Motherboard ID

MOTHERBOARD CONNECTIONS

Objective: Be able to find connectors and objects on the motherboard that are important in the build process

The motherboard in your computer system is VERY well-connected - it has communication lines running every which way. This is a brief description of the common connectors that you will see on a motherboard.

On-board Cluster

• Keyboard connector
• AT - large 5-pin
• PS/2 - small
• Mouse connector
• Printer plug
• Sound ports
• Ethernet (RJ45)
• USBs
• And others, and not necessarily all of the above

Capacitors and BLOWN CAPS

The capacitors or caps on the motherboard are able to store small amounts of electrical charge within for use at times when there is a sudden power fluctuation on the board from one of the devices. If they become overloaded, they puff up on top and so can be identified as blown. The motherboard may continue to function for awhile with a blown cap but it will soon break down, so Free Geek will not build a system if there is a blown cap present, whether the system will post or not.

See big orange arrows on the Example Board.

Processor connector === ZIF socket or processor slot

The Central Processing Unit socket lies flat on the motherboard and the gold pins on the CPU fit down into its holes, with its heat sink and fan on top. ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force, the amount of force that is acceptable when sliding the pins back into their holes.

See example C1, C3, C4 and C5. Note the C3 has 2 processor sockets.

The slot processor stands up sideways on the motherboard in a slot that looks similar to a card slot. The Pentium II and early Pentium III processors are this type, but noone is manufacturing them any more. It too has a heat sink and fan attached to the side to keep the CPU from overheating.

See example C6

Drive connectors

IDE - see C5. Note the blank pin spot in the middle. Is the connector for the master drive color coded?

SATA (Serial ATA) small L-shaped connector - see C5

SCSI - you will see examples of these in Lesson Box E Hard Drives

Optical drives such as CD and DVD - they use the same connector type that the hard drive does - see C5

Floppy - a double row of pins like the IDE but shorter and has a blank pin spot near the end. See C5

Bridges and communication facilitators

Northbridge - the integrated circuit that connects the CPU to the system memory and card buses - see C5

Southbridge - the IC that controls IDE bus, USB, card bridges, keyboard/mouse, etc - see C5

AMR (Audio/Modem Riser, CNR (Communications and Networking Riser), ACR (Advanced Communications Riser)

HDMR (High Definition Multimedia Riser) and related expansion card and slot types

Exercises

Select any motherboard:

What type of keyboard connector does it have?

Does it have both IDE and SATA hard drive connectors?

See how many blown caps can you spot on the sample board.