MOTHERBOARD

PARTS, COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS

COMPUTER SYSTEMS SERVICING NCII

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT TECHNICAL SCHOOL

HTTPS://WWW.COMPUTERHOPE.COM/JARGON/M/MOTHBOAR.HTM
MOTHERBOARD
MOTHERBOARD

• is a printed circuit board and foundation

of a computer that is the biggest board
in a computer chassis.
• It allocates power and allows
communication to the CPU, RAM, and all
other computer hardware components.
IC

• IC is short for Integrated Circuit or

Integrated Chip,
Chip is a package
containing many circuits, logic
gates, pathways, transistors, and
other components all working
together to perform a particular
function or a series of functions.
•
EXPANSION SLOT
• Alternatively referred to as a bus slot or
expansion port,
port an expansion slot is a
connection or port located inside a
computer on the motherboard or riser
card.
• It provides an installation point for a
hardware expansion card to be connected
on the motherboard or riser card.
card
COMPUTER EXPANSION SLOTS

• AGP - Video card.

• AMR - Modem, sound card.
• CNR - Modem, network card, sound card.
• EISA - SCSI, network card, video card.
• ISA - Network card, sound card, video card.
• PCI - Network card, SCSI, sound card, video card.
• PCI Express - Video card, modem, sound card, network card.
• VESA - Video card.
CASE FAN

• Also called as system fan,

fan a
case fan is located inside a
computer, attached to the
front or back of its case.
• Case fans help bring cool air
into and blow hot air out of the
case. 
BACK PANEL AND I/O CONNECTORS

• The back panel is the portion of

the motherboard that allows
you to connect external devices,
devices
such as your monitor, speakers,
keyboard, and mouse.
HEAT SINK

• A heat sink is a device that incorporates either a fan

or some other means to keep a hot component,
such as a processor, cooled down.
• There are two heat sink types: active and passive.
passive
HEAT SINK

• Heat spreaders are another type of passive

heat sink that are used to help dissipate the
heat produced by RAM modules.
MEMORY SLOT

• A memory slot,
slot memory socket,
soc or RAM slot is
what allows RAM (computer memory) to be
inserted into the computer.
4-PIN (P4) POWER CONNECTOR

• The P4 connector is a 12V power

supply cable used with
motherboards that have an Intel
Pentium 4 or later processor.
• Today, the connector is a standard
power connector and is used with
both Intel and AMD motherboards.
ATX MOTHERBOARD POWER
CONNECTOR

• It is one of the largest connectors inside a

computer. It is the main power source of the
motherboard from the power supply.
•
CPU SOCKET

• a CPU socket or processor socket

is a connection that allows a
computer processor to be
connected to a motherboard.
• The CPU socket locks the central
processing unit into place,
preventing it from moving or
being damaged.
TYPES OF CPU SOCKETS

• PGA Socket
• LGA Socket
• ZIF Socket
• BGA Socket
•
NORTHBRIDGE AND SOUTHBRIDGE

• The Northbridge,
Northbridge alternatively referred to as the PAC
(PCI/AGP Controller) is an integrated circuit
responsible for communications between the CPU
interface, AGP, and the memory.
• The Southbridge is an IC on the motherboard
responsible for the hard drive controller, I/O
controller and integrated hardware.
SUPER I/O

• Short for super input/output,

input/output or
super I/O,
I/O SIO is an integrated
circuit on a computer
motherboard that handles the
slower and less prominent
input/output devices.
•
FLOPPY CABLE

• A floppy cable is a ribbon cable found in PC's that

allow one or more floppy disk drives to be
connected to a computer.
•
FLOPPY CONNECTOR

• The floppy channel,

channel FDD header,
header or floppy
connection is where the floppy drive connects to
the computer motherboard. In the picture below, is
an example of a motherboard with two IDE
connections and a floppy channel connector.
IDE

• Integrated Drive Electronics,

Electronics IDE is more commonly known as
ATA or PATA (parallel ATA).
• It is a standard interface for IBM computers that was first
developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for
compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives.
•
SATA

• Serial AT attachment,
attachment SATA 1.0 was first
released in August 2001 and is a
replacement for the parallel ATA interface
used in IBM compatible computers.
• SerialATA is capable of delivering 1.5 Gbps
(approximately 187 MBps) of performance
to each drive within a disk array.
1394 HEADER AND USB HEADER

• The 1394 header and USB header is a pin

connection found on a computer
motherboard that allow additional 1394
and USB connections to be added to the
computer.
BIOS

• Basic Input/Output System,

System the BIOS (pronounced
bye-oss) is a ROM chip found on motherboards that
allows you to access and set up your computer
system at the most basic level.
BIOS

The four main functions of a PC BIOS

• POST - Test the computer hardware and make sure no
errors exist before loading the operating system.
• Bootstrap Loader - Locate the operating system.
• BIOS drivers - Low-level drivers that give the computer
basic operational control over your computer's hardware.
• BIOS or CMOS Setup - Configuration program that allows
you to configure hardware settings including system
settings such as computer passwords, time, and date.
CD-IN

• Alternatively referred to as the

optical drive audio connector,
connector the
CD-IN is a four-pin connector
found on a computer's
motherboard or sound card that
connects an optical drive's audio.
CMOS

• Alternatively referred to as a RTC (real-

time clock), NVRAM (non-volatile RAM)
or CMOS RAM, CMOS is short for
complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor.
semiconductor
• CMOS is an onboard, battery powered
semiconductor chip inside computers
that stores information.
•
SYSTEM PANEL CONNECTOR

• Also called as the fpanel or front panel

connector,
connector controls a computer power
button, reset button, and LED's.
• The cables, are two wire cables that are
color coded to help identify where they
connect to the motherboard system
panel connector.
 TYPES OF SYSTEM PANEL CABLES

• HDD LED (IDE LED) - The LED

activity light for the hard drive. This
indicator is the light that flashes as
information is being written to and
read from the hard drive.
• PLED (Power LED) - The LED power
light, which indicates when the
computer is on, off, or in Standby.
 TYPES OF SYSTEM PANEL CABLES

• PWRSW (Power SW) - Controls the

power button that allows you to
turn on and off the computer.
• Reset SW - Handles the reset
button to restart the computer.
• Speaker
Speak - The internal speaker
used to sound the beep noises
you hear from your computer
when it is booting.
JUMPER

• Jumpers allow the computer to

close an electrical circuit, allowing
the electricity to flow certain
sections of the circuit board.
•
COIL AND CAPACITORS
STANDOUT

• Sometimes referred to as standoff and spacer,

spacer
standouts are small metal or plastic screws
that attaches to a computer case and holds
the motherboard to the case.
MOTHERBOARD MOUNTING SCREW
HOLE

• Each motherboard has several

holes to help hold the
motherboard securely in
place.