or Universal Serial Bus is the most common general purpose connector used on PC’s now. There are different types of USB. THE USB-A, USB-B and mini-B. There are many advantages of using USB
technology first it is hot swappable. It means devices connected need no reboot before you can use it or can be detected by the operating system. Another one is USB devices usually get their power through USB
connection. A good example of this is we can charge Ipod directly from a USB port. USB-A below is rectangular in shape. It is the most common USB type connector.

USB-A

USB-B is a small square connector and can be found at the opposite end of cable with USB-A connector. It is used to connect USB cable to USB device. You will never see USB-b connector on the PC itself. See image below.

USB_B plug

USB Mini-B is designed to make connection to small devices. I use it every day from connecting mp4, mp3, mp5, and digital camera. It very useful for me. See image below.

mini USB-B

Fire wire is another connectors that you will encounter in operating a desktop or laptop computer. There are two types of fire wire 6 wires and 4 wires. Fire wire 1394a runs at a speed of 400Mbps while fire wire 1394b runs at a speed of 800MBps.

fire-wire port

DB connectors also called serial connectors. These are slight ‘ D ‘ shape and usually in male or female connectors. It is used primarily in connecting printers and other serial devices. It also known as LPT
port for printer or sometimes DB25 because it is 25 pins. Nowadays these are replaced more and more by USB.

DB connector

RJ connectors are in two sizes. The RJ-11 is used to connect to
telephone line while RJ-45 is used to connect to network cable. You
will see your RJ-11 is connected to the modem of your PC. It can also
be connected to routers. Rj-45 is connected to LAN card of your laptop
or desktop computers. It can also be connected to routers, hubs or
switches.

RJ-11 and RJ-45 connector

Audio connector. We use it in connecting our speakers, headset and microphone to our PC. It is also called mini- audio jack, 1/8″ jack or 3.5 mm jack.

audio connector

Monitor connectors change a lot from time to time. Today we have 4 types of monitor connectors. Early monitors use the VGA or Video Graphics Array connections. It is 15 pins and ‘D’ shape. DVI or
Digital Video Interace is another technology white in color. S-Video is another one that is like a miniature of ps2 connector. HDMI or High Definition Multimedia Interace which has very nice video output. Time
will come TV will be replaced by this high definition PC.