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The Motherboard Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Basic over of the main system board known as The "MUTHAboard"

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Overview

The mother­board is basically the main circuit board inside your computer. It's kind of like the central nervous system, connecting all the important parts together. Here's what it does:

Connects everyt­hing: The CPU (central processing unit), graphics card, memory (RAM), storage drives (hard drive and SSD) and other devices all plug into the mother­board.


Talks to everyt­hing: The mother­board allows all these parts to commun­icate with each other and share inform­ation.


Provides power: The mother­board supplies power to all the other compon­ents.



Special features: Some mother­boards also have built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or special slots for extra video cards.

DIAGRAM

Parts & Functions

A : PCI Slot - This board has 2 PCI slots. These can be used for components such as Ethernet cards, sound cards, and modems.
B : PCI-E 16x Slot - There are 2 of them on this mother­board diagram, both are blue. These are used for your graphics card. With two of them onboard, you can run 2 graphics cards in SLI. You would only need this if you are a gamer, or working with high end video / graphics editing. These are the 16x speed versions, which are currently the fastest.
C : PCI-E 1x Slot - Single slot - In the PCIe 1.x genera­tion, each lane (1x) carries 250 MB/s compared to 133 MB/s for the PCI slots. These can be used for expansion cards such as Sound Cards, or Ethernet Cards.
D : Northb­ridge - This is the Northb­ridge for this mother­board. This allows commun­ication between the CPU and the system memory and PCI-E slots.
E : TX 12V 2X and 4 Pin Power Connection - Power Connection - This is one of two power connec­tions that supply power to the mother­board. This connection will come from your Power Supply.
F : CPU Fan Connection - his is where your CPU fan will connect. Using this connection over one from your power supply will allow the mother­board to control the speed of your fan, based on the CPU temper­ature.
G : Socket - This is where your CPU will plug in. The orange bracket that is surrou­nding it is used for high end heat sinks. It helps to support the weight of the heat sink.
H : Memory Slots - These are the slots for your RAM. Most boards will have 4 slots, but some will only have 2. The color coding you see on the mother­board diagram is used to match up RAM for Dual-C­hannel. Using them this way will give your memory a speed boost.
I : ATX Power Connector - This is the second of two power connec­tions. This is the main power connection for the mother­board, and comes from the Power Supply.
J : IDE Connection - The IDE (Integ­rated Drive Electr­onics) is the connection for your hard drive or CD / DVD drive. Most drives today come with SATA connec­tions, so you may not use this.
K : Southb­ridge - This is the controller for components such as the PCI slots, onboard audio, and USB connec­tions.
L : SATA Connec­tions - These are 4 of the 6 SATA connec­tions on the mother­board. These will be used for hard drives, and CD / DVD drives.
M : Front Panel Connec­tions - this is where you will hook in the connec­tions from your case. These are mostly the different lights on your case, such as power on, hard drive activity etc.
N : FDD Connection - The FDD is the Floppy Disk contro­ller. If you have a floppy disk drive in your computer, this is where you will hook it up.
O : External USB Connec­tions - This is where you will plug in external USB connec­tions for your case or USB bracket.
P : CMOS battery - This is the mother­board's battery. This is used to allow the CMOS to keep its settings.
 

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

Clock Speed: Measured in gigahertz (GHz), it refers to the number of cycles a CPU can complete in one second. Higher clock speeds generally indicate faster perfor­mance. However, clock speed is just one factor to consider, and modern CPUs have many other features that can affect perfor­mance.

Cores and Threads: A CPU core is like a mini-p­roc­essor that can handle instru­ctions. Modern CPUs typically have multiple cores, allowing them to process multiple instru­ctions at the same time. Threads are a type of software construct that allows a single core to handle multiple tasks at the same time. A CPU with hypert­hre­ading technology can create two threads per core, which can improve perfor­mance for certain types of workloads.

Bit Archit­ecture: This refers to the amount of data a CPU can process at a time. Most CPUs today are 64-bit, which means they can handle 64 bits of data at a time. 32-bit CPUs are still around, but they are not as common. A 64-bit CPU can address a much larger amount of memory than a 32-bit
CPU.

Cache: Cache is a small amount of very fast memory that is located on the CPU itself. The CPU can access data from cache much faster than it can access data from main memory (RAM). There are different levels of cache, with L1 cache being the smallest and fastest, and L3 cache being the largest and slowest.

COMMON FORM FACTORS

FORM FACTOR COMPAR­RISON