Mother board/Logic board (internal)

The mother board or logic board is the peice that binds everything together. The processor (CPU), drives, power supply, and ports are all connected to it. Here are is a picture of a typical mother board, and a Modern mother board. Click on these two links to see the board's important places labeled: typical board labeled, modern board labeled.

• Ports - these are what you see on the outside on your computer, and connect devices to.
• CPU & Heatsinc plug - This is where the CPU (processor) and heatsinc attach to the board.
• Memory Slots (RAM) - these are the slots where RAM chips are attached.
• Power plug - this is where the power supply plugs into.
• AGP slot - the graphics card typically is placed here.
• PCI slots - optional expansion cards are plugged in here.
• IDE Plugs - older computers use these plugs for CD/DVD drives, hard drives, zip drives, etc. Floppy drives use a slightly smaller plug.
• SATA plugs - modern computers use these plugs for connecting drives. They support much faster data transfer speeds, and because of the small plug size they don't clutter up the inside of the computer as much.