LAB 1
By Audriauna Bainter
SEPTEMBER 1, 2025
Hands-On Project 1-1 - Opening a Computer Case
1.The first thing I did was take a picture of the inside of the pc to make sure everything is placed
exactly where it needs to be (see figure 1.)
Figure 1
2.Next I checked out how many power cables were coming from the PSU and where
they were going. I found a total of 3 cables. Figures 2 and 3 are going to the
motherboard and figure 4 is going to the hard drive.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
3. Next I examined the motherboard for expansion slots, expansion cards, and what kind of pin
connector it has. I found my pc is using an 18-pin connector which I found interesting and
learned it’s the standard for my old HP Z – series workstation (see figure 2 above.). My pc has a
total of 6 PCI expansion slots. A PCI slot, two PCI e3 x16, a PCI e3 x8, a PCI e2 x4, and a PCI
e2x1 (figure 5). I have a total of 8 memory slots. Interestingly my motherboard is held in place
by 10 screws being a workstation.
Figure 5
4. for my expansion card I can tell by looking at the ports what the card is used for
because they all connect to the display. It has an HDMI port, a display port, and a vga.
The card is using the PCI e3 x16 slot.
Hands-On Project 1-2- Identifying Connectors Used on an Installed Motherboard
1.
Hands-On Project 1-3- Identifying Drives and Their Connectors
1. First I will list the types of drives my pc has. For my hard drive I have a Seagate
Barracuda 7200.12 hard disk drive that uses a sata interface and power connector (figure
6).
Figure 6
2. My motherboard can support up to 6 SATA drives at the same time (HDDs,SSDs, or
optical drives). The purpose of a hard drive is to store data long term.
Hands-On Project 1-4 Closing the Case
1.After I was all done with my project, I cleaned the inside with a can of air duster
and closed it up making sure everything was put back properly like the picture I
took in the beginning.
Hands-On Project 1-5 Observing Laptop Features
1. My laptop is an hp 15-EF0023DX serial number 5CD013B0QD
2. The website for the manufacturer is https://www.hp.com/us-en/home.html
3. See figure 7 for drivers available
Figure 7
4. After examining the laptop and all of its documentation, I found the following
ports on the laptop are a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C, USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A, an
HDMI, a Combo audio (headphone/mic) jack, AC Smart pin power connector,
and and sd card reader.
5. My laptop supports a total of 16 gb of Ram. It currently has a 4gb and 8gb
stick so I would probably upgrade it with a kit of 2 8gb sticks for the best
performance.
6. Laptop batteries, like any battery, wear out over time. Currently mine lasts
about 2 hours which is not optimal. A new battery will cost me around $50.