Connectors and ports of a pc 【complete guide】

PC connectors are very important elements that we find on the motherboard and in the same case as the computer. It is vital to know the existence of the different types of ports that we are going to come across to fully exploit the performance of our PC.

To make it more enjoyable, understandable and educational, we will divide the PC connectors into internal connectors and peripheral connectors. You will see all this below, so make yourself comfortable because we started!

Index of contents

Indoor connectors

The motherboard and the power supply are the components that will star in this section because most of the PC connectors are connected through them.

As the years go by, the technology advances and ports are added, removed or replaced due to newness, uselessness or obsolescence. Inside the box, we will find the following PC connectors.

Molex

The Molex is a connector that comes out of the power supply to connect IDE SATA drives, such as older hard drives or some DVD-ROM drive. You will see that they have a male and a female, but in both we will see 4 cables: one red, one yellow and two black.

SATA

SATA is a cable that has come to replace Molex in the case of the aforementioned drives. It is black, it is thinner and it has 5 cables: one orange, one red, one yellow and two black.

A cable comes out from the power supply to the hard drive, for example. Then another will come out from the same hard drive that will connect to the motherboard.

PCIe

In the past, the graphics card used to connect to its PCI-Express slot on the motherboard and we forgot about it. Now, there is an additional step: connect it to the power supply using the PCIe cable.

This PC connector is one of the last and there are two types:

• The 8-pin: 3 square and 5 pentagonal. The 6-pin: which is the same, but separate.

ATX or ATX2

This cable is one of the longest-running PC connectors found inside the box. It is because we first saw it in the 90s, but it is still being used imperatively. It connects to the motherboard and serves to supply power in the circuit, that is, to connect the power supply to the motherboard.

While the conventional ATX has 20 different pins, the ATX-2 incorporates 24 pins that can come in either an all-in-one format or a 20 + 4. It is more the vast majority of power supplies, allows you to separate them and use it on older motherboards with their 20 pins.

EPS

We can also find this connector, which serves to provide optional 12 volts for servers or workstations, so you will not find them in conventional PCs from many years ago, but it is already a common standard on new platforms, moreover, on newer X570 motherboards we have up to 8 8-pin EPS connectors.

We can also find 4-pin EPS.

Socket

The socket is perhaps the most important connector in the entire computer, as it houses the microprocessor. It is usually connected by operating a kind of lever that releases it, the processor is placed and then the lever is activated again to lock it without moving. We put it so that you can get to know this particular area of ​​our computer.

Slot or RAM slot

The RAM slot or slot is the compartment where the RAM is placed. Depending on the motherboard, we will have more or less slots. At least, there are usually 2 slots and the standard is 4. Each slot has 2 tabs, we must open them before placing our RAM memory. Once placed, we will have to close them to block them.

If at first your memories do not enter the slot, look at the notches when putting your memories because you may be putting them backwards. Finally, pay attention to the Dual-Channel.

Vent connector

If we take a look at the motherboard, you will see many 4-pin connectors with a designation next to it that says CPU_FAN or PWR_FAN, for example. These are the ports where we will have to connect our fans. In the CPU_FAN the heatsink is connected, in the others the fans of the box usually go.

PCI-Express

This slot is the one that houses the graphics card, the sound card, a hard disk or any expansion card. You must take into account the orientation of the box, since all the expansion cards face the back of the tower so that we can connect the cable we need.

Slot M.2

This PC connector is one of the newest because it serves to connect the new M.2 SSD hard drives. The old plates do not incorporate it, but almost all the new ones do.

Normally, they have a screw that we will remove to place, inclined, the M.2 hard drive. Then, we screw it again and we will have our hard drive installed.

SATA connector

As we have said before, the power supply has a cable that connects to the disk drives. Another cable of the same type will come out of that same disk drive, but it will be connected to the motherboard.

Our recommendation: be careful when connecting the cable to the SATA port of the board because some motherboards weakly assemble these ports and we can run out of them.

There are three types of SATA connector:

1. SATA 1.0. It was the first version and can reach a speed of 150 MB / s. SATA 2.0. It is the evolution of its predecessor, doubling its speed to 300 MB / s. SATA 3.0. Its maximum speed is 600 MB / s and it could be said that it is the standard.

USB connectors

Here we will connect the cables that the PC case will provide us. Currently, the boxes usually give us only a USB 3.0 connector to connect to the motherboard. By connecting this cable we will be able to enable the USB ports on the front of the box to be able to use them.

However, we must say that, in the past, PC boxes released two USB connectors:

• USB 3.0 on the front, USB 2.0 on the front, which is different and connects elsewhere. Typically they have 9 pins, missing one pin on the equine.

Speaker and microphone connector

In order to enjoy the 3.5mm Jack and the microphone port that the towers offer us on the front, there is a PC connector for the front audio. This connector is similar to the USB connector, missing 1 pin, but in a different place.

In this way, we will connect the cable that the box gives us to the HD_AUDIO port, usually on the motherboard.

I / O connector

Finally, we find one of the key PC connectors to be able to turn on our PC, reset it or to see how the LED lights for reading, writing and powering work. These are 4 pairs of connectors that connect to each of the pins, some having a symbol of "+" and another of "-". They are broken down like this:

• HDD LED. As you can imagine, enable the LED light on the box that informs about the work of the hard disk (writing, reading, etc.). Power LED. Illuminate the power button on the case to know if the PC is on or off. Power SW. It is the one that powers the box's power button, so that when you press it, it turns on. Reset SW. Enable the reset button so that we can restart the PC once started.

Peripheral connectors

The peripheral connectors come to be the ones found on the back and front of the box or PC tower. We have named them that way because the vast majority of devices that connect to these ports are peripherals, as is the case with monitors, printers, keyboards, mice, etc.

Usb connector

Within the USB ports, there are different types, such as the following:

• USB 2.0. It is the original of a lifetime, its color is standard black and it has a speed of 480 Mbps. It started to spread in the 2000s. USB 3.0. This is the evolution of 2.0 in terms of speed, since its speed is 5 Gbps. In his case, it began to be commercialized in 2008. Its ports are usually blue or light green. USB 3.1. Beats 3.0 by doubling its speed: 10 Gbps. It began to standardize with the arrival of USB type C. It emerged in 2013. USB 3.2. It is the latest version of USB that exists today and doubles to 3.1 with a speed of 20 Gbps. It was released in 2017. USB 4.0: It will arrive in 2020 and it will have various new features.

Removing the most common ports, we also find the USB-C port, which is more modern. The Micro-usb does not usually have ports on the motherboards, but we name it because it is still used a lot, especially in older smartphones.

Finally, mention should be made of Apple's Lighting port, which is a kind of USB connector.

Thunderbolt connector

This connector emerged in early 2010 from Intel, but only for Apple products. His goal was to transfer data with fiber optic cables. It was sold as the product that engineers or designers needed because they used to need a connection with a lot of power, be it for external hard drives, monitors, etc.

This technology was evolving with Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt 3. It was a technology that was developed by Intel, but for Apple.

In the case of Thunderbolt 2, it could provide 20 Gbps on a single channel, which was quite high speed. In addition, it was compatible with 4K, which was crazy in the middle of 2014, the year in which this second version of Thunderbolt was released.

Finally, Thunderbolt 3 came with the famous USB-C. We can transmit data at a speed of 40 Gbps, connect a 4K monitor at 60 Hz, charge smartphones or connect external graphics cards.

Firewire connector

It is very possible that you have some equipment with a port of this type, but have you wondered what it is for? Well, it is a USB port that serves to transmit audio and video, being widely used by professionals in video or audio editing.

AT Keyboard and PS / 2 connector

They are two connectors that were designed for peripherals, specifically for the mouse (PS / 2) and for the keyboard (AT). They are no longer used because these two peripherals connect via USB, but many motherboards still include it.

Audio connectors

All motherboards come with a built-in sound card. Does Realtek sound familiar to you ? Well, it is the audio controller that has practically all the plates incorporated. If you look, we usually have 6 ports with different colors. Do you want to know why?

• Green is the most used, since it is a stereo output from the front channels. It is known as a 3.5mm jack. Normally, we will connect our speakers to this port. Black is the same, but for rear channels. Gray is for side channels. Orange is a dual output for the center and the subwoofer of the team. Blue is a 3.5mm stereo input Finally, pink is the mono input for the microphone.

VGA (Video Graphics Array) connector

This connector is in danger of extinction due to the appearance of HDMI, but we always see it on all motherboards. It is a video output port that we use to connect the monitor to the PC. Thanks to this port we can see everything that happens on the computer.

One of the characteristics that differentiates this port is that it is usually blue, as it happens in the cable. We can find this port on the graphics card or on the motherboard; both at the rear of the tower.

DVI (Digital Visual interface) connector

We usually locate the DVI port on the graphics card and on the motherboard, and now you will wonder why use it if we can use VGA or HDMI? Well, currently it is used to connect monitors that act as a second screen or to take advantage of the Hertz of a gaming monitor that we have, as it happens with those of 144 Hz, something that is not possible to do with a simple HDMI or a VGA cable.

Both the cable and its port are usually white and there are different types:

• DVI-IDVI-I Dual Link.DVI-D Single Link.DVI-D Dual LinkDVI M1-DA.

HDMI connector (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)

It is the port that is most used today to connect our monitor to the motherboard. It was created by the appearance of HD (1280 x 720) and Full-HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, but also with the aim of bringing audio and video together in a single connector.

We can find it both on the motherboard and on the graphics card, but be careful ! Not to be confused with DisplayPort, they are different ports.

DisplayPort connector

We will find it, except for exceptions, in the graphics card and it is a port through which the manufacturer will not have to pay any fee to use it, because it is free. On the other hand, it supports up to 2560 x 1600 resolution and is widely used for second monitors.

The DisplayPort is more comprehensive than HDMI, but it hasn't gotten as much juice out of it as yet, so both options are perfect for the average user. The DisplayPort is usually used for large resolutions and high hertz (144, 160…).

RJ45 connector

Without a doubt, it is one of the best known worldwide, because it is the Ethernet port. In this port we connect (vulgarly said) the internet cable that comes out of our router.

As an interesting fact, in the past the motherboards incorporated the RJ-11, which is known as a telephone cable. When the flat rate did not exist, the internet was a challenge!

So far all the PC connectors that we can come across. There are more, but they are very rare, such as the Apple Desktop Bus, the Micro-DVI or the Optical Audio “Toslink”.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you and you can understand all the connectors that we can find in our tower, as within it. If you have any questions, you can leave them to us below. We are happy to read!