Datasheet

17
Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need
The big kahuna
A number of different circuit boards are inside a computer, but only one is big
enough, complicated enough, and important enough to be called your computer’s
motherboard. Your computer motherboard holds
⻬
The CPU chip: This acts as the brain of your PC.
⻬
The RAM modules: These act as your computer’s memory while it’s
turned on.
⻬
All sorts of connectors: You connect lots of things to your motherboard,
such as hard drives, a DVD drive, and power cables.
In fact, the motherboard holds just about everything, as you can see in Figure 1-3.
(PCI slots are covered in Chapter 4, and your motherboard’s BIOS makes an appear-
ance in Chapters 3 and 7.)
Figure 1-3: Your computer’s main circuit board, affectionately called the motherboard.
Built-in audio jacks
CPU
socket
RAM
slots
Motherboard
power connector
IDE device
connectors
Battery
PCI Video
slot (black)
PCI slots
(white)
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