This motherboard has six PCI slots, one AGP slot, and three 168 pin DIMM slots. The CPU goes in the white square in the upper right corner. The blue and orange slots are for the cables to the hard disk drives and floppy disk drives. Motherboard speed is a major factor in determining overall computer speed. Generally, faster is better. Motherboard speeds range from 100 mhz to 200 mhz to 266 mhz (the most common speed today), with some motherboards as fast as 400 mhz.
This is what a CPU looks like. Intel, Cyrix, and AMD are the leading CPU manufacturers. All other factors being equal (which they seldom are), the faster the CPU cycle time, the faster the computer will perform. Below is a chart that "more or less" illustrates the various generations of CPUs from the manufacturers.
Controllers are devices that control the various peripherals in the computer such as the video, disk drives, and printers. Most motherboards manufactured today have hard and floppy disk drive controllers, video controller, and printer controller integrated into the motherboard. Some even have the modem and sound system built into them. These motherboards offer a less expensive package than buying the controllers separately.
RAM, Random Access Memory, is required by all computers. The program currently running and all data required by the program reside in RAM. The two most popular types of RAM are 72 pin SIMMs (Single Inline Memory Modules) and 168 pin DIMMs (Dual Inline Memory Modules). All computers today require 128 channels for data flow, so SIMMs must be installed in pairs, while DIMMs are actually two SIMMs made into one board.
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Above is a chart with some of the more common terms used to describe RAM.
Below are illustrations of controller cards that are typically added into computers.
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| PCI Modem | AMR Modem | PCI Network Interface Card | AGP Video |
The hard disk drive stores the data and programs used by the user. There are two hard disk drive formats: EIDE and SCSI. EIDE is the most popular, and almost all computers today come with EIDE drives. SCSI drives are more expensive and are faster. Companies usually specify SCSI drives for their network servers.
