1.

Inside a PC
CD-ROM
Power drive
supply
Hard disk
drive
Mother
board Floppy
disk drive

Sound/network
cards
Wires and
ribbon cables

1
 Motherboard Picture
Read-only
Random Access
Memory
Memory (RAM)
(ROM)
chips.
chips

Expansion slots
Processor chip
(the CPU)

2
 Motherboards

 .
Motherboards
 Motherboard Form Factors
 The form factor of motherboards pertains to the size and
shape of the board.
 It also describes the physical layout of the different
components and devices on the motherboard.
 Various form factors exist for motherboards.
 AT – Advanced Technology
 ATX – Advanced Technology Extended
 Mini-ATX – Smaller footprint of ATX
 Micro-ATX – Smaller footprint of ATX
 LPX – Low-profile Extended
 NLX – New Low-profile Extended
 BTX – Balanced Technology Extended
 Motherboards

 The main printed circuit board.

 Contains the buses, or electrical pathways found in a
computer.
Buses allow data to travel among the various components.
 Also known as the system board, the backplane, or the main
board.
 Accommodates CPU, RAM, expansion slots, heat sink/fan
assembly, BIOS chip, chip set, sockets, internal and external
connectors, various ports, and the embedded wires that
interconnect the motherboard components.
Difference between AT and ATX
Motherboard

7
Features
AT stands for "Advanced Technology."
ATX stands for "Advanced Technology
Extended." AT and ATX are form factors
of motherboard.
"a term that defines the physical layout of
a specific component." Form factor also
denotes the type of hardware and power
you can connect to your hardware
component. Form factor is not just a term
for motherboards. 8
 Size and Orientation
The ATX form factor's positioning was
redesigned to offer better access to the
peripheral components on the inside of
the computer. Both AT and ATX
motherboards have been produced in
various sizes throughout the years, and
the form factors fit in different
computer cases depending on their size..

000-209 Intro to CS. 5/Mother 9

Power Connectors
The power connectors also differ between
AT and ATX motherboards. AT
motherboards use two 12-pin plugs to power
the motherboard. An ATX motherboard uses
one 20-pin plug for the power supply. When
using an ATX form factor motherboard, you
must use an ATX power supply. You can use
the pin number to identify whether you have
the correct power supply for your
motherboard.
10
Power Use
ATX form factor has an addition of "sleep" mode.
Sleep mode is a power management mode in which
some of the components are powered down to save
power, but parts of the computer remain ready to
boot. The sleep mode reduces the use of power
when the computer is not in use, while still
allowing you to more quickly revive the computer
and return to where you left off. In addition, the
power supply in the ATX motherboard more easily
converts 5 volt current to 3.3 volts when necessary,
and involves less circuitry in the process of
converting the power.
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Connectors
The outside connectors on the AT and ATX
motherboards are the most visibly noticeable
difference between the two form factors. The
AT form factor motherboard is limited to one
outside connector, a five-pin DIN connector
for the keyboard. An ATX-style motherboard
is built to incorporate many other connectors,
including connections for network cards,
video cards, sound cards and modems.

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A. Primary and Secondary IDE
Controllers
B. ROM/BIOS Chip
C. ISA Slot
D. CMOS Battery
E. PCI Slot
F. AT DIN/5 Keyboard
Connector
G. AT Power Socket
H. ATX Power Socket
I. 168 DIMM Socket
J. 72 SIMM Socket
K. Heat Sink Chip Set
L. L2 Cache Chip Set
M. CPU PGA on a CPU Socket 7
N. Floppy Drive Controller
O. PRN for Parallel Port
P. COM for Serial Ports
Main Parts of a
Motherboard
1 - Firewire header
Firewire is also known as IEEE 1394. It is basically a
high performance serial bus for digital and audio
equipment to exchange data. The technology preceded
USB but yet is faster than any current USB port. Often
used for transferring digital video to the PC straight
from a digital camera.

2 - PCI Express 16x slots

Common slot for Graphics cards, the PCI Express 16x
slots provides 16 separate lanes or data transfer.
3 - PCI Express 1x Slot
Has a single lane of serial data transfer. Usually support
components such as TV tuners, network cards and sound
cards.
4 - Chipset - North Bridge (with heatsink)
A chipset is a number of integrated circuits built onto
the board. Provide specific functions e.g. one part of the
chipset may be an onboard component such as a modem
or sound chip. Other parts may be used to control the
CPU functions.
Most chipsets are designed to work with only one
"class" of CPU. Older chipsets support more than one
type of CPU such as socket 7 which supports the
Pentium, Cyrix 686, Cyrix MII, AMD K6 and K6-2.
Different chipsets contain different features and
components.
5 and 8 - ATX Power connector
The standard ATX power connector, the cable for this will be
coming from the PSU, a clip is normally provided to make sure
you get them in the correct order.
6 - CPU (Central Processing Unit) socket
There are two major CPU socket types PGA and LGA.
PGA or Pin Grad Array uses a system of pins on the CPU and
holes on the socket to line up and hold a CPU in place. The
introduction of the ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket for PGA
types allowed the CPU's to be lined up without any pressure on
the CPU until a level is pulled down.

LGA or Land Grid Array uses a system of gold plated copper

pads that make contact with the motherboard. It is very
important to read your motherboard manual to discover what
types of CPU's you motherboard supports as most
motherboards are aimed at a specific type of CPU.
7 - DIMM (Double Inline Memory Module) slots

9 - Motherboard controls
Not available on all motherboards, but some allow direct
control of the motherboard via simple buttons. Power
switch, error checking, CMOS clearing, passwords and
more features can be accessed directly on the
motherboard on some models.
10 - Chipset - South Bridge
The South Bridge handles things like the PCI bus,
onboard Network and sound chips as well as the IDE and
S-ATA buses.
11 - Serial ATA Connector
Serial ATA or more commonly seen as S-ATA is a new
way of connecting your Hard Drives to your PC. S-ATA
drives have the capability of being faster than the IDE
counterparts and also have smaller thinner cables which
help with the airflow of the system. S-ATA hard disks
are fast becoming the norm for hard drive technology.
Current motherboards feature both IDE and S-ATA
connectors to facilitate all types of storage hardware.
12 - USB 2.0 header
As well as having USB ports on the rear of the
motherboard, motherboard manufacturers often add a
couple of USB headers so you can connect optional
cables for extra USB ports
13 - Motherboard Battery
It gives the board power in order to store vital data on
your machine when the power is off.
Stores data like time and date, so you don't have to reset
them every time you boot the machine up.
They are usually long lasting Lithium batteries.
Removing this can reset all the data on your machine
including the BIOS settings, however not replacing this
correctly can lead to irreparable damage to the
motherboard.
14 - PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot
The PCI bus (not PCI express) is now an older
technology and although the PCI slots are still available,
they have decreased in number and are being replaced by
the PCI Express 1x slots.
15 - Floppy Drive Connector
More simple than the IDE connector you only have
to remember to get the red line to pin 1 of the
connector and the red line to pin 1 on the floppy
drive, This port is only to be used with floppy
drives.
16 - IDE connector Not on Diagram
The connector to which you will insert an IDE cable
(supplied with motherboard) IDE cables connect
devices such as hard disks, CD Drives and DVD
Drives. The current 4 standards of IDE devices are
ATA 33/66/100 and 133. the numbers specify the
amount of data in Mb/s in a max burst situation.