motherboard and storage devices

STAR COMPUTER COLLEGE
TEL: 513585
E-mail: starcompduter@telesom.net
1 | P a g e H a r d w a r e
Every device in your computer system connects either directly or indirectly to the motherboard.
Technicians often refer to the motherboard as the system board. Motherboards come in a
variety of shapes and sizes called form factors. Regardless of their form factor all motherboards
have integrates sockets and connectors that enable you to plug essentials such as the CPU,
RAM, mass storage devices, component cards, and peripheral devices.
The motherboard plays an important role in the following important aspects of your computer
system:
 Organization : everything is eventually connected to the motherboard the way that the
motherboard is designed and laid out dictates how the entire computer is going to be
organized
 Control: the motherboard contains the chipset of bios program. Which between them
control most of the data flow with in the computer
 Communication: almost all communication between the pc and its peripherals, other
PCs. And you , the user goes through the motherboard
 Processor Support: the motherboard dictate directly your choice of processor for use in
the system.
 Peripheral support: the motherboard determines what types of peripherals you can use
in your PC. For example, the type of video card your system will use (ISA, PCI) is
dependent on what system buses your motherboard uses.
 Performance: the motherboard is a major determining factor in your system’s
performance. For two main reasons. First and leading, the motherboard determines
what types of processors, memory, system buses, and hard disk interface speed your
system can have, and these components dictate directly your system’s performance.
Second, the quality of the motherboard circuitry have an impact of performance
 Upgradeability: the capabilities of your motherboard dictate to what extent your will
be able to upgrade your machine.
Motherboard Form Factors
Numerous for factors have come and gone, but the ones dominate the pc world are At
(Advanced Technology) and ATX (AT Extended). These form factors define the motherboard’s
size, its orientation, the location of built-in sockets and expansion slots, and so on. The
motherboard’s form factor is directly tied to the type of power supply and case your PC uses.
The two form factors are not interchangeable. That means that AT motherboards fit into AT
case and use At Power supplies, and ATX motherboard fit into ATX cases and use ATX power
supplies. And never the twain shall meet.

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AT motherboard form Factor
AT motherboard, which have been around since 1984, come in two variations: Full AT and Baby
AT. Full AT motherboard range in size from approximately 9 x 13 inches. Baby AT motherboard,
as the name suggests, are scaled-down version of full AT motherboards designed to fit into
smaller desktop PC cases. On either full AT or Baby AT motherboards. The important
connectors, mounting screw holes, and sockets are oriented identically. Baby AT motherboards
can fit easily into Full AT cases, but the opposite is usually not true. The only integrated port on
AT motherboard is a single DIN connector for the keyboard, located the edge near the top. All
other ports and peripheral devices hook up to the motherboard via dongles (special adapters
that mount in an empty case slot opening) that plug into connectors.
ATX motherboard Form Factor
ATX motherboards were introduces in 1996 and are approximately the same size of the Baby AT
motherboard. Two visual cues can help you’re quickly distinguish between AT and ATX
motherboards: the type of keyboard connector, and the number of integrated ports. ATX
motherboards use mini-Din (P/S 2) connectors for the keyboard and mouse, and most have
integrated serial, parallel, and USB ports. Many also feature onboard modem and NIC ports.
Two popular variations of the ATX for factor are Micro ATX and Flex ATX. These use the same
power connections and have the same basic layouts.
Motherboard Connectors and Ports

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All motherboards have built-in sockets for vital PC components such as the RAM, CPU, and
mass storage devices.
1. Ram Sockets
Modern motherboards typically have anywhere from one to four thing slots to accommodate
the system RAM. The most common type of RAM
A memory slot, memory socket, or RAM slot is what allows computer memory (RAM) to be
inserted into the computer. Depending on the motherboard, there may be 2 to 4 memory
slots (sometimes more on high-end motherboards) and are what determine the type of RAM
used with the computer. The most common types of RAM are SDRAM and DDR for desktop
computers and SODIMM for laptop computers, each having various types and speeds. In the
picture below, is an example of what memory slots may look like inside a desktop computer. In
this picture, there are three open available slots for three memory sticks.
2. CPU Sockets
The CPU socket on an AT motherboard is located near the edge front of the board. The ATX
motherboard layout is rotated 90 degrees compared to the AT, with the processor sitting near
the top edge of the board. CPU sockets vary in appearance, depending on the type of processor
that they support. Zero Insertion force (ZIF) sockets are square and have a retention lever on
one edge, as show in figure
Single edge contact (sec) sockets are long and thin, similar in appearance to RAM sockets. Many
motherboards of this type are called multiprocessor motherboards.
3. IDE
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), these controller sockets are also called AT Attachment (ATA).
Though most techs simply call them “IDE” socket. By default two ide controllers (Primary and
secondary IDEs) available on motherboards. IDE controller sockets are rectangular in shape with
two rows of 20 pin each. Modern motherboards have two IDE controller sockets, one designed
as the primary channel, and the other as the secondary channel. Their color is either brown,
white, or blue.

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4. The PC Expansion Bus
In the pc world, a bus is a pathway on the motherboard that enables components to
communicate with the CPU. Common buses include industry standard architecture (ISA),
peripheral component interconnect (PCI). Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). Collectively, these
are referred to as the motherboard’s Expansion Bus.
The expansion slot create the connection that enables optional devices to communicate with
the PC. A device that connects to an expansion slot is generally called and expansion card, or
simply a card. All motherboards use a multipurpose expansion slots that enables you to add
optional devices, modems, sound cards etc.
Slot Color Speed
ISA Black 8 bit
ISA Black 16 bit
PCI White 32 bit
AGP brown 64 bit
5. ISA
The ISA bus was introduced with the first mainstream PC. The initial ISA bus transferred data
eight bits at a time also there is another version of ISA with a speed of 16 bit.
6. PCI
Short for Peripheral Component Interconnect, PCI was introduced by Intel in1992. The
PCI bus came in both 32-bit and 64-bitversions and was used to attach hardware to a computer.
Although commonly used in computers from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, PCI has since
been replaced with PCIExpress.

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Examples of PCI devices
1. Modem
2. Network card
3. Sound card
4. Video card
7. AGP
The AGP bus was designed specifically for video and supports only video cards. AGP provides
direct connection between the processor and the video card. Also like PCI, AGP is completely
plug and play compatible.
AGP comes in 32-bit and 64-bit bus widths. AGP slots are brown and similar in size to PCI slots,
as shown in figure.
Motherboard ports
Standard Single-Function Ports
Every PC supports several single-function ports for connecting peripherals such as keyboards,
monitors, and the like. These standard ports support only a single type of device.
1. The keyboard port
PCs have one of two single ports to accommodate a keyboard: a round, five-pin DIN – Deatsche
Industrie Norm- connector (often called an AT-style connector) or a six pin mini-Din (commonly
called a PS/2 connector). The figure below shows the DIN and mini-DIN connectors.
2. The Mouse Connector

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Like keyboards, mice come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and they use variety of connectors
to attach to the PC. Traditionally, mice plugged into one of the serial ports on the back of PC,
but most motherboards today have a mini-DIN mouse port. A side from color, the green mouse
port appears identical to the purple PS/2 keyboard port, but they’re not interchangeable.
3. Video Port
Alternatively referred to as a graphics port, a video port can be used for connecting a computer
monitor to the computer, or it can be used for connecting a television to the computer.
Desktop computers typically position the video port on the back, while laptop computers can
position the video port on the back or side. No other port on your PC looks like this one
4. Audio Port
Alternatively referred to as a sound board or audio card, a sound card is an expansion
card or integrated Port that provides a computer with the ability to produce sound that can be
perceived by the user through a peripheral device like speakers or headphones. Sound cards
are internal cards that are either built into the motherboard or are installed in ISA or PCI
expansion slot.
5. LAN Port
Alternatively referred to as an Ethernet port, network connection, and network port, the LAN
port is a port connection that allows a computer to connect to a network using a wired
connection. The picture is a close up example of what a LAN port looks like for a network cable
using a RJ-45 connector. In the case of this example, the two led lights will blink when that port
is active and receiving activity.
Multifunction Ports

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1. Serial Ports
Serial ports come in 9-pin and 25-pin varieties. The 9-pin (five pins on the top row, four on the
bottom) variety is much more common, although even those are rapidly disappearing from
modern PCs.
Serial ports transfer data one bit (the smallest unit of data in the PC world) at a time. Devices
that connect to the PC via the serial port include mice, external modems, printers, digital
cameras, and so on.
2. Parallel Ports
Parallel ports are the 25-pin (13 on the top row, 12 on the bottom) female ports on the back of
your PC. Many devices use parallel ports, such as external CD-ROM drives, zip drives, and
scanners.
Don’t confuse a 25-pin serial port with a parallel port! Although they look very similar, 25-pin
serial ports are always male, and the corresponding cable connector is always female; 25-pin
parallel ports, are always female, and parallel cable connectors are always male.
Parallel ports are much more efficient then serial ports, transferring data eight bits, or one byte,
at a time.
s
3. USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Modern PCs use one or more multifunction ports to replace the old aged serial and parallel
ports. All new machines have (USB) ports. USB comes in three versions, USB 1.1, USB 2.0 and
USB 3.0.
USB 3.0 is also known as Super Speed USB is the latest version USB port its Speed is 5 gigabytes
Per Second.

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Chapter 4: Storage Devices
What is storage Device?
A computer storage device is any type of hardware that stores data. The most common type of
storage device, which nearly all computers have, is a hard drive. The computer’s primary hard
drive stores the operating system, applications, and files and folders for users of the computer.
Alternatively referred to as storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is
any hardware capable of holding information.
There are two types of storage devices used in computers; a primary storage device, such
as RAM, and a secondary storage device, like a hard drive. Secondary storage can be
a removable, internal, or external storage.
Without a storage device, your computer would not be able to save any settings or information.
Types of computer storage
The following are some additional examples of types of storage devices used with computers.
Magnetic storage devices
Today, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used with computers
today and is the technology computer hard drives use.
FDD
 Floppy disk: is permanent storage device. It is used to store fewer amounts of data
(1.44 MB). It is also used to transfer data from one computer to other computers.
 Floppy disk is called as FDD. (Floppy Disk Drive) Floppy drives are also a form of
magnetic storage that functions similarly to Hard drives
 Connecting of FDD: On motherboard 34pin Floppy Disk Controller is available. It is used
for connecting maximum two FDDs: [1] Drive A: [2] Drive B:

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Hard Drive
 The hard disk drive is the main, and usually largest, data storage device in a computer.
The operating system software and most other files are stored in the hard disk drive
 The hard drive is sometimes referred to as the "C drive".
Types of Hard disk
There are four type of hard disk in commuter devices
1. IDE ( integrated drive electronic ) it has 39 pin or 40 pins
2. SATA Serial advanced technology attachment it has 7 pins
3. External hard disk, it has no pins example of this hard disk is USB flash and this one is
used mostly servers
4. GAZA this hard disk has 32 pins it actually used servers
1. IDE Hard drive
IDE (integrated drive electronic) it has 39 pin or 40 pins
IDE: Features
1. By default two IDE controllers (Primary and Secondary IDEs) available on
motherboards.
2. One IDE controller supports maximum two HDDs

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2. SATA: Serial advanced technology attachment
3. External hard disk
CD-ROM
 CD-ROM [Compact Disc-Read Only Memory: enables large amounts of information to
be stored for quick and easy retrieval later. It has the maximum storage of 650 MB Or
700 MB

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CD-R
 CD-R [Compact Disc-Recordable] Drives: enables you to record onto special CD-R discs,
but once the data was burned on to the CD-R, it could not be erased.
CD-RW
 CD-RW [Compact Disc-Re Writ table] Drives: can write to special CD-RW discs, and
then can delete and rewrite to those discs many times.
DVD
 DVD [Digital Video Disc] Drives: DVDs store huge amount of information and are
commonly used to store Movies. Some DVD Drives now available enable you to write
data to (as well as read from) The DVD maximum amount
Is 4.7 GB
 Multimedia is the combined use of text, sound, still pictures and moving pictures within
an application in a PC. CD-ROMand Multimedia are closely related. CD-ROMtechnology
is one of the main ways to see multimedia in action, although DVD-ROMs are expected
to become the dominant standard soon.

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SATA
Short for Serial ATA, SATA 1.0 was first released in August2001 and is a replacement for the
Parallel ATA interface used in IBM compatible computers.
This cable helps make a much easier cable routing and offers better airflow in the computer
when compared to the earlier ribbon cables used with ATA drives.
ATA
Short for Advanced Technology Attachment, ATA was first approved May 12, 1994. Is an
interface used to connect such devices as hard drives, CD-ROMdrives, and other disk drives.
The first ATA interface is now commonly referred to as PATA, which is short for Parallel AT
Attachment after the introduction of SATA.
Advantages of SATA over ATA
There are two types of hard drive connections that a computer could have: Parallel ATA (PATA)
and Serial ATA (SATA). SATA is most commonly used in nearly all computers today, due to
below mentioned advantages.
Advantages
Increased data transfer rate
The primary reason SATA is used over PATA is because of the increased data transfer speeds
with that SATA.
You'll notice that SATA's slowest speed is still faster than PATA's fastest speed.
The improved speed of SATA allows for programs to load faster, as well as pictures and larger
documents.
Easy cable management and cable length
Another advantage of SATA over PATA is the length of the cable connecting the hard drive to
the computer motherboard. The max length of a PATA cable is 18-inches, whereas a SATA cable
can be up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) in length. This allows for more flexibility on where a hard drive
can be mounted in a computer case.

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Increased airflow
SATA cables are also smaller in size than a PATA cable, allowing for increased airflow inside the
computer case and decreased heat buildup. This can help improve the life of a computer.
Disadvantages
 One drive per cable
The only disadvantage with SATA is that the cable allows for only one SATA hard drive to
be connected at a time. Whereas a PATA cable allows for hooking up two PATA hard
drives per cable.

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