Motherboard, Motherboard Contents and Its Functions
Motherboard is a also one of the important parts of the CPU. It is a Main Circuit board. Motherboard connects all the parts of CPU. Motherboard Consist of Processor Socket, RAM slots, PCI slots, AGP slot, IDE connectors and Ports.

| Mecury 845 Chipset Motherboard |

Every motherboard has connectors and slots to connect all the remaining parts of CPU. here the list of all the slot and connector of motherboard. * CPU Socket * North Bridge * South Bridge * RAM Slots * AGP Slot * PCI Slots * CNR Slot * Floppy Connector * Primary and Secondary IDE Connectors * SATA connectors * Power Connector * BIOS * CMOS battery * Ports

CPU Socket:

CPU Socket or Processor Socket. Which is used to install or insert the processor. we have two types of sockets. LIF sockets and ZIF socket. LIF stands for Low Insertion Force, this is the old model sockets and ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force, this is the present model sockets.

| | LIF socket or slot type processor socket | |

| ZIF socket or PGA sockets |
North Bridge:

North Bridge is always near the processor socket. which is one of the important component of a motherboard. It is a focal Point of Motherboard and It is also called as Memory Controller Hub. North Bridge interconnects Processor socket, RAM slots and AGP slot. here Gigabyte chip is north bridge it is near Processor socket.

South Bridge:

North bridge and south bridge are the two main poles of a motherboard. South Bridge interconnects Primary and Secondary IDE interfaces, SATA connectors, Floppy Drive Connector, PCI slots and BIOS.

RAM Slots:

RAM slots are used to insert RAMs. there are so many types of ram slots. they are SD ram slots, DDR ram slots, DDR2 and DDR3 ram slots. SD stands for synchronize Dynamic and DDR Stands for Double Data Rate.

AGP slot:

AGP slots are used to insert or install AGP Cards. AGP full form is Accelerated Graphics Port. This slot is for graphics and 3d gaming purpose. it is always beside the PCI slots

PCI slots:

PCI slots are used to Insert or install Add-on cards, such as LAN cards, Sound cards, Capture cards and TV tuner cards. PCI full form is Peripheral Component Interconnect.

Floppy Drive Connector:

Floppy Drive Connector is used to connect floppy drives. It supports two floppy drives. so that A and B drives are reserved for two floppy drives in My computer. it has 32 pins.

Primary and Secondary IDE Interfaces:

Primary and Secondary IDE interfaces are also called as IDE connectors or PATA connectors. IDE full form is Integrated Device Electronics. it supports IDE devices, such as Hard disks and CD and DVD drives.

SATA Connectors:

SATA connectors are also called as Serial ATA connectors. SATA full form is Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. These are connect with serial ATA devices, such as Hard disk drives and CD or DVD drives.

Power Connector:

This power connector is ATX power connector. it has 20 or 24 pin connector. mother takes the power from this connector to work.

BIOS:

BIOS stands for Basic input and Output system. This is also one of the important chips. it conducts the POST (Power On Self Test).

CMOS battery:

There is a battery in the motherboard, which is used to power the south bridge and the BIOS to save the setting, data and time.

Ports:

Ports are used to connect input and output devices. they are attached and come with motherboard and they are in backside of CPU.

We will start with the internal connecters and ports and then move on to the External ones. Internal connectors are for system builders and upgrading components. These connectors are for adding memory to the system, connecting Hard drives and optical drives as well as graphics cards and other expansion cards.
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. The FireWire header onboard means you can install a FireWire port on your machine. Again these cables are often supplied as an optional extra which you will need to check with the retailer to see if they are supplied with your board.
2 - PCI Express 16x slots
Now the most common slot for Graphics cards, the PCI Express 16x slots provides 16 separate lanes or data transfer. PCI express 1.0 slots offer a data transfer rate of 250MB/s the second generation of PCI express (PCI Express 2.0) offers twice the data rate at 500MB/s. Currently in development is PCI Express 3.0 which offers 1GB/s of data transfer. PCI Express 16x slots are also the basis for both SLI and Crossfire multi graphics card setups. With the increasing demands graphics cards are putting on systems, no less than a 16 lane slot will be good enough for any modern graphics card.
3 - PCI Express 1x Slot
Like the PCI Express 16x above the 1x slot uses exactly the same system but only has a single lane of serial data transfer. These slots are used for expansion cards that do no require the same amount of data transfer that a graphics card requires. You will usually find components such as tv tuners, network cards and sound cards make use of the PCI Express 1x slot. You will also notice the difference in size between the 1x and the 16x slots. The PCI Express 1x slot is noticeably smaller and easy to spot.
4 - Chipset - North Bridge (with heatsink)
The Motherboards chipset can be described as what sets it apart from other boards in its category. Different chipsets contain different features and components. A chipset is a number of integrated circuits built onto the board to 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 although now many 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. There are certain restrictions though to what type of processor a chipset can handle because of the logic that the CPU uses to access the memory and its cache etc. Since these chips are working harder with each generation, motherboard manufacturers have started to put heatsinks and active coolers (fans) on the main parts of the chipset to disperse some of the heat. For more information on chipsets see our What does a chipset do article.
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. As a tip, don't try to push too hard if its stuck, check to see that it is in the correct way, I have seen plenty of power connectors where the pins have pushed out some of the connectors, these can be difficult to get back into place, so its best to be careful.
6 - CPU (Central Processing Unit) socket
All the CPU "sockets look very similar, however they are different in the way they have different amount of pins and in different layouts. There are currently 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
DIMM's are by far and away the most used memory types in today's computers. They vary in speeds and standards however and they need to match up to what your motherboard has been designed to take. The four standards of DIMM's being used at the moment are SDR (Single Data Rate), DDR (Double Data Rate), DDR2 and DDR3. The speeds of memory can vary between 66Mhz to 1600Mhz.
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
When we talk about chipsets you mainly only ever hear about the North bridge. Even those into PC technology have a hard time naming the south bridges without looking them up. Names like Nforce 2 and KT600 are North bridges. The South Bridge does an important job as well. It 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. These cables are often supplied and you only need to add them on if you need the extra connectivity. USB 2.0 replaced USB 1.1 as a much faster solution. It is backwards compatible meaning all USB 1.1 devices will work in these new USB 2.0 ports.

13 - Motherboard Battery
The battery gives the board a small amount of power in order to store some vital data on your machine when the power is off. Data stored is that like the time and date so you don't have to reset them every time you boot the machine up. Motherboard batteries 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. Only remove the battery if it is dead or if you can't have access any other way to resetting the data on your machine by use of the clear CMOS jumper or something similar.
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. Its unlikely that you will get a motherboard without a PCI slot at the moment due to the fact that a lot of components still use the standard PCI slot. It would be awkward to upgrade to a system without PCI slots as it may mean upgrading more components than you would like to,
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. You may not have a floppy controller on your motherboard as its slowly being phased out as more people are using writable CD's and DVDs to transfer data, to store data and to use as boot up discs.
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. In reality there is not much chance of getting a sustain data rate of this magnitude. Both the connectors and devices are backwards compatible with each other, however they will only run at the slowest rated speed between them. All IDE cables will come with a red line down one side, this red line is to show which way it should be plugged in. The red line should always connect to pin one of the IDE port. Checking your motherboard documentation should show you which end is pin one. In some cases it will be written on the board itself.
In the case of ATA 66/100/133 there is a certain order that you plug devices in, the cable is colour coded to help you get them in the correct order. * The Blue connector should be connected to the system board * The Black connector should be connected to the master device * The Grey Connector should be connected to the slave device
17 - BIOS (Basic Input Output System) Chip - Not on Diagram
The BIOS holds the most important data for your machine, if configured incorrectly it could cause your computer not to boot correctly or not at all. The BIOS also informs the PC what the motherboard supports in terms off CPU etc. This is why when a new CPU is introduced that physically fits into a slot or socket you may need a BIOS update to support it. The main reason for this is that different CPU's use different logics and methods and so the BIOS has to understand certain instructions from the CPU to recognize it.

Just study this if you want to pass the exam: The computer Motherboard or shortly MOBO is one of the most important part of the Personal computer (PC).It is a hardware of the computer installed inside the system unit(CPU).This MOBO hardware act as the main board or the central or core assembly of the computer system unit.In other words inside of the CPU case there are a lot of other hardware's connected to the MOBO,namely:Hard Disk Drive(HDD),CD/DVD ROM,USB Card reader,FDD Drive,processor,RAM,LAN card,Wireless LAN Card,USB expansion board,VGA Card, and the Power Supply Unit(PSU).These are all types of hardware's inside the system unit of the Personal Computer.
Computer motherboard designed to take advantage of the most demand application of a program. One of the most application is to meet the system requirements of the 3G application.Just like the movie games as high innovative applications of computer programming.As the form factor of motherboard as a series of versions of the MOBO from AT,ATX,BTX,LPX,and NLPX.Compatible words being broadcast,that's why it is the MOBO will synchronized the speed of processor,RAM, and Video Card(VGA).Unlike only if the MOBO is built-in through the Input/Output ports.

So,lets talk about the Motherboard parts and function to enable you to familiarize the parts and function.This is the most practical approach of the technician.(See the picture above).

1. I/O ports- this is located in the rear panel of the CPU,this use to connect the outside hardware or peripherals of the computer.
PS/2 ports- these are use to connect the mouse(green color)and the keyboard(purple color)
DB 25 female connector(printer port)-this is use to connect the impact printer,one of that the DOT MATRIX printer,ex. the Epson LX 300 +
DB 9 male connector(Serial or com1 port)-this use to connect a serial device of the computer,such as the serial mouse and external modem.
VGA port(built-in)- this is use to interface the DB cord of the monitor screen or to connect the monitor screen of the computer. The fastest video card versions are base on the standard of the vga slots,ex: the AGP and PCI’e card.
USB 2.0 × 2 ports- these are the ports of the usb devices of the computer. Attached externally of the system unit, one of that is the USB flash drive.As of now the versions or speed of the USB are the 1.0 and 2.0 compatible. LAN port- this called as Local Area Network of the computer. This is use to connect the numbers of node or workstations(PC)to form a local area network of the computer with in their area. Using the a type of communication media such as the network switch and router.
Audio Port- this is use to connect the speaker, mic, and MIDI(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) device of the computer
2. ATX Power connector(4 pin)- this is use to connect the 4 pin of the power supply unit(PSU) .This is separate of the 20 or 24 pin of ATX power supply to provide DC voltage of computer processor.
3. Processor’s ZIF Socket- part of MOBO use to hold the processor or CPU chip(Zero Insertion Force).The compatibility of the socket depend of the computer processor type.Such as the AM2 socket of the AMD and the socket 775 of the Intel company.
4. Memory slot(DIMM)- this is called as Dual Inline Memory Module,this is the slot of computer memory or what we called RAM.The memory slot depend of the type of the memory.Such as the PC 133 SDRAM and PC 400 SDRAM-DDR 1.
5. ATX Power connector(24 or 28 pin)- a group of connector of the MOBO,This is separate of the 4 pin power assignments.Its provide a DC power output to the system board(SB)from the output of the Power Supply Unit.
6. Name of the Vendor- this is the manufacturer name.This is important to know the manufacturer or vendor.So you can download through the internet site the drivers software of the MOBO.
7. CMOS/BIOS BATTERY- In this part, the CMOS/BIOS battery is hold,so that it can provide 3 volts direct current/voltage to the CMOS IC.To preserve the BIOS settings of the computer.Such as the time module,hardware information and settings/parameter,etc.
CMOS-Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
BIOS- Basic Input/Output system.Is a set of a program stored in CMOS IC, use to preserved the BIOS configuration of the computer
CMOS BATTERY PART NUMBER- lithium dry cell CR 2032 3 volts
8. IDE connector(Intergrated Drive Electronics)- this connector is use to connect the IDE cable of the HDD(Hard Disk Drive) or CD/DVD ROM to the MotherBoard IDE.
9. Front panel connectors(F-Panel)- this is use to connect the Power LED,HDD LED,Power Switch,and Reset switch of the computer system unit(CPU).
10. SATA connector-this is Serial Advance Technology Attachment.The new standard of the IDE connection array of the computer HDD(SATA HDD)to the motherboard system.
11. CMOS/BIOS jumper- this is use to disable the BIOS default setup.Such as to disabled the supervisor password of the BIOS.
How to disable password before the BIOS setup
Turn off CPu change jumper to clear remove the CMOS battery reinsert the BIOS battery change jumper to normal power up computer press “del” or “F2” to enter BIOS setup
12. USB connector(header)- this is use to connect the USB port of the front panel USB 2.0 x 2 port.
13. FDD connector- the connector of the FDD cable through the system board.Normally there are 34 pins out of it to connect the 3.5” 1.44mb Floppy Disk Drive.
14. PCI slots- a part of the computer motherboard use to connect the I/O cards of the computer.Such as LAN card,WIFI card,USB expansion card,and sound card.
15. Motherboard Version number- here you can get the version of the motherboard driver software.So that you can download it exactly to the manufacturer website.
16. CMOS/BIOS IC- this is the type of BIOS IC being use by the computer MOBO.A set of a program being installed in this IC to preserved the BIOS configuration settings of the computer.Such as the speed of the CPU chip and RAM, etc.
17. AMR slot- this is the AUDIO Modem Riser.Being use to demodulate and modulate the analog audio of the computer.
18. PCI express slot- a part of the computer that hold the computer video card(VGA), the PCI’e card.The latest and the most fastest card being installed and most compatible with 3d and 4g gaming of the computer.The old video card type is the AGP or Accelerated Graphic Ports and the standard of the PCI’e.
19. North Bridge IC- is a passion name as being north of the PCI buses or the PCI slots of the MOBO.The true name of the north bridge is MCI or Memory Controller Hub.Assigned to manage and control the computer memory before the processing of the CPU chip.

20. South Bridge IC-is a passion name as being south of the PCI buses or PCI slots.The true name of the south bridge is I/O Controller HUB(ICH).Its is a type of microchip task to control all the Input and output devices of the computer.Such as the keyboard and mouse.And the monitor screen of the computer, that commonly found at the rear back of the CPU or system unit.