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Before starting this lesson you should know the parts of the Central Processing Unit or 'brain' of a computer. (code 01-003)

Motherboard

Motherboard

The motherboard is the largest printed circuit board located in a general-purpose computer. It is also known by a number of different names such as logic board, system board, main circuit board or mobo. A motherboard provides connectivity between the hardware components of a computer, like the processor (CPU), memory (RAM), hard drive, and video card.


Where is the motherboard located?

A computer motherboard is located inside the computer case or chassis. The CPU attaches directly to a CPU socket on the motherboard. Computer peripherals like the keyboard, mouse and printer connect to the motherboard via ports.


What is the job of the motherboard?

The job of the motherboard is to send data in the form of electrical signals between the various electronic components that make up your PC, smart television, smart monitors and other similar devices.

Asus motherboard
Figure 3: Asus Computer motherboard

More about motherboards


Some motherboards allow for multiple CPUs to be installed at the same time. Dual CPU motherboards can be a good solution because they allow for systems to fit up to a dozen or more HDDs/SSDs. This could increase the storage up to several hundred terabytes.

Gaming While you can use a motherboard with dual CPUs for gaming you won’t be getting any kind of extra performance from that second CPU. The reason behind this is that video games are not developed to utilize all those extra cores and threads or for parallel processing. You can easily use 2 CPUs in a motherboard that has two sockets. However, you cannot use a dual CPU in a motherboard that has only one socket in it. Modern-day processor (Core i5 or Core i7) is good enough to handle the demands of advanced users.

Conclusion Dual CPU motherboards draw more power and are expensive compared to modern single CPU motherboards. Dual-socket motherboards are generally used for server work and not for common everyday usage like gaming or surfing the internet.

Test Yourself

Choose the correct answer
Questions Options Verify
 1)  Gamers get excellent performance from dual CPU PCs True
False
 2)  Motherboards are also called system boards True
False
 3)  The motherboard is usually under the keyboard True
False
 4)  Dual socket motherboards require little power True
False
 5)  Dual socket motherboards are good for servers True
False

Assignment 1.3

 1)   Why are motherboards important?

 2)   Use any search engine to find the name of a modern dual socket motherboard