The motherboard :

A motherboard provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the system communicate (talk with each other.) Unlike a backplane, it also contains the central
processing unit and hosts other subsystems and devices.

A typical desktop computer has its microprocessor, main memory, and other essential components connected to the motherboard. Other components such asexternal storage, controllers
for video display and sound, and peripheral devices may be attached to the motherboard as plug-in cards or via cables, in modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate some
of these peripherals into the motherboard itself.

An important component of a motherboard is the microprocessor's supporting chipset, which provides the supporting interfaces between the CPU and the various buses and external
components. This chipset determines, to an extent, the features and capabilities of the motherboard.

Modern motherboards include:


Sockets (or slots) in which one or more microprocessors may be installed. In the case of CPUs in BGA packages, such as the VIA C3, the CPU is directly soldered to the
motherboard.[citation needed]

Slots into which the system's main memory is to be installed (typically in the form of DIMM modules containing DRAM chips)


A chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's front-side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses


Non-volatile memory chips (usually Flash ROM in modern motherboards) containing the system's firmware or BIOS


A clock generator which produces the system clock signal to synchronize the various components


Slots for expansion cards (the interface to the system via the buses supported by the chipset)


Power connectors, which receive electrical power from the computer power supply and distribute it to the CPU, chipset, main memory, and expansion cards. As of 2007,
some graphics cards (e.g. GeForce 8 and Radeon R600) require more power than the motherboard can provide, and thus dedicated connectors have been introduced to attach
them directly to the power supply.[3] Most disk drives also connect to the power supply via dedicated connectors.[citation needed]

Additionally, nearly all motherboards include logic and connectors to support commonly used input devices, such as PS/2 connectors for a mouse and keyboard. Early personal
computers such as the Apple II or IBM PC included only this minimal peripheral support on the motherboard. Occasionally video interface hardware was also integrated into the
motherboard; for example, on the Apple II and rarely on IBM-compatible computers such as the IBM PC Jr. Additional peripherals such as disk controllers and serial ports were provided as
expansion cards.

Given the high thermal design power of high-speed computer CPUs and components, modern motherboards nearly always include heat sinks and mounting points for fans to dissipate
excess heat.

Peripheral card slots[edit]

A typical motherboard of 2012 will have a different number of connections depending on its standard.

A standard ATX motherboard will typically have two or three PCI-E 16x connection for a graphics card, one or two legacy PCI slots for various expansion cards, and one or two PCI-E 1x
(which has superseded PCI). A standard EATX motherboard will have two to four PCI-Express 16x connection for graphics cards, and a varying number of PCI and PCI-E 1x slots. It can
sometimes also have a PCI-E 4x slot (will vary between brands and models).

Some motherboards have two or more PCI-E 16x slots, to allow more than 2 monitors without special hardware, or use a special graphics technology called SLI (forNvidia)
and Crossfire (for ATI). These allow 2 to 4 graphics cards to be linked together, to allow better performance in intensive graphical computing tasks, such as gaming, video editing, etc.

hard disk drive 

A hard disk drive (HDD)[note 2] is a data storage device used for storing and retrieving digital information using rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. An
HDD retains its data even when powered off. Data is read in a random-access manner, meaning individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order rather than sequentially.
An HDD consists of one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) with magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm to read and write data to the surfaces.

Introduced by IBM in 1956,[2] HDDs became the dominant secondary storage device for general purpose computers by the early 1960s. Continuously improved, HDDs have maintained
this position into the modern era of servers and personal computers. More than 200 companies have produced HDD units, though most current units are manufactured
by Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital. Worldwide revenues for HDD shipments are expected to reach $33 billion in 2013, a decrease of approximately 12% from $37.8 billion in 2012.

The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and performance. Capacity is specified in unit prefixes corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1-terabyte (TB) drive has a capacity of
1,000 gigabytes (GB; where 1 gigabyte = 1 billion bytes). Typically, some of an HDD's capacity is unavailable to the user because it is used by the file system and the computer operating
system, and possibly inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery. Performance is specified by the time to move the heads to a file (Average Access Time) plus the time it takes for
the file to move under its head (average latency, a function of the physicalrotational speed in revolutions per minute) and the speed at which the file is transmitted (data rate).

The two most common form factors for modern HDDs are 3.5-inch in desktop computers and 2.5-inch in laptops. HDDs are connected to systems by standardinterface cables such
as SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial attached SCSI) cables.

As of 2012, the primary competing technology for secondary storage is flash memory in the form of solid-state drives (SSDs). HDDs are expected to remain the dominant medium for
secondary storage due to predicted continuing advantages in recording capacity and price per unit of storage; [3][4] but SSDs are replacing HDDs where speed, power consumption and
durability are more important considerations than price and capacity.[5][6]

Types of RAM[edit]

The three main forms of modern RAM are static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and phase-change memory (PRAM). In SRAM, a bit of data is stored using the state of a flip-flop.
This form of RAM is more expensive to produce, but is generally faster and requires less power than DRAM and, in modern computers, is often used as cache memory for the CPU. DRAM
stores a bit of data using a transistor and capacitor pair, which together comprise a memory cell. The capacitor holds a high or low charge (1 or 0, respectively), and the transistor acts as a
switch that lets the control circuitry on the chip read the capacitor's state of charge or change it. As this form of memory is less expensive to produce than static RAM, it is the predominant
form of computer memory used in modern computers.

Both static and dynamic RAM are considered volatile, as their state is lost or reset when power is removed from the system. By contrast, read-only memory (ROM) stores data by
permanently enabling or disabling selected transistors, such that the memory cannot be altered. Writeable variants of ROM (such as EEPROM and flash memory) share properties of both
ROM and RAM, enabling data to persistwithout power and to be updated without requiring special equipment. These persistent forms of semiconductor ROM include USB flash drives,
memory cards for cameras and portable devices, etc. ECC memory (which can be either SRAM or DRAM) includes special circuitry to detect and/or correct random faults (memory errors)
in the stored data, using parity bits or error correction code.

In general, the term RAM refers solely to solid-state memory devices (either DRAM or SRAM), and more specifically the main memory in most computers. In optical storage, the term DVD-
RAM is somewhat of a misnomer since, unlike CD-RW or DVD-RW it does not need to be erased before reuse. Nevertheless a DVD-RAM behaves much like a hard disc drive if somewhat
slower.