MOTHERBOARD

Learning Objective:

At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

1. Determine the parts and function of a typical motherboard.

2. Distinguish the different rear panel ports of a computer system unit.

A motherboard is also known as the mainboard, baseboard, system board, planar board or, on
Apple computers, a logic board, and is sometimes abbreviated as “mobo”. It is the central or the main
circuit board of your computer. All components and peripherals plug into it are place in there directly /
indirectly and the job of the motherboard is to relay information between them all.

Source: http://www.indiamart.com
 In counter-clockwise order, the following are the functions of each motherboard parts:
CPU Socket Connector
It is where CPU’s are installed. The two most common processors are Intel and AMD. Each
processor would fit only to a specific socket type. PGA ( Pin Grid Array) have its pin at the processor which
is fragile and prone to bending. To do away with it, LGA (Land Grid Array) was developed. LGA have its pin
at the socket itself. Examples of sockets are LGA 775, LGA 771, Socket P, 1366, 1156 1248 for Intel
processors and Socket AM3, Socket G34, Socket C32, FM1, FS1, FM3+ for AMD processor.

PGA Processor and Socket

 LGA Processor and Socket
12 Volts Auxiliary Connector
The Molex 4 pin power connector cable (12 volt cable) is designed to give extra power to a
power hungry motherboard.
Back Panel Connectors
These are the connectors found at the back of a computer system unit. It is where you connect
your mouse, keyboard monitor, USB devices and many others.
AGP Slot
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is a slot where video cards are connected. Video card helps
unburden the motherboard by processing videos thru the card. A high end video card cost more than
the processor and motherboard combined.
PCI Slot
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) is an interconnection system between a microprocessor
and attached devices in which expansion slots are spaced closely for high speed operation.
BIOS
BIOS (basic input/output system) is the program a personal
computer's microprocessor uses to get the computer system
started after you turn it on. It also manages data flow between the
computer's operating system and attached devices such as the hard
disk, video adapter, keyboard, mouse and printer.

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USB Header
 Universal Serial Bus header is intended to be extended at the front panel of the computer
system unit for ease of connection.
CMOS Backup Battery
Is the backup battery for the CMOS to maintain its time, date and
other configuration setting.
FDD / Floppy Disk Drive Header
Is the header where floppy disk drives are connected. Floppy Disk are no longer used to date.
South Bridge Chipset
Southbridge is the chip that controls all of the computers I/O functions, such as USB, audio,
serial, the system BIOS, the ISA bus, the interrupt controller and the IDE channels. In other words, all of
the functions of a processor except memory, PCI and AGP.
IDE/HDD Header
Integrated Drive Electronics is a header or connector for
Hard Disk Drive. It is now being replaced by SATA ( Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment ).It is an interface used to connect ATA
hard drives to a computer's motherboard.

20/24 Pin ATX Power Connector SATA Header

Port for connecting power to the motherboard and its

peripherals from the PSU.
North Bridge Chipset
Is an Intel chipset that communicates with the computer processor and controls interaction with
memory, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, Level 2 cache, and all Accelerated Graphics
Port (AGP) activities.
Memory Slot
It is where RAM (Random Access Memory)are inserted.