- Largest component in terms of the size of the computer
- Keeps all the other components communicate to each other
Popular form factors
- AT - Advanced Technology
- ATX - Advanced Technology Extended
- mATX - Micro
- ITX - Information Technology Extended
Sizes
- Standard ATX
- Micro ATX
- Mini ITX
- Nano ITX
- Pico ITX
CPU Sockets
- Socket A: The CPU socket has 462 pins, supports Intel PIII, Celeron, Cyrix, and AMD Processors
- Socket 378: Intel P4, Intel Pentium M, and Intel Pentium 4EE processors which has 478 pings are PGA (Pin Grid Array) Type /p
- Socket T: Intel core 2 duo, intel dual core, intel core 2 quad, Celeron, P4, Pentium D, Celeron # type processor
- Socket 939: Comes with PGA( Pin grid array), and supports processor like AMD Athlon 64, Athlon 64, and various AMD processors
- Socket AM3: AMD Phenom and AMD Athlon II processors
- Socket H or LGA 1156: Intel core i3, intel core i5, and intel core i7
Additional Components
- USB
- Sounds
- RAID Controllers
- Network Card
- Power Connector
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- Video
Chipset
- The chipset is the second most important thing on on the motherboard
- Chipset is the controller for most components on the motherboard
- It communicates directly with the CPU
- Used to be two chips - north bridge and southbridge
PCI Express
- PCI express device has it’s own direct connection, a point-to-point connection to the CPU
- Has two pair of wires called a lane - incoming and outgoing
- Speeds up to 16 Gbps per lane, up to 16 lanes
Examples connectors
x1 bandwidth 5 Gbps / 400 MBps x4 bandwidth 20Gbps / 1.6 GBps x8 bandwidth 40 Gbps / 3.2 GBps x16 bandwidth 80 Gbps / 6.4 GBps