TechSpot's Quick Guide to Sockets and Ports
All our computing devices rely on applied science that allows them to connect to other devices and networks. Some of these work using electromagnetic systems, just a good number of them must utilize a physical connection: a socket to plug something into and an electrical interface to send information back and forth.
Example in point, the average desktop computer contains over 10 dissimilar types of connections and often sports over 30 individual sockets. Whether you're wanting to sort out SATA from M.two, or DVI-D from DisplayPort, welcome to our quick guide to sockets and ports -- a run-through some of the near important and common connexion systems found in today's PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
A Quick Give-and-take About Terminology
Socket, port, connector, interface, slot, bus -- all these words have specific meanings in the earth of engineering, but they've become somewhat intermingling over the years. Nosotros're equally guilty of this by calling this a guide for "sockets and ports," when they're essentially the same thing.
A socket or port is the concrete system used to one calculating device to another, or to a peripheral: this volition involve a set up of connectors (things to plug together) and an electrical interface.
The latter is the signalling organization: the means by which information and instructions are sent between the devices. Some sockets/ports use a full general signalling system that can be practical to a range of ports, but others apply one dedicated for that item socket. A few even support several interfaces.
To keep things a petty simpler, we'll merely call everything a socket, fifty-fifty if information technology's chosen a port, and not worry besides much virtually the interface!
Sockets for CPUs
We'll start our guide with the biggest and most complex socket that whatever desktop PC will have: the one for the CPU. Today's central processors consume lots of power, take multiple cores, and take to exist directly connected to a whole host of other components in the reckoner.
All of this means that the CPU socket will have hundreds of private connectors, in the forms of tiny metal pins and pad/slots. AMD and Intel accept differing approaches to where these get: AMD usually has the pins on the CPU in a format called PGA-ZIF (pivot grid array, nothing insertion strength), whereas Intel tends to put them in the socket itself (LGA - land filigree assortment).
In that location'due south no huge advantage to one method over the other, although the pins are a little more protected when they're in the socket and not in the processor. That said, PGA-ZIF systems don't crave the CPU to be held in place with a significant corporeality of forcefulness, unlike LGA arrangement which mostly require you to clamp the processor downwardly.
When a vendor releases a new socket blazon, not all of the connections are used. This is to allow for future CPUs to be supported, assuasive for increased power consumption or more cores. That'southward the idea, at least, simply Intel has a habit of locking CPU support to the socket and the primary set of fries (known every bit the PCH) on the motherboard.
AMD likewise does this, but to a bottom extent, and they have been using their AM4 socket format for their desktop Ryzen processors for over iv years. Intel has gone through two (LGA1551 and LGA1200) in the same period, and while AM4 volition still be used for the next series of Ryzen CPUs, LGA1200 volition be replaced with another socket for Intel's side by side lineup.
Some processors crave enormous sockets: AMD's Threadripper range uses a terrifying 4094 pins in the TR4 socket, only at to the lowest degree they're all in the motherboard. Imagine trying to make certain you don't bend of whatsoever them, if they were on the CPU!
These models for professional workstations and servers comprise dozens of cores, and need to connect to large amounts of RAM, which is why they take so many connectors. At the other end of the scale (i.eastward. piddling dual core CPUs), pins are still involved but not quite in the aforementioned way.
When it comes to laptops, sockets were used in the past, but to achieve ever thinner designs in the same path tablets and smartphones have gone, CPUs are typically straight soldered onto the principal excursion lath. This means that, for most people, upgrading the processor is out of the question.
For desktop PCs, though, upgrading the CPU is a relatively elementary process: first, check with the vendor of the motherboard as to what information technology can support, remove the cooling unit, popular a new scrap in and away y'all go. Better CPUs oftentimes require more ability, which means they generate more rut, and then you might desire to stop by our forums and ask our regular visitors for some advice on the affair.
Sockets for RAM
Situated right next to the CPU, is some other prepare of sockets that are super of import and house the system RAM. These can be easily identified past the fact that they're very long and nearly always come in pairs or fours. Each one holds a single DIMM (dual inline memory module) and for the past xx years, it's been a form of DDR-SDRAM.
As y'all can see in the prototype beneath, there are tiny connectors down both sides of the socket -- the rows are carve up past a plastic separator, to ensure that the module will only fit i way.
The amount of retentiveness that yous can insert into the RAM socket -- too ordinarily referred to equally RAM slot -- depends on the CPU and motherboard, but each type of DDR-SDRAM has a standard configuration: in the case of our example, which is DDR3, there are two rows of 120 connectors, some for power, the rest for communicating with the system.
Replacing DIMMs is even easier than upgrading a CPU, merely once again, you'll need to check in the vendor of the motherboard to find out exactly what RAM it supports. It's also worth noting that the sockets themselves are color-coded to indicate that within the CPU, at that place are several memory controllers, 2 in this instance.
Let's say y'all bought a new PC, and it had a unmarried DIMM installed into the showtime blackness socket (labelled DIMM_A1 in the image). You could buy a matching stick of RAM and fit information technology into any of the sockets, merely y'all'd go the best consequence by putting into the other black socket.
By doing this, each retention controller in the CPU would have its own block of RAM to piece of work with, and this would put the system into what's called dual channel fashion. This finer doubles the amount of information that can be passed back and forth, between the CPU and RAM, in each clock cycle.
Laptops too use sockets for their RAM, merely just like with CPUs, they're much smaller in size. Such devices utilise the SO-DIMM (small outline DIMM) format, which always has fewer pins than their desktop cousins -- this usually means a DIMM for a laptop holds less memory or runs at a slower speed.
For tablets and smartphones, the memory chips are bonded straight onto the mainboard, to pack everything into as minor a space as possible. Naturally, this means the chips can't be upgraded, unless y'all're a whizz with a soldering iron.
Sockets for Graphics
While we're nonetheless in the guts of a desktop PC, let's move onto the adjacent important socket -- the one for the graphics carte. Y'all won't find these inside laptops and other modest computing devices, simply pretty much everything else will take at to the lowest degree i of these sockets or slots.
If nosotros go way back in time, 25 years or more, add-in cards just went into a full general purpose slot, known as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) but in the fall of 1997, a modified version was introduced, exclusively for graphics cards. This was called the AGP slot (Accelerated Graphics Port) which rapidly became the new standard for graphics. This is considering it ran faster than the standard PCI, and the communication system provided a direct link betwixt the CPU, system RAM, and graphics bill of fare.
Fast forward to 2004 and the AGP slot was with a applied science that'due south still with u.s.a. today, albeit heavily updated. The PCI Express standard (PCIe, for short) defined the slot shape and the communication system. Despite its name, it had little in common with the PCI organisation, being more like AGP.
PCIe slots are categorized in two ways: the version of PCIe used and the number of communication lanes. The simplest types are classed as PCIe x1 because they incorporate but 1 set of lanes, but graphics cards virtually always use the largest size (x16).
Rendering 3D graphics involves having to send lots of information to and from the card, as quickly every bit possible, which is why they use a x16 slot. However, many games don't need that level of information throughput, especially when using the latest version of PCI Express, and you tin go away with using x8, with but a small performance loss.
The number of PCIe slots in a PC is determined by what CPU is existence used and whether or not the motherboard contains any extra PCIe controllers. For example, AMD's 3000 series Ryzen processors have 24 sets of lanes congenital into them, although four of them are used to communicate with the motherboard.
This leaves twenty left over, and they can be used in a variety of ways -- for example, one each of x16 and x4 sockets, or 2 x16 slots, set to operate in x8 mode, and one x4. Ameliorate yet, is the fact that it doesn't have to exist a graphics menu in the slot: it could be filled with actress storage drives.
Depending on what chips are used in the motherboard, an additional 12 lanes might be available, although you wouldn't employ them for a graphics card. These extra lanes are perfect for storage drives, sound cards, network adapters, and so on. Nosotros'll come back to this later.
But we're not done with sockets for graphics, because the images made by the GPU need to be sent to a monitor somehow. Naturally, in that location'due south a whole host of ways of doing this!
The image higher up shows the output ports from a typical motherboard on the left and graphics cards on the right, and four of the virtually common types tin can be seen.
At the top left is a DE-15 connector, also known equally a VGA port or D-Sub. This is an entirely analogue system, using voltages to describe the levels for the cherry, greenish, and bluish color channels, and signals to time everything against. There are no industry standards to define the quality of the connector or cablevision, so the highest resolution and refresh rate information technology can support will vary from system to arrangement.
The photograph in a higher place besides shows two DVI-D connectors (Digital Visual Interface, digital-only) -- this digital technology is actually over twenty years old, and uses pairs of differential voltages to ship color values.
These particular ports are dual link, pregnant they tin can transmit information for 2 pixels at the same fourth dimension. Depending on what'southward called the pixel clock of the graphics card and monitor, a DVI-D port could back up a resolution of 1920 ten 1080 with a refresh rate of up to 160 Hz, for example.
Its drawbacks are that it cannot transmit whatsoever audio and it doesn't use any form of data compression, so really high resolutions at medium-to-high refresh rates (eastward.g. 4K at 60 Hz) is out of the question. This is where the other two ports come into play, and on the previous image, the one on the bottom left is a DisplayPort socket, and the other two are HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface).
The latter is an extension of DVI and has been updated considerably since it first appeared near 18 years ago. Both offering compression, but only HDMI provides an audio link -- the latest versions of either one are perfect for ultra high resolution monitors or super loftier refresh rates.
One trouble with all such ports is that there is no way of telling what version it is, but exist looking at it. The latest spec for DisplayPort (2.0) is massively more than capable than the offset iteration, but the socket itself hasn't inverse. You'll need to dig into the details of your graphics card and monitor to notice out what you've got.
Sockets for Storage
Another connection system that'south contradistinct significantly over the years is that used for storage drives. Back in the days of PCI and AGP, hd drives, floppy disks, and CD-burners were more often than not hooked up to a computer via the Parallel ATA organisation (besides known as IDE, Integrated Device Electronics).
The name for the system tells you a little flake how it worked, in that multiple ATA sockets all shared the same connectedness to the rest of the PC -- i.e. they worked in parallel. Up to two devices could also be plugged into the same socket and some of you lot may recall the hassle with trying to mess about with tiny jumpers on hard drives to do this.
Workstations and servers generally used SCSI -- pronounced "SKUZ-ee" -- (Pocket-size Figurer System Interface) for their hard drives, mostly because this technology came before Parallel ATA, simply the system too offered features better suited for this environment, such equally lower CPU utilization when handling multiple access demands to a hard drive.
Twenty years ago, another connection system appeared that rapidly became the standard means for connecting storage devices inside a computer: Serial ATA (SATA, for short). Equally the proper noun suggests, this involves no sharing or multiple devices on one cable. It provided a large boost in operation over its predecessor and the latest version of it can provide upwardly to 6 Gbps of bandwidth.
In that location is a faster version of the socket, chosen SATA Express, that provides up to ten Gbps, only the normal one is fast enough for almost everyone's needs. If you need to have lots of hard drives and optical storage devices, though, you lot might discover that the number of SATA connections on the motherboard to be an outcome.
If it's raw speed that you lot're after, then in that location's only one selection nowadays: NVM Limited (NVMe). Unlike Parallel ATA or SATA, this specification just sets out the interface between the socket and the residual of the system, and it uses PCI Express for the signalling duties.
The two most common socket formats that use the NVMe standard are U.2 and M.2 -- the one-time is mechanically the same as SATA Express, but the latter is very distinctive. It used to exist NGFF (Next Generation Form Gene) but somewhat confusingly, it supports three advice methods: PCI Express, SATA, and USB.
In that location are multiple sizes of M.two sockets -- iv different widths, each supported upwards to 8 set lengths of devices. Then there are 3 different 'key' configurations: in the above paradigm, nosotros tin can see a 22 mm wide socket (which tin can accept up fourscore mm long devices), sporting an M key.
This is the plastic notch on the right and it tells united states of america that this socket uses upwards to 4 PCI Express lanes to talk to the rest of the reckoner. What information technology doesn't tell us is that this particular one can likewise use a SATA interface, if the device installed doesn't back up PCIe. Again, you lot need look upwardly the manufacturer's specifications to exist certain.
What devices tin you plug into an Grand.2 socket?
Only solid land drives but these volition be the fastest storage systems you can purchase. The largest ones are nevertheless very expensive, just you can get 250 GB M.2 SSDs for around $60. A popular setup in a modern PC is to have Windows installed on a PCI Limited M.2 SSD, and games and other large files on a SATA HDD or SSD.
So far, we've but been looking at sockets for storage that isn't intended to be removed, but at that place accept been multiple connectors over the years for devices that can exist instantly taken out or plugged in. Two old examples can be seen above: PC Card and Firewire which have now given mode to the likes of USB and SD cards.
Laptops typically come with both, whereas desktop PCs normally require an additional reading device to be installed to handle SD cards. These come in various formats, determined past their size and speed -- read our SD/microSD guide for more information virtually this.
SD cards and SSDs both use the same NAND wink storage, simply differ greatly in their storage limits and performance. The largest consumer SSDs currently offering 8 TB of information space, and if you desire more than capacity yous'll need to head for a traditional disk bulldoze.
If you're worried about which storage type you lot should exist using, NVMe is the fastest and more than expensive, but unless you're working on mission critical workloads, don't worry. Nosotros recently compared fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs against modern SATA drives in loading games, and there wasn't a huge difference between them.
Sockets for Peripherals
When information technology comes to attaching external devices and peripherals to a computer, such as printers, scanners, external difficult drives, then along, there's pretty much only one way of doing information technology at present, and that'south USB.
Around for 25 years, USB has sat aslope numerous other connection systems, most of which take come and gone. For mice, keyboards, and other input devices, in that location's two options: the legacy PS/2 port and a standard USB 2.0 Type A socket (other versions will work just too). None of these peripherals demand much power or lots of signalling speed, which is why these older socket technologies are fine.
On the other hand, if yous need to connect a high resolution scanner or external difficult drive, then y'all'll want every bit much bandwidth every bit possible, and for that you need USB three.0 -- but which ane? There are 3 unlike versions of the specification, but the socket for each type of physically the same.
Some vendors will signal it with a color code (blue is oft used for 3.0, iii.1 and three.2) or use a little characterization indicating the speed, but for about of the time, you'll need to... yes, that's right: bank check the transmission. The latest versions of USB offer a unlike socket, called Blazon C, and this tin be found on lots of modern smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Like previous USB revisions, it supports a variety of speeds, so you lot can't assume that if you're using a Type C connector, it will run at 20 Gbps, for instance.
Another cracking feature about USB, is that it tin be used to charge batteries or ability them entirely. Depending on the specification of the port, up to 25 West of battery charging power is available and every bit much as 100 West for power delivery. Not all ports can do this though.
At least all USB sockets just have a handful of pins, making them cheap to brand and unproblematic to employ -- perfect for connecting any peripheral.
Sockets for Sound
When information technology comes to hooking up speakers and microphones to a computer, we're normally faced with the following situations: a plethora of multi-colored connectors on the dorsum of the PC, or 1 or two holes on the front/side, in the case of virtually laptops. In all cases, they utilize the standard 3.v mm jack, either in mono or stereo format. But why are there six of them in 1 case and only one/two in the other?
In our left example above, the pink socket is for a microphone and the green connector is the master speaker/headphone output -- besides called the line out. The others are mostly for environs sound setups: blackness is for a rear speaker, greyness for side ones, and the orangish one for center and subwoofer speakers. The blueish one is a line in, used for connecting other music devices to the computer.
Are these colors universal? Sadly, no, and yet again, we must turn to the vendor's specifications to know exactly what each connector is for. Sensing a pattern hither?
Before we move on, there's ane more than socket for audio to signal out -- in the above image, it's the grey, square connector.
This is an Southward/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface), which sends audio signals in a digital stream through a fiber optic cable (electric versions be, besides), using a TOSLINK connector. Without data compression, it tin can handle two sound channels at most, merely with compression such as Dolby Ac-3, it can transmit a full vii.ane surround stream.
Sockets for Networking
The last connectors we'll await at are the ones used to connect computers to each other, be it for a simple LAN (local area network), the Net, or anything in-between. For our everyday computing devices, such equally smartphones, we use wireless engineering science, merely where mobility isn't required, Ethernet is typically used.
About every desktop PC and many laptops will come up with a dedicated port for this - it usually goes by the name of RJ45 ('Registered Jack #45'). This is an manufacture standardized system that uses an 8P8C connector to plug into it.
The speed of the connection isn't determined by the connector, but by the cables and the network adapter that's fastened to the socket. For example, the one shown higher up has a fiddling Intel I218 chip backside it, on the motherboard, and supports up to 1 Gbps of rate transfer rate.
Physical connections to a network sit down side-by-side with wireless systems, and while laptops, tablets, and smartphones all come up with such technologies today, in that location are still computers that offering a Wi-Fi setup.
To improve the signal integrity, many come with a pair of female person RP-SMA connectors; these are used to attach two antennae or a full aerial kit.
Some of y'all may remember the delights of dial-upwards cyberspace access. This used a standard phone line, sending data back and forth, in the class of sound signals. These would need to take a device called a modem, to encode and decode the data from the sounds.
Some laptops, peculiarly those for the business market, came with modems built into them, and the socket for that was an RJ11, using a 6P2C or 6P4C connector -- very similar to the RJ45 used for LAN connections, but slightly smaller in size, and with fewer wires.
These kinds of modems are nigh museum pieces by at present, so it would be very unusual to buy a new computing device sporting such a feature!
Sockets for Sockets' Sake?
Every now and then, a technology vendor volition decide to go their own way and produce a proprietary socket and interface for their exclusive use -- and potentially accuse a hefty license fee. Arguably the most famous of these is Apple'southward Lightning connector, which first appeared in the autumn of 2022, on the iPhone v, followed by iPod and iPad devices of the time.
Apple used to have their own connector in previous models, a much larger 30 pin organization, so switching to a smaller and simpler port made a lot of sense. Withal, at that time, other smartphone manufacturers mostly used a USB 2.0 mini or micro socket.
And so 3 years later, Apple tree jumped started the USB iii.0 Type-C bandwagon with their MacBook range. The Lightning connector is still used on today's iPhone models, and whatever advantages that it used to have over USB two.0 are since long gone.
It was a similar situation with Thunderbolt. This is an advanced connexion system, jointly developed by Intel and Apple, that originally used the mini-DisplayPort socket (the latest version uses USB Type-C). Few other manufacturers used it considering of the licencing fees, so despite its impressive feature set, information technology never gained massive adoption. Fortunately, that all changed years afterward when Intel decided to drop all royalty charges with Thunderbolt 3. Old habits die hard, though, and you'd still be pressed to detect to notice many computing devices sporting the Thunderbolt interface.
So Many Sockets!
Computing and gadget enthusiasts will known that in that location's a raft of other connectors out at that place -- for example, we oasis't covered ones for power, cooling fans, trusted platform modules, internal USB expansion ports, and so on. We could accept delved further into the world of networking and servers, and looked at fiber connections, or explored the depths of A/Five ports.
Merely we have all the same covered the most important and mutual ones y'all'll run across when using computing devices and their peripherals, and we hope our quick guide has given you a little more insight into all those sockets and ports. 1 twenty-four hour period at that place may just be a handful in use, helping to simplify our gadgets and PC.
Until and so, we'll but take to continue on getting grips with the latest connection technologies and saying goodbye to the ones they've replaced. If yous call back nosotros've missed a really important socket or you have a mystery port on a computer that'southward puzzling you, brand certain you lot permit us know.
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