Motherboards & CPUs Flashcards
Motherboard components
CPU CMOS Battery RAM slot Chipset SATA connectors IDE connectors ATX power connector ATX 12-V power connector Fan connector Front panel connector and USB headers
Provides continuous power to the computers real-time clock and maintains the systems BIOS settings
CMOS battery
Memory that is installed in pairs.
Dual channel memory (slots are usually colored)
A set of integrated circuits that routes communication between computer components and the CPU
Chipset
What are the two main chips in the chipset?
Northbridge and Southbridge
Connects directly to the CPU via the Front Side Bus
Northbridge
Directly connects to the RAM and graphics components of the computer, so that they can communicate more directly with the CPU
Northbridge
Manages input/output (I/O) interfaces for the computer such as PCI, PCIe, USB, serial, and IDE.
Southbridge
Communicates with the CPU through the Northbridge chip, which makes it a slower interface.
Southbridge
In an effort to reduce cost and improve performance, newer motherboards incorporate ….. on the CPU itself.
Northbridge Chip
Connect modern hard disk drives, solid state drives, and optical drives to the circuitry of the motherboard
SATA (Serial AT Attachment) connectors
One benefit of the SATA standard is …..
Hotplugging
Connects small form-factor (about the size of a business card) hard drives and solid state drives to the motherboard in ultra-portable laptops, netbooks, and tablets.
mini-serial ATA (mSATA)drive connectors
Connects hard disk drives and optical drives to the circuitry of the motherboard
IDE Integrated Drive Electronicsdrive connectors
When do you assign one drive to Master and the other one to Slave?
When two IDE drives share one cable.
A 24-pin connector that connects to the power supply and provides power to the motherboard
ATX power connector
This connector supplies three separate voltage levels: 3.3V, 5V, and 12V DC
ATX power connector
Connects the 12 volt, 4-pin power cable of the power supply unit to provide the CPU with additional power
ATX 12 V power connector
What motherboard might require an 8-pinEPS 12 V power connector?
High-end and server motherboards
A three or four pin connector used for a CPU or case cooling fan.
Fan connector
What are the three common pins of a fan connector?
Electrical ground, power, and a “sense output” pin that signals fan speed
What is the optional fourth pin on a fan connector used for?
Used to adjust the rotation speed of the fan without adjusting the voltage (aka control pin)
Contains sockets to plug in five system cables for the power button, reset button, power LED, hard disk activity LED, and the internal speaker used for beeps and other simple system sounds.
Front panel connector(also referred to as the fpanel or system panel connector)