Expansion options are slots on the motherboard that allow physical hardware components to be added which expand the devices or peripherals on the computer. These options include but are not limited to;
USB or universal serial bus
Firewire
Thunderbolt
SATA port (Serial AT attachment)
HDMI
Registered Jack or RJ
VGA, DVI, Display Port Video
Analog and Digital Audio
Sound cards
RAID controller
Network cards
Wi-Fi Adapters
One of the main benefits of expansion is the ability to customize and upgrade your computers’ functionality and performance. Most motherboards have manufacturer specifications that tell you how much you can increase the RAM or hard drive storage capacity as well as CPU. If you are running out of storage space, you can upgrade your HDD or SDD to expand your storage capacity. This can be done through the RAID controller or the use of an additional SATA port leaving the original HDD in place. If you want to upgrade the RAM to max capacity, it may have come with 8 gigabytes of memory but can be upgradable to 64 GB or more. The motherboard usually has somewhere between 2 to 4 expansion slots for memory and takes specific RAM modules. If you are upgrading to 32GB, you may have to purchase two 16GB modules or four 8GB modules. It all depends on the manufacturer.