Identifying the cables used by your PC

Case and external

ATX power supply unit (PSU)
ATX power supply

Sockets visible at the back of most PCs
Rear of case

Green: PS/2 port for mouse
Lilac: PS/2 port for keyboard
Pink: parallel port for printer
Yellow: TV-out socket (rarely seen)
Orange: external SATA port for external hard drives (rarely seen)
4 black rectangles: USB ports
Socket above first two USB ports: ‘Firewire’ port
Socket above second two USB ports: network port

Monitor cables

VGA cable

(used by CRT monitors and analogue LCD screens)
VGA

DVI cable

(used by digital LCD screens)
DVI

 

Hard drive cables

IDE data cable

(used on older hard drives and CD/DVD drives)IDE

SATA data cable

(used on newer hard drives and CD/DVD drives)
SATA

SATA power cable
SATA power

USB Cables

USB male type A jack

(goes into your PC)
USB

USB male type B jack

(goes into your printer or scanner)
USB

USB mini type B jack

(goes into your digital camera or PDA)
USB

 

Networking cables

RJ45 network cable
RJ45 network cable

RJ11 telephone/modem cable
RJ11

BT type telephone jack
BT cable