Chapter 6 - Motherboards

Question 1

Form Factors

Answer 1

Broad standards for motherboards and cases, and power supply

Question 2

I/O area

Answer 2

the area of the motherboard inputs/connectors for devices.

Question 3

ATX

Answer 3

ATX Form Factor biggest common form factor. a motherboard that measures in 12inches x 9.6 inches

Question 4

MicroATX

Answer 4

motherboard that measures by 9.6 inches x 9.6 inches

Question 5

Mini-ITX

Answer 5

most common small form factor.

Question 6

ITX

Answer 6

Larger version of the Mini-ITX.

Question 7

What are the four Main Form Factors

Answer 7

ATX, Micro-ATX, ITX, Mini-ITX

Question 8

I/O Shield

Answer 8

Every motherboard comes with an I/O shield that goes over the I/O area. I/O are form factor standardized to fit all motherboards.

Question 9

Chipsets

Answer 9

Are chips that handle multiple jobs. And is the most important part to defining what a motherboard can do.

Question 10

What are the different chipsets

Answer 10

Northbridge and Southbridge and you need both

Question 11

Northbridge handles what?

Answer 11

interface for the CPU, handled memory, handles high speed expansion buses. The Faster chip

Question 12

Southbridge handles what?

Answer 12

Interconnection to the slower devices. Handles USB ports

Question 13

Today/Modern Chipsets are what?

Answer 13

Southbridge the CPU took over the job of the Northbridge chipset.

Question 14

SATA Cables

Answer 14

Are for Hard Drives. Used to connect hard drives to the motherboard.

Question 15

Power Connectors

Answer 15

Connector used to connect primary power source to the motherboard.

Question 16

Capacitors/Voltage regulators

Answer 16

Work very hard break down the voltage from the power supply to the correct voltage for the CPU and other devices.

Question 17

Broken or Bubbled up capacitors mean?

Answer 17

a dead motherboard.

Question 18

PCIe Expansion Slots

Answer 18

PCIe are the dominant type of expansion bus slots that use serial connections. Used to connect devices like a video card to the motherboard, along with other PCIe cards.

Question 19

x16 lane PCIe connector

Answer 19

Biggest PCIe lane/slot, commonly used for video cards

Question 20

PCI

Answer 20

Is the precursor to PCIe. that was invented back in the 90’s

Question 21

Parallel vs. Serial

Answer 21

Serial is sending data on one wire. and Parallel is sending data on 32 wires.

Question 22

Single Lane

Answer 22

PCIe lane for smaller devices, but you can also connect this smaller devices into a larger PCIe lane.

Question 23

x4-lane PCIe

Answer 23

a little larger than the single lane PCIe slot

Question 24

USB Connectors

Answer 24

Used to connect Dongles to your motherboard

Question 25

Dongles

Answer 25

a piece of hard that plugs into the motherboard/Connectors with cables that plug into the motherboard.

Question 26

VGA Connector

Answer 26

Used to support on board graphics

Question 27

Standout are what and used for what?

Answer 27

Standardized mounts located inside that case, that allow various motherboard form factors to be mounted to the case.

Question 28

Pass Throughs or Push throughs

Answer 28

Are rubber pass ways on the case that allow you to connect cables to the motherboard to help with cable management.

Question 29

What is an Optical Drive?

Answer 29

An Optical Drive is a disk reader.

Question 30

Fan connectors are usually what?

Answer 30

3 or 4 pin connectors