Exploring the Motherboard and Busses
The motherboard represents the logical foundation of the computer. Everything that makes a computer must be attached to the motherboard.
Answer the following questions:
1. What are the major components of the motherboard? Provide a brief description of each component.
1. Processor (CPU): The processor is the brain of the computer and is the chip where all the computing is done.
2. Memory: This is where the computer stores information while it is working on it.
3. Chipset: The chipset is a link between the processor and the outside world, and handles things like controlling the hard drives, the USB ports, the keyboard and mouse, generates the sounds the computer makes, and sometimes even creates the pictures you see on the screen.
4. Expansion Slots: Expansion slots are connectors that allow you to attach additional cards on the computer, such as video cards, sound cards, modems, and add abilities to the computer that the motherboard doesn’t provide.
5. I/O (Inputs/ Outputs): These are a set of connectors that allows you to connect various devices to the computer, such as the keyboard, monitor, mouse, hard drives, flash drives, printers, and connect the computer to a network.
2. Upgrading only the motherboard will give some performance improvement to a computer system. Why?
Upgrading the motherboard will definitely give performance improvement to any computer system. The motherboard itself comes with the many components that power the computer and give it life. If you upgrade only the motherboard, it may come with more RAM slots of PCI ports allowing you to add more memory and other items that will allow the computer system to work faster.
3. What is the need for all the different busses found on a motherboard? Why can these busses not be replaced with a single bus?
There is a need for all of the