What is typically plugged into an expansion slot?

An expansion slot on a motherboard is designed to accommodate additional cards that enhance or add functionality to a computer system. Graphics cards are a prime example of components that utilize these slots. By installing a graphics card into an expansion slot, users can significantly improve their computer's graphics capabilities, allowing for better performance in gaming, video editing, and other visual tasks that require enhanced video processing power.

Graphics cards often come with their own dedicated processing unit (GPU) and memory, which take over rendering tasks from the CPU, resulting in improved overall system performance. This is why they commonly connect via expansion slots, such as PCI Express, which provide the necessary bandwidth for data transfer between the card and the rest of the system.

In contrast, hard drives and memory modules have their specific slots and connectors separate from expansion slots, and operating systems are software that is installed on drives rather than being physically connected through expansion slots. This distinction makes graphics cards the most relevant component associated with expansion slots.