Motherboard Form FactorAnd Internall And external Connectors

2) Motherboard Form Factor

Motherboards come into different  form factors,XT, AT, Baby AT, ATX or BTX, plus you’ll see a sprinkling of proprietary and other form factor motherboards out there as well. Each form factor has several varieties. The form factor defines the motherboard’s shape size, its orientation, the location of built-in sockets and expansion slots, and so on. The motherboard’s form factor determines the type of power supply and case a PC can use. Form factors are not interchangeable, means which cannot be changed . That means that ATX motherboards fit into ATX cases, and BTX motherboards fit into BTX cases AT motherboard fit into the At case.

3) Motherboard Internal and External Connector

Motherboards today come with connectors to support literally dozens of devices, from the core components of CPU and memory, to sophisticated high-speed networking. You’ve already seen the most common integrated I/O ports , which covered serial, parallel, keyboard, mouse, video, audio, multimedia, MIDI/joystick, modem,b network, USB, FireWire, and SCSI ports.  CPU, RAM, hard drives, removable drives, and expansion slots. When you upgrade or recommend an upgrade, you must address one question: Can the hardware do the job desired by your client? If your client wants to play the latest and greatest games, for example, you need to look at his or her machine and determine its capability.RAM slots to install 2+ GB of memory? Does the chip set support that much? Look at the expansion slot for the
video card. Is it AGP or PCI Express? Does it have the number and type of expansion slots needed for future growth? If your client wants to get a new, high-speed scanner—a more mundane example— you need to weigh several factors. If the motherboard has a FireWire port, just recommend a FireWire-capable scanner and the client is set. Ifn the motherboard has USB but not FireWire, on the other hand, you need to determine whether the USB is Hi-Speedn or plain vanilla USB. If the latter, buying a Hi-Speed USB–capable scanner and plugging it into the lower speed connection would work, but would the client be getting his money’s worth? Of course not! So a good recommendation to overcome this motherboard limitation would be to go for the Hi-Speed scanner and install a Hi- Speed USB controller into an expansion slot. By examining the capabilities and limitations of specific motherboards, you can provide the right experience for your clients.