PC ports explained: Get to know the back of your computer

From newcomers like DisplayPort to old standards like USB and dying breeds like FireWire, heres a quick and dirty guide to every port on your new PC.

Almost any modern communication need can be handled with a wireless solution. File transfer, streaming video, peripheral connections all of these can be accomplished without a physical connection. The future is now.

Yet the port persists. No, more than that: Its alive and well. Take a gander at your home office and youll likely find wires of all sorts leading to various connections: USB, HDMI, DVI, Thunderbolt, the list goes on.

Physical connections are still the quickest, most reliable way to transfer data. Which means its still important to know what goes where, and why. Lets clear the air and make room for some modern knowledge of old-fashioned connectivity.

The Universal Serial Bus would make a good role model for super-villains everywhere. It pledged to take over the world. Then it did so. It took well over a decade, but it has happened. FireWire is basically obsolete. External SATA is nearly extinct. Only Thunderbolt may provide a serious challenge but its years away from widespread adoption.

Modern USB essentially comes in two forms USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The ports look the same and are compatible with each other, which is great. Except it makes separating the two difficult. Manufacturers the world over have tried to resolve the standard says that USB 3.0 ports should be blue or should be identified by super-speed USB 3.0 logo (see below).

If its not blue or identified by this logo, its not USB 3.0. Or at least it shouldnt be. Weve yet to encounter a computer that failed to identify USB 3.0 ports by at least logo, but we have run into a couple (both laptops) that didnt use blue.

The main difference between the standards is speed. The maximum bandwidth of 3.0 is over 10 times higher than 2.0. This doesnt mean transfer speeds are ten times better in the real world, but there is a huge difference. Youll see much quicker file transfers with a USB 3.0 drive plugged in to a 3.0 port. Transfer speeds are not better if you plug a 3.0 drive into a 2.0 port. Data can still be transferred, but only at 2.0 speeds.

FireWire was developed by Apple to solve the lack of high-speed connections available to peripherals during the early 90s. Speed was given high priority, and it showed in the resulting standard. FireWire which went through several revisions, and each was consistently quicker than USB.