Hey Hubber's, last week we had a look at storage devices, this week we will be looking at Expansion Cards. Expansion cards provide your PC with extra functionality and fall under 4 major categories; Video, Multimedia, Input and Output ports such as extra USB ports and Communications such as Network cards.
So what types are there and what are they used for?
Like I said above there are 4 major categories: Video, Multimedia, I/O, Communications. I will tell you a little about each one and what cards fall under each category.
Video
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| PCI express video card |
Video cards or video adapters are the cards that allow your computer to display information to a monitor such as a games rendered images. The video cards is responsible for converting the data sent by the CPU into pixels. Although video cards are common in all PC's there not necessarily needed as motherboards usually have video support built in, this is however very limited and literally to just using the computer and say editing documents or general browsing of the internet.
For more complex rendering of higher quality images like video editing or playing games then a video adapter will be required. Video cards can be installed into the standard PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots on older models, more advanced models used there own dedicated slots know as AGP(Accelerated Graphics Port) but as video cards got more powerful PCIe(express) was introduced.
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| AGP video card |
Multimedia
The most commonly found multimedia card in a PC is the audio card, more recently through the years TV tuner cards and video capture cards have become more popular.
The sound card is an adapter that add the ability to convert signals into sound so you can hear it through speakers. They have varying compatibilities in regards to speaker systems, some offer basic input and some offer digital or surround sound capability depending on the need. Motherboards like video adapters come with onboard sound but tend to lack quality that a good audio card can provide. For example if you edit music you don't want to use the onboard sound as this isn't adequate enough where an audio card provides better quality. A sound card uses small round 1/8" jack connections, there can 3 or more for different speaker configurations, some cards today also provide a digital output using an RCA connection. 
TV tuner cards are used to provide your computer the option of watching a broadcast signal such as cable TV to your computers monitor. TV tuner cards come in analog, digital and even hybrid varieties. Some TV tuner cards can double up as video capture cards, but you can get standalone video capture cards for saving a streamed video that can be then edited after. Video capture cards have gained popularity especially amongst computer gamers that stream there games to websites such as Twitch or YouTube. TV tuner cards and video capture cards all come with software for aiding the use of these devices.
I/O Cards
I/O stands for Input/Output, on modern motherboards that would be pretty much all your connections you see on the back of your computer case. Older motherboards didn't have much on and needed extra connections for connecting to externally and internally. This could be anything from older printer port connections to internal SCSI controllers. Nowadays I think the only expansions cards for input and out put will be extra USB slots. If your motherboard for example supports USB 3.0 but doesn't have any you could install an expansion card providing this feature, this will a rare thing to do because most motherboards have most features integrated in to them.Communications
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| Wired NIC |
This category of expansion cards, covers cards that give your PC the ability to communicate over a network. Such as a Network Interface Card(NICs) wired or wireless and modems.
Network adapter and modems are amongst the most popular in communications adapters.
Network adapters can be found and used in the home or a business and rely on other devices such as hubs, switches and routers to relay there information.
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| Wireless NIC |
NICs come in two main form wired – using an Ethernet cable for means of data transfer – and wireless – which communicates network traffic using radio waves - which creates a link to the internet or another PC/s in a network.
In contrast to these devices there was an older method, which used a card with a modem. This card gave a single computer the ability to connect to the internet using your standard home phone connection. It is limited in speed and restricts use of the telephone when connected to a modem though, this saw its decline in use with the replacement by routers.
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| Modem |
All expansion cards usually come with software to configure each card, this software provides each card with drivers. The drivers are what you could think of as a bridge between the OS and the hardware. Instructions sent from the OS to the hardware and the hardware understands what being asked of it. Along with the drivers there may be other software to help you configure you device further, like a program for over-clocking your video card, or a gateway to your Internet Service Provider.
Installing your expansion card
Remember your ESD protection!
Installing your expansion cards are pretty straight forward, if your replacing an adapter you will want to uninstall its drivers first, found in device manager and right clicking on the appropriate device to uninstall. Also check that unneeded software that is used by the device is un-installed as well.
Then turn your PC off and open your case, carefully remove your old device and swap it with the new one, here's the tricky bit you'll need to know if you adapter requires a PCI express slot or a PCI slot once that is determined slot your card into to the correct slot. Most modern hardware will be configured automatically when you turn the PC back on so you shouldn't have to mess with the BIOS. In some cases the drivers to the adapter may be found within an existing Microsoft update and your software disc may not be needed, for specified adapters like Video cards you will probably need the software disc. Once all that is done your ready to go.
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