An IT specialist sets up a new computer for a user who requires a high-end video card and the fastest hard drive possible. Which of the following…

To meet the user's requirements, the specialist must ensure the motherboard supports the appropriate high-speed interfaces. A high-end video card requires a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) slot, specifically a PCIe x16 slot, to provide the necessary bandwidth for modern graphics processing. For the "fastest hard drive possible," the current standard is a Solid-State Drive (SSD) that uses the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) protocol. NVMe drives typically connect to the motherboard via an M.2 slot, offering significantly higher data transfer speeds than older interfaces like SATA.

A. Molex: This is a legacy power connector from the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and is not a data interface on the motherboard.

C. SATA: This is a storage interface, but it is substantially slower than NVMe and would not fulfill the "fastest hard drive possible" requirement.

D. FireWire: This is an outdated external peripheral connection standard, not used for internal components like video cards or modern storage drives.

E. USB-C: This is a versatile external connector for peripherals and is not used to connect an internal high-end video card or primary storage drive.

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1. Intel Corporation. (2022). Product Brief: Intel® Z790 Chipset. Document Number: 352276-001US. On page 1

the "Features" table and block diagram explicitly show dedicated "CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes" for graphics cards and "CPU PCIe 4.0 lanes" for NVMe storage devices

establishing these as the high-performance standards for their respective components.

2. Hennessy

J. L.

& Patterson

D. A. (2019). Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (6th ed.). Morgan Kaufmann. In Chapter 6

"Storage and Other I/O Topics

" Section 6.4 discusses "Buses and Other Connections

" detailing the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) as the standard high-performance interconnect for I/O devices like graphics cards. The chapter also contrasts the performance of NVMe with older protocols like SATA.

3. Stallings

W. (2018). Computer Organization and Architecture: Designing for Performance (11th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 7

"Input/Output

" describes the evolution and structure of PCIe as the primary expansion bus for high-bandwidth devices. It also covers storage interfaces

explaining how NVMe is designed to capitalize on the low latency and parallelism of flash-based storage

connecting directly over the PCIe bus.