CompTIA A+ Core 1 (220-1201)HardwareMedium
A technician is deploying new workstations for a graphic design team. These workstations will handle large image and video files, requiring fast storage and transfer speeds. Which of the following storage interfaces offers the highest bandwidth suitable for this demanding workload?
- AFireWire 800
- BSATA III
- CPCIe 4.0 x4
- DUSB 3.0
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. PCIe 4.0 x4
PCIe 4.0 x4, typically used with NVMe SSDs, offers significantly higher bandwidth (up to 8 GB/s or 64 Gbps per lane pair for Gen4) compared to SATA III (6 Gbps), USB 3.0 (5 Gbps), or FireWire 800 (0.8 Gbps), making it ideal for demanding workloads with large files.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. FireWire 800 offers 800 Mbps (0.8 Gbps), which is significantly outdated and too slow.
- B. SATA III offers 6 Gbps, which is too slow for the highest demanding graphic design workloads.
- D. USB 3.0 offers 5 Gbps, primarily for external devices, and is much slower than PCIe.
High-Bandwidth Storage Interfaces
Interfaces designed to provide very fast data transfer rates for storage devices, crucial for applications handling large files or requiring low latency.
- PCIe-based NVMe SSDs offer the highest performance for internal storage.
- Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 offer high speeds for external storage.
- SATA III is a common but slower interface for traditional SSDs and HDDs.
Memory trick: For speed, 'P.S.U.F.' for PCIe, SATA, USB, FireWire.