I started studying for my CompTIA A+ Core 1 class this weekend. This is harder than I thought. Lots of discussion about cabling and voltages and connector types and speeds and such. All good things to know in the IT field, sure, but realistically…do I need to know ALL of these details? Sure, if I was building an intense gaming desktop system, I may need to be aware of these things, but when it comes to connectors and the like, I don’t really need to tell a Molex from a Molex KK connector, I just need to know where it gets plugged in to and what it’s connected to.

The awful thing is that I’m semi-familiar with these things. I’ve never built a computer from scratch, but I’ve watched Doug so many times and he’s showed me what is what so I have a good general basic idea of what goes where. Although I will say that reading up on this is really making me consider building something, maybe a Linux box? I do need to become more familiar with Linux and I have been considering moving my laptop to a dual-boot system to work with it, but I’m hesitant to do so in case it may cause more problems than solutions later.

I also am noticing that the majority of the things discussed in this class is building DESKTOP PCs, NOT laptops. I wonder if they’re going to get into the internals of laptops. Desktop PCs are becoming less common and most people are moving to laptops, so it makes sense to familiarize what the parts look like in a laptop as well if you’re going for a support certification, which is what the A+ is.

Also…would be nice to see some women in these demonstration videos. Just saying.