PARTS OF THE MOTHERBOARD

MOTHERBOARD is also called the "System Board," it is the main printed circuit
board in an electronic device, which contains sockets or slots that accept additional
boards.
CPU HOLDER OR CPU SOCKET - is a portion in the motherboard which holds the
CPU (Central Processing Unit) or simply as processor.
 MEMORY (RAM) HOLDER OR RAM SLOT - this is the slot where you will insert the
memory module or memory card. Some motherboard comes with two to four slots. Aside
from the motherboard specification, looking at the memory slots would help you to know
which type of memory card is compatible.There is the SIMM slot (Single in-line memory
module) that only supports 32-bit bus and there is the DIMM slot (Dual inline memory
module) that can simultaneously run with a 64-bit bus.
POWER SUPPLY CONTROLER OR POWER CONNECTOR - is the portion where you
can connect the power supply unit (PSU) cable connector. Motherboards come with
different power supply controller. Old motherboard needs AT power supply unit while
new motherboard needs ATX power supply.

POWER SUPPY CONNECTOR

CPU POWER CONNECTOR

NORTH BRIDGE CHIPSET- this chipset handles the data-transfer duties of memory,
CPU, and AGP and to make the most efficient use of available resources.
 SOUTH BRIDGE CHIPSET- this chipset component provides support for a wide variety
of devices with many differing bus speeds and designs. Control over secondary buses such
as USB, IDE, PS/2, Ethernet is the Southbridge's main role.
 BIOS and CMOS
BIOS or Basic Input Output System. This is where all the information and settings of the
motherboard are stored. It can be accessed, updated, and modified via the BIOS mode.
 The CMOS BATTERY (Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor) battery is what’s
responsible for keeping all the information intact when the entire system is shut down.
IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS) CONTROLLER FOR HARDISK AND
OPTICAL DRIVE are the connectors to which you will insert an IDE cable (supplied with
motherboard). IDE cables connect devices such as hard drive, CD Drives and DVD Drives.
IDE CONTROLLER FOR FLOPPY DRIVE: smaller than the IDE controller of hard drive
and optical drive. This is where you connect the floppy drive thru IDE cable
 SATA CONTROLLER -Newest computer mother boards have the new interface called
Serial Advance Technology Attachment (S-ATA). SATA has a faster transfer rate than ATA
and only 1 device can be attached to it.
 EXPANSION SLOT
Alternatively known as a bus slot or expansion port, an expansion slot is a connection or
port inside a computer on the motherboard or riser card. It provides an installation point
for a hardware expansion card to be connected. For example, if you wanted to install a new
video card in the computer, you'd purchase a video expansion card and install that card
into the compatible expansion slot.
AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port) was designed specifically for AGP video cards. AGP
provided a faster bus speed (66 MHz 1x - 133Mhz 2x - 266Mhz 4x effectively). AGP is a
port not a bus unlike the ISA and PCI local buses because it is not expandable, it only
involves the two devices the graphics card and the CPU
 PCI-EXPRESS: Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. Officially abbreviated as
PCI-E or PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard introduced by Intel in 2004, and
currently is the most recent and high-performance standard for expansion cards that is
generally available on modern personal computers. PCIe was designed to replace PCI, PCI-
X, and AGP. Unlike previous PC expansion standards, rather than being a shared parallel
bus, it is structured around point-to-point serial links called lanes.
 PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect. Some pc’s have a number of PCI slots from 1
up to about 6. These PCI bus runs at 33Mhz and normally 32bits. The PCI bus was the first
one to fully support plug and play, where IRQ's and other resources are set up by the OS
and there are no need to alter jumpers etc on the hardware. You may insert different
peripherals on PCI bus, from sound cards to DVD decoders and graphics accelerators
RANDOM-ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) - is a form
of computer memory that can be read and changed
in any order, typically used to store
working data and machine code. A random-
access memory device allows data items to
be read or written in almost the same amount of time
irrespective of the physical location of data inside the
memory
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF RAM?

There are two main types of RAM:

Dynamic RAM (DRAM) and Static RAM (SRAM).

DRAM (pronounced DEE-RAM), is widely used as a computer’s main memory. Each DRAM memory
cell is made up of a transistor and a capacitor within an integrated circuit, and a data bit is stored in
the capacitor. Since transistors always leak a small amount, the capacitors will slowly discharge,
causing information stored in it to drain; hence, DRAM has to be refreshed (given a new electronic
charge) every few milliseconds to retain data.

SRAM (pronounced ES-RAM) is made up of four to six transistors. It keeps data in the memory as
long as power is supplied to the system unlike DRAM, which has to be refreshed periodically. As
such, SRAM is faster but also more expensive, making DRAM the more prevalent memory in
computer systems.
WHAT ARE THE COMMON TYPES OF DRAM?

SYNCHRONOUS DRAM (SDRAM) “synchronizes” the memory speed with CPU clock speed so that
the memory controller knows the exact clock cycle when the requested data will be ready. This allows
the CPU to perform more instructions at a given time. Typical SDRAM transfers data at speeds up to
133 MHz.

 Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) takes its name after the company that made it, Rambus. It was popular in
the early 2000s and was mainly used for video game devices and graphics cards, with transfer
speeds up to 1 GHz.

DOUBLE DATA RATE SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) is a type of synchronous memory that nearly doubles
the bandwidth of a single data rate (SDR) SDRAM running at the same clock frequency by employing
a method  called "double pumping," which allows transfer of data on both the rising and falling edges
of the clock signal without any increase in clock frequency.
 EXPANSION CARDS
The why of expansion cards.
Thanks to the highly modular nature of the PC, expansion cards are a great way to increase
the functionality or capabilities of a system.
Expansion cards can extend the capability of a system by adding more resources.
Expansion cards can increase functionality by adding abilities that were not in the original
system. Expansion cards are often a fairly inexpensive solution to a multitude of issues that
may occur.
VIDEO CARDS

Video cards can increase the overall performance of a system, depending upon the card that is
installed. They can also allow the addition of multiple monitors. One of the ways that they increase
performance is by taking the workload off of the CPU and transferring it to the video card. A good
video card is a wise investment.
SOUND CARDS

Sound cards expand the sound capabilities of a PC. They are popular with gamers and those who
watch videos, and/or television, on their PCs. With a sound card, a system can go from mono
sound, to stereo sound, to surround sound.
NETWORK CARDS

Most motherboards have built in network cards; however, they can fail or they might not connect to
the right type of network in your situation. Additionally, you might need to connect with another or
different type of network or make multiple network connections. Those are a few examples of
situations where a network expansion card could prove useful.
USB CARDS

An expansion card will allow you to add more USB ports to a system. You can also add newer
versions of USB by using an expansion card.
USB CARDS

An expansion card will allow you to add more USB ports to a system. You can also add newer
versions of USB by using an expansion card.
TV TUNER CARDS

A TV tuner card allows a PC to make a cable television connection. This is a popular option for a
home theater PC. Cable television can be routed through, or watched, on the PC
HARD DISK DRIVE / SOLID STATE DRIVE
 HARD DISK
DRIVE

A HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD), HARD DISK, HARD DRIVE, OR FIXED DISK is an electro-mechanical data

storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage and one or more rigid rapidly
rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually arranged on
a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-
access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a
type of non-volatile storage, retaining stored data even when powered off.
 SOLID STATE
DRIVE

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store

data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of
computer storage. It is also sometimes called a solid-state device or a solid-state disk, even though SSDs
lack the physical spinning disks and movable read–write heads used in hard disk drives (HDDs) and floppy
disks.

Compared with electromechanical drives, SSDs are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, and
have quicker access time and lower latency.
 OPTICAL DRIVE/ CD-ROM
DRIVE

is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic

waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part
of the process of reading or writing data to or
from optical discs. Some drives can only read from
certain discs, but recent drives can both read and
record, also called burners or writers (since they
physically burn the organic dye on write-once CD-R,
DVD-R and BD-R LTH discs). Compact discs, DVDs,
and Blu-ray discs are common types of optical media
which can be read and recorded by such drives.

OPTICAL DRIVES

Though less common than they used to be, many machines still have an optical drive for reading CDs and
DVDs. These can be used to listen to music or watch movies, place information onto a blank disc, or install
software from a disc. Since most software nowadays is installed from the internet instead of using discs, these
aren't as important as they once were, especially on laptops.
OTHER COMPONENTS

POWER SUPPLY UNIT (PSU)

True to its name, the power supply powers all
other components of the machine. It usually
plugs into the motherboard to power the other
parts. The power supply connects to either an
internal battery (on a laptop) or a plug for an
outlet (on a desktop).
FRONT PANEL PINS – These are pins in the motherboard that will connect the Power
Button, Reset Button, Power LED, Mini Speaker, USB ports and other ports to the
motherboard
INPUT AND OUTPUT INTERFACE CONNECTORS