A+ 1001: Motherboard

Question 1

4 Form Factors

Answer 1

ATX:
MicroATX: 9.6X9.6
Mini ITX:
ITX:

Question 2

I/O Area

Answer 2

xx

Question 3

I/O Shield

Answer 3

Cover for I/O Area

Regardless of the Form Factor, they all have the same size shield

Question 4

Northbridge/Southbridge

Answer 4

Chips were designed to work together in older systems

but today the chipset is only a Southbridge, the cpu handles the northbridge

Question 5

Chipset

Answer 5

Determines what motherboard can do

Defines things like, how many memory cards or how many expansion slots, or how fast the ram can be, or how many usb ports, etc.

combine functions from many single function chips

Question 6

Which cables are used to connect hard drives or SSD drives to the motherboard?

Answer 6

SATA cables, connects to the SATA HDD connectors

Question 7

Why do motherboards have so many voltage regulators and capacitors?

Answer 7

Because the motherboards use varying voltages for different parts and chips

Question 8

How can we tell that a motherboard is dead, by looking at the capacitors

Answer 8

When the capacitors top is bulged or rounded, instead of flat

Good thing to check for if you are buying second had motherboard

Question 9

PCIe

Answer 9

Expansion bus that uses serial connections, instead of parallel like the older PCI busses

PCIe sockets are 16 lanes (x16) max, but can also come in 4 lane (x4) and 1 lane (x1)

Question 10

Different kinds of connectors on the motherboard

Answer 10

1. SATA HDD connectors
2. PCIe
3. USB connectors
4. 2.2M pins (SSD)

Question 11

Standouts

Answer 11

Are the pins on which the motherboard is placed within the case

Question 12

Parts of a Case

Answer 12

1. Front Panel
2. Standouts
3. Passthroughs
4. Hard Drive mounts
5. Slots
6. PSU mount
7. Fans

Question 13

Installing the Motherboard

Answer 13

1. First Assemble and test the motherboard to see if you can get to the setup screen
2. Mount I/O shield
3. Place Motherboard on standout pins and screw it down
4. Attach cables

Question 14

The largest motherboard form factor is?

Answer 14

ATX

Question 15

The job of the South Bridge is to act as the interface between the CPU and what?

Answer 15

The South Bridge interfaces slow hardware such as hard drives and keyboards to the CPU. The CPU interacts directly with fast hardware including RAM and video cards.

Question 16

Connectors with cables that plug into the motherboard are known as what?

Answer 16

Dongles

Question 17

Keeping the wires in a case neat, out of the way and easy to identify is called what?

Answer 17

Cable management

Question 18

Which critical components are found on the outside of the case?

Answer 18

Front-panel connections

Question 19

Which is it best to do before mounting the motherboard in the case?

Answer 19

The best answer is to test the motherboard with a CPU and RAM installed. It is harder to install a CPU and RAM once the motherboard is mounted so removing them is not a good idea. It may be possible to connect cables to the motherboard before installing it into the case but it makes the installation challenging.

Question 20

Which must be done before installing a motherboard into a case?

Answer 20

Install the I/O shield