3. The Motherboard

Some people say the motherboard is the most important part of the PC, which makes sense as everything that runs, runs through the motherboard at some point. However, other people would argue that the CPU is the most important component as it is the 'brains' of the machine. Either way both of them may leave a little hole in your wallet.

This is the layout and picture of my old mobo MS-6577 v4:




Note: All modern PCs are based on the original IBM AT Motherboard from 1984.

Once you have chosen your motherboard, you will want to choose a CPU. To do that you need the CPU socket type as shown below:


Here is another list, of CPU sockets: CPU sockets - CPU-world.com. I'll come back to the CPU in the next post.

The motherboard sets or dictates the performance of your system. There is a set of two chips on the motherboard called the northbridge {closest to the CPU}, and the southbridge {usually located around the PCI or add-on slots}. Together they are called the chipset. On this motherboard the northbridge chip is Intel 845GE and the southbridge chip is Intel CH4:


The northbridge {or memory controller hub} controls the fastest components on the motherboard such as the CPU, RAM {memory}, and video card slot. Whereas the southbridge {or I/O (input/output) controller hub} controls the slower components like the USB, hard drive expansion slots and system clock. {I will give the full list as I go along, lets stick with the motherboard and chipset for now.} As the term controller hub suggests, these two components are the hubs where control of the other components occur. The northbridge helps the CPU communicate with the other faster components I mentioned, whilst the southbridge helps the slower components.

Note:As the northbridge works the hardest with the other hardest working components so it gets hot, for that reason it has a heatsink of its own.

The southbridge dictates which technology you can have for your system, like the newest technology or even just the basics like USB and firewire.