IEEE 1394 Expansion Card.

Also known as Firewire (Apple) or iLINK (Sony).

Used for transferring video from Digital Video cameras to the computer for editing. Can also be used for file transfer between computers.

USB 2.0 expansion card.

This adapter card adds 4 USB ports to the computer.

Used for connecting flashdrives, portable storage, printers, scanners and many other peripherals. USB is the most widely used interface on computers today. USB version 2 supports speeds up to 480 Mbits per second. USB version 3 was recently launched and supports sppeds up to 6Gbits per second.

Wireless Network Interface Card

also known as Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.11

Installed in computers where connecting a cable may not be practical or economical.

Current Wi-Fi cards can acheive speeds comparable to wired network cards.

Serial ATA (SATA) Power Connector

This power connector has replaced the older MOLEX type power connectors and is used to power Hard Disk Drives and Optical drives such as CD/DVD and BluRay drives.

It is uniquely keyed to prevent it being connected the wrong way around.

PCI Express x16 Slot

Replacing the older AGP video card slot. The PCI Express slot was introduced several years ago and is primary designed for connecting video adapter cards. Many motherboards come with 2 or 3 PCI Express slots of this type to support a video feature known as SLI (Scalable Link Interface) this feature allows the use of multiple video cards in one PC and also has the benefit of combining the graphic power of these cards as one.