Computer lingo!

Or, "techno-babble" as I like to call it. If you don't know your IEEE 1394s from your PCI Express x16s, then you may have a problem if you plan on building or upgrading hardware in your computer. Knowing the talk is essential for getting parts that are compatible and not blowing up your house with parts that conflict (just kidding, you'd blow up your whole neighborhood) (just kidding again, you'd just have to return the part and lower your head in shame for not reading this article).

Here's some techno-babble that is useful for building or upgrading a computer:

-Mobo: Motherboard - the circuit board that all of the computer components are attached to.

-AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port - High-speed port on a motherboard for attaching a video card (not the standard, PCI Express x16 is today's standard)

-ATX: Advanced Technology Extended - Standard for computer motherboard and case design.

-PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect - Slot on the motherboard used to attach peripherals such as a sound card.

-PCI Express x16: A more specific version of standard PCI, it is the standard slot for Video Cards on a motherboard.

-GPU: Graphics Processing Unit - Your Video Card.

-SLI: Scalable Link Interface - The technology to link two or more video cards to produce one output. What's better than one video card? Two video cards.

-SATA: Serial ATA - Method for transferring data from your hard drives to your motherboard and devices. This is today's standard; provides increased bandwidth (it's faster than PATA). Used for Hard Drives.

-PATA: Parallel ATA - Method for transferring data from your hard drives to your motherboard and devices. It is the most common, however, it is not as preferred. Can be connected to all drives; Hard drives and CD/DVD drives.

-CPU: Central Processing Unit -Crunches the 1s and 0s and turns your $1000 box into a computer.

-AMD: Advanced Micro Devices - A CPU manufacturer known for making cheap efficient processors.

-Socket 939/AM2: Associated with AMD brand processors, this is the physical layout of the pins that connect it to the motherboard.

-Intel: A CPU manufacturer known for making powerful processors that aren't cheap.

-LGA 775: Associated with Intel brand processors, this is the physical layout of the pins that connect it to the motherboard.

-GigaHertz(ghz): The clock speed of the computer. Used to determine the speed of the processor.

-RAM: Random Access Memory - Your computer uses this to store data used by open applications.

-DDR2 400: One example of RAM slot type. DDR2: double-data-rate two and 400 is the speed of the memory. It is critical that you check the motherboard to and RAM to be sure these match.

-Gigabytes(gb): The unit used to measure the size of storage. I recommend having atleast 1gb of RAM.

-Megabytes(mb): A unit used to measure the size of storage.

-USB: Universal Serial Bus - Used for connecting peripherals, ie: Mouse/Keyboard or MP3 player.

-IEEE 1394: A Firewire port. Used for data transfer much like a USB but much faster than USB2.0, however, it is not common.

-PSU: Power Supply Unit - Powers the system, I recommend at least 500Watts.

Techno-babble really is a different language but it is important to pay attention to those little three letter acronyms for they may cost you time and money. Good luck and happy building