What are the components of a motherboard?
qualhiveldorf’s answer does a good job of listing components that may be found on a motherboard. However, it should be pointed out that not all of the components will be present on every motherboard. It depends largely on the make and model of the computer. For example, laptop motherboards don’t have PCI slots and Apple computers never used the PS2 ports. There are somethings that all motherboard must have (CPU socket, video card support, RAM slots, controller for a hard drive plus or minus an optical drive, and a power supply), but the rest is optional.
There are many parts to a motherboard but I will only cover the most important. The first most prominent part is the socket (sometimes slot) it is a square shape usually off-white with lots of small holes in it , this is where the processor plugs into. The next most important component is the chipset, these are two large chips (Northbridge top, southbridge bottom) which may or may not have a heatsink on them, common makers include SIS, VIA, Nvidia, ATI,and Intel. The chipset directs information to where it is needed. The next most prominent component are memory slots, these are usually black and run parallel the the length of the motherboard. You plug memory into these slots of course. The AGP port is usually a brown slot below the north bridge, Video cards plug into this. PCI slots are the white slots below the AGP port and there are anywhere from 1-6. Next are the ports, these are at the top left of the board and include USB, parallel, serial, PS2, firewire, RJ45, sound, onboard vide
