MOTHERBOARD

The most important component in a PC system is main board or motherboard.

Motherboard Form Factors

The form factor refers to the physical dimensions (size and shape) as well as certain connector, screw hole, and other positions that dictate into which type of case the board will fit

Form Factors
Full-size AT Baby-AT LPX (semi-proprietary) ATX micro-ATX Flex-ATX

Full-Size AT
The full-size AT motherboard form factor matches the original IBM AT motherboard design. This allows for a very large board of up to 12'' wide by 13.8'' deep. The full-size AT board first debuted in August 1984

IBM AT motherboard

Baby-AT
Baby-AT boards all conform to specific widths and screw hole, slot, and keyboard connector locations, but one thing that can vary is the length of the board Versions have been built that are smaller than the full 9''13'' size these are often called mini-AT, micro-AT

Baby-AT MOTHERBOARD FORM FACTOR DIMENSIONS

Baby-AT motherboard

LPX
The LPX and mini-LPX form factor boards were a semi-proprietary design that Western Digital originally developed in 1987 for some of its motherboards. The LP in LPX stands for Low Profile, which is so named because these boards incorporate slots that are parallel to the main board, enabling the expansion cards to install sideways.

LPX Motherboard Dimensions

Typical LPX System Chassis & Motherboard

LPX Motherboard Back Panel Connectors

ATX
Standard desktop, mini-tower, and fulltower systems; most common form factor today; most flexible design for power users, enthusiasts, low-end servers/workstations, and higher-end home systems; ATX boards support up to seven expansion slots.

ATX Motherboard Mounted Inside the Case

ATX Specification 2.1 Motherboard Dimensions

ATX Motherboard and Rear Panel Connections

Built-in Ports Usually Found on ATX Motherboards

Port Description
PS/2 mouse port PS/2 keyboard port USB ports Parallel port Serial port VGA analog video port Audio ports: L/R in, front L/R out, rear L/R out, center/LFE out, Microphone L/R in MIDI/Game port S-Video TV out IEEE-1394/FireWire port 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN Optical S/PDIF audio out Modem (not shown) Composite Video out

Connector Type
6-pin Mini-DIN 6-pin Mini-DIN Dual Stack 25-pin D-Submini 9-pin D-Submini 15-pin HD D-Submini 1/8'' (3.5mm) Mini-Phone

Connector Color
Green Purple USB Black Burgundy Teal Dark blue Light blue, lime green, black, black, pink Gold Black Gray Black Black Black Yellow

15-pin D-Submini 4-pin Mini-DIN 6-pin IEEE-1394 8-pin RJ-45 TOSLINK 4-pin RJ-11 RCA Jack

micro-ATX
Micro-ATX is a motherboard form factor Intel originally introduced in December 1997. For smaller and lower-cost systems. A smaller version of ATX, used in Midrange desktop or mini-tower systems. Fits micro-ATX or ATX chassis. The micro-ATX motherboard maximum size is 9.6''9.6'' (244mm244mm).

Micro-ATX Motherboard Dimensions

ATX Motherboard Form Factors

Size and Mounting Hole Comparison

Flex-ATX
Smallest version of ATX, used inexpensive or low-end small desktop or mini-tower systems; entertainment or appliance systems. Fits in flex-ATX, micro-ATX, or ATX chassis.

MOTHERBOARD COMPONENTS
Processor socket/slot Chipset (North/South Bridge or memory and I/O controller hubs) Super I/O chip ROM BIOS (Flash ROM/firmware hub) SIMM/DIMM/RIMM (RAM memory) sockets ISA/PCI/AGP bus slots CPU voltage regulator Battery

Baby-AT motherboard

Processor Sockets/Slots
The CPU is installed in either a socket or a slot, depending on the type of chip. Originally, all processors were mounted in sockets Intel Pentium II and original AMD Athlon processors, both and mounted on a slot

CPU Socket Specifications

Chipsets
The chipset is the motherboard It contains the processor bus interface (called front-side bus, or FSB), memory controllers, bus controllers, I/O controllers It is the main hub and central nervous system of the PC If you think of the processor as the brain, the chipset is the spine and central nervous system

Features
It controls the interface or connections between the processor and everything else, It ends up dictating which type of processor you have; how fast it will run; how fast the buses will run; the speed, type, and amount of memory you can use;

The North Bridge

It is the connection between the highspeed processor bus (400/266/200/133/ 100/66MHz) and the slower AGP (533/266/133/66MHz) and PCI (33MHz) buses

The South Bridge

It is the bridge between the PCI bus (66/33MHz) and the even slower ISA bus (8MHz)

The Super I/O chip

The third major chip seen on many PC motherboards is called the Super I/O chip. This is a chip that integrates devices formerly found on separate expansion cards in older systems Most Super I/O chips contain, at a minimum, the following components: Floppy controller Dual serial port controllers Parallel port controller