Motherboard Parts and Functions: Getting to Know Your Hardware

The motherboard is one of the most important parts of the PC, but as a tech enthusiast, you probably already know that. What you might not know, though, is the role played by each chip, port or slot present on a motherboard.

A lot of people simply don’t care about these aspects, but if you’re the do-it-yourself type, knowing everything there is to know when it comes to motherboards can help you when it comes to troubleshooting, upgrading or even building your own PC, despite the latter operation already being simple if you take this online course on how to build a computer.

Motherboard Basics

Motherboard Basics

A computer has many components, each with their own roles and functions. The role of the motherboard is to allow all these components to communicate with each other. Considering the fact that all the other components are installed on the motherboard or connected to it, it is safe to say that the motherboard is the central piece of a PC, the component that brings it all together.

Processor Socket

The processor socket is the central piece of a motherboard, usually being located near the center of the motherboard. It’s also the central piece because it holds the processor – the brain of your computer.

Power Connectors

No computer component can operate without power, and a motherboard is no exception. The power connector, commonly a 20 or 24-pin connector, can be situated either near the right edge of the motherboard, or somewhere close to the processor socket on older motherboards. This is where the power supply’s main connector gets attached, providing power to the motherboard and all the other components.

Newer motherboards have an additional 4-pin or 8-pin connector near the processor, used to supply additional power directly to the processor.

Memory Slots

Memory Slots

Located in the upper-right part of the motherboard, the memory slots are used to house the computer’s memory modules. The number of slots can vary, depending on motherboard, from 2, in low-end motherboards, all the way up to 8 memory slots, on high-end and gaming motherboards.
It is important to pay close attention to the type of memory a motherboard supports, in order to buy the appropriate memory modules.

Newer motherboards support DDR3 memory, the current industry standard memory architecture, but motherboards with DDR2 memory slots and even DDR1 memory slots are still present on the market. An interesting aspect is that there are some older motherboard models that supported different types of memory, and usually come with two DDR1 memory slots and 2 DDR2 memory slots, or two DDR2 slots and two DDR3 slots. These motherboards were great options for people that wanted to upgrade a motherboard without having to upgrade all the other components as well.

The number of memory slots should be an important criterion to take into account when choosing a motherboard, as it will determine the maximum amount of memory you can install. You may plan to take an online course to learn video editing or learn 3d modeling and rendering from this online course – do you really want to be limited by your motherboard in the process?

Video Card Slot

This is the type of slot that doesn’t need an explanation, as its name doesn’t leave much room for interpretation as to what its role is. Coming in the form of a PCI-Express slot on newer motherboards or AGP on older ones, the video card slot is situated right below the processor.
It is not uncommon for older motherboards, especially those that target the office segment, to lack this slot, meaning that you won’t be able to install a discrete video card, thus having to rely on the integrated one. At the opposite pole, high-end gaming motherboards come with multiple video card slots, allowing the installation of multiple video cards in a SLI or CrossFire configuration.

Expansion Slots

Expansions have the role of letting you install additional components to enhance or expand the functionality of your PC. You can install a TV tuner, a video capture card, a better soundcard, etc. – you get the idea. These ports are located under the video card slot, and come in the form of PCI slots (on older motherboards) or a scaled-down version of PCI-Express slots (on newer motherboards). Some motherboards come with both types of expansion slots. The number of slots is usually dependent on the format of the motherboard – larger motherboards (full ATX) have more, while smaller formats (micro-ATX) have fewer, if any.

IDE and SATA Ports

IDE and SATA Ports

IDE and SATA ports are used to provide connectivity for the storage devices and optical drives. The IDE interface is somewhat outdated, so you shouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of new motherboards coming without this type of port. It was replaced by the smaller and much faster SATA interface, which currently reached its 3^rd revision, being able to achieve maximum speeds of up to 600 MB/s, as opposed to the IDE interface, which can reach a maximum of 133 MB/s.

It is not uncommon for manufacturers to include SATA ports of different revisions, such as two SATA2 ports and two SATA3 ports. Considering the fact that most optical drives on the market come with a SATA connector, and these devices are not bandwidth-hungry, using a SATA2 port for an optical drive is perfectly acceptable. In fact, most mechanical hard drives cannot achieve SATA3 speeds due to mechanical limitations, so unless you plan to use multiple high-performance solid state drives in your PC, which can benefit of the higher speeds of SATA3, a combination of SATA2 and SATA3 shouldn’t make much of a difference. If you’re not familiar with the differences between classical hard drives and solid state drives, check out this computer essentials online course – you might find out some more interesting information about computers along the way.

BIOS Chip and Battery

The BIOS chip contains the basic code needed to take your computer through the boot process, up to the point where the operating system takes over. Since the BIOS code is stored on a memory chip that needs constant power to function, a battery is also present to keep the chip powered when the computer is unplugged.

Northbridge and Southbridge

If you have a look at your motherboard, chances are you’ll see a square metal component somewhere in the lower-right part of the board. This metal component is actually a heatsink, and its role is to provide thermal protection for the Northbridge – one of the most important components of a motherboard. The northbridge is responsible for coordinating the data flow between the memory, the video card and the processor. A secondary chip, known as Southbridge, has a similar function, coordinating the data flow between the processor and peripherals such as sound cards or network cards.

Front Panel Connectors, USB Headers and Audio Header

Front Panel Connectors, USB Headers and Audio Header

The front panel connector is where all the elements present on the front of your case are connected. Power button, reset button, power led, audio connectors and USB connectors – they are all connected to the front panel or the corresponding headers.

Rear Connectors

These connectors are the bridge between the outside of your computer and the inside. The name is a bit misleading, as the connectors are actually located on the left edge of the motherboard; however, since these connectors are accessible from the outside, the name simply implies where they are accessible from – the rear of the PC case. External peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers and so on are all connected via these connectors.

So there you have it, the parts of the motherboard and their functions, explained. Now that you know how to choose your motherboard and build your dream PC, you might want to check out this interesting blog post on choosing the right operating system for it. The article provides a detailed outline of two of the most popular operating systems, Linux and Windows, allowing you to determine which will suite your needs better. However, if you want to learn more about these operating systems before making a choice, check out this online course for an in-depth introduction to Linux or this online course if you want to master Windows 8.

Motherboard:Types and Components Explained

Motherboard explained

The motherboard is the main component of any branded or assembled PC, laptop, tablet or a mobile phone. Now you must be curious, why it is called the motherboard? The motherboard is a Printed Circuit Board which acts as the main platform for communication between all other components of a system. All the other computer parts are either directly installed or connected to various motherboard components and all the data is transferred between them through the motherboard.

Different types of motherboards:

AT Motherboards

The oldest of the main boards, these motherboards were used in earlier 286/386 or 486 computers. The AT means the board consists of advanced technology(AT) power connectors. There are two power connectors of 6 pin each mounted on the AT motherboards. The AT motherboards were available in the early 80’s.

ATX Motherboards

The ATX motherboards started in 90’s and are still available. The ATX connector on the motherboard consists of a single connector. These boards are used for P2/P3 or P/4 processors.

Motherboard for P1/P2 processors:


Pentium 4 motherboard

Motherboard Components

The motherboard consists of various components which have their own role to play in the functioning of a computer. Let us discuss various motherboard components and know their definition and role.

Expansion Slots

ISA slots. These were the oldest expansion slots in the history of motherboards. They were found in AT boards and are identified by black color. Conventional display cards or sound cards were installed in these slots. The full form of ISA is Industry Standard Architecture and is a 16- bit bus.
PCI Slots. The full form of PCI is Peripheral Component Interconnect. The PCI slot is one of the important motherboard components today and is vastly used to install add-on cards on the motherboard. The PCI supports 64-bit high-speed bus.
PCI express. Also known as PCIe, these are the latest and the fastest component of the motherboard to support add-on cards. It supports full duplex serial bus.
AGP slot. Accelerated graphics port(AGP) is specifically used to install a latest graphics card. AGP runs on a 32-bit bus and both PCIe and AGP can be used to install high-end gaming display cards.

RAM(memory) slots

SIMM slots. The full form is a single in-line memory module. These slots were found in older motherboards, up to 486-boards. The SIMM supports 32-bit bus.
DIMM slots. The full form of DIMM is a Double inline memory module. These are the latest RAM slots which run on a faster 64-bit bus. The DIMM used on Laptop boards are called SO-DIMM.

CPU Socket

Another vital motherboard component is the CPU socket which is used to install the processor on the motherboard. Some important sockets are explained below.
Socket7. It is a 321 pin socket that supported older processors like Intel Pentium 1/2/MMX, AMD k5/K6, and Cyrix M2.
Socket370.  It is a 370 pin socket that supports Celeron processors and Pentium-3 processors.
Socket 775. It is a 775-pin socket that supports Inter dual core, C2D, P-4 and Xeon processors.
Socket 1156. Found on latest types of motherboards, it is an 1156-pin socket that supports latest Intel i-3, i-5 and i-7 processors.
Socket 1366. The socket is of 1366 pins and supports latest i-7 900 processors.

BIOS

The full form of BIOS is Basic Input Output System. It is a motherboard component in the form of a Integrated chip. This chip contains all the information and settings of the motherboard which you can modify by entering the BIOS mode from your computer.

CMOS Battery

The battery or a cell is a 3.0 Volts lithium type cell. The cell is responsible for storing the information in BIOS and the full form is Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor.

Power Connectors

In order to receive power from SMPS, there are connectors mounted on the motherboards.
AT connector. It consists of 2 number of 6 pin male connectors and is found on old types of motherboards.
ATX connector. The latest in the series of power connectors, they are either 20 or 24 pin female connectors. Found in all the latest types of motherboards.

IDE connector

The Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) connectors are used to interface disk drives. The 40-pin male connector is used to connect IDE hard disk drives and the 34-pin male connector connects to Floppy Disk Drive.

SATA connector

Latest in the series, the connectors, Serial Advance Technology Attachment(SATA) are 7-pin connectors to interface latest SATA hard disks or optical drives. They are much faster than IDE interface.

Co-Processor

The co-processor is one of the important motherboard components and helps the main processor in mathematical calculations and computer graphics.

Cabinet connections

The cabinet in which the motherboard is installed has many buttons that connect to the motherboard. Some of the common connectors are Power Switch, Reset Switch, Front USB, Front Audio, Power indicator(LED) and HDD LED.

I/O interface connectors



Choosing a right type of motherboard that is compatible with other parts of computer is vital step in determining the overall speed of your PC. Once you learn about various motherboard components, you can easily assemble your own PC or solve the basic hardware issues in motherboard.