Section 1: Personal Computer Components

Congratulations on taking the next step to moving your career forward! Pursuing certification is a great way to get your foot in the door or to demonstrate to your current employer that you’re dedicated to building a career – you’re not just here for a job.

Each section of this free A+ Essentials exam tutorial discusses a “domain” of knowledge. This particular domain, Personal Computer Components, makes up approximately 21% of the questions on the CompTIA A+ Certification Essentials exam. Since this topic is so much of the exam (the other big one is, not surprisingly, the Operating Systems domain), we will really drive deep into the things you need to know to both pass the exam and understand the core job functions of a PC support technician.

Fortunately, the A+ 2006 revision took the focus off some of the memorization we used to have to do for the certification. For example, there is much less focus on knowing which IRQ COM3 uses – in Windows 2000 and newer, when was the last time you had to set an IRQ? Instead, the exam focuses on more useful hardware concepts, communication skills, and security – all things you will need in your career as a desktop support tech.

As you go through this section, there will be pointers and tips to help you pass the exam. This section is really the guts of it all – what do particular hardware components look like, what are they used for, and how do you troubleshoot problems when they break?

So let’s get down to it – let’s start with storage devices and break down a machine.