Computer Motherboard

Alternatively referred to as the mb, mainboard, mobo, mobd, backplane board, base board, planar board, system board, or logic board on Apple computers. The motherboard is a printed circuit that is the foundation of a computer and allows the CPU, RAM, and all other computer hardware components to function with each other. Below is a graphic illustration of the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and some basic explanations of each of the major portions of the motherboard. Clicking on the below image will give you a larger more detailed version of the below picture.
Motherboard components

Below is a listing of links that describe each of the above mentioned motherboard components in additional detail. Links are listed in clockwise order going from the top-left corner of the image. Components not listed above or found on other motherboards are listed in the next section.

    Expansion slots (PCI Express, PCI, and AGP)
    3-pin case fan connectors
    Back pane connectors
    Heatsink
    4-Pin (P4) power connector
    Inductor
    Capacitor
    CPU Socket
    Northbridge
    Screw hole
    Memory slot
    Super I/O
    Floppy connection
    ATA (IDE) disk drive primary connection
    24-pin ATX power Supply connector
    Serial ATA connections
    Coin cell battery (CMOS backup battery)
    RAID
    System panel connectors
    FWH
    Southbridge
    Serial port connector
    USB headers
    Jumpers
    Integrated circuit
    1394 headers
    SPDIF
    CD-IN

Other motherboard components

Below is a listing of other motherboard components that are not shown in the above small picture or have been part of older computer motherboards.

    BIOS
    Cache memory
    Chipset
    Diode
    Dip switches
    Electrolytic
    Fuse
    Game port and MIDI header
    Internal speaker
    LCC
    Network header
    Obsolete expansion slots (AMR, CNR, EISA, ISA, VESA)
    Obsolete memory slots (SIMM)
    Onboard LED
    Parallel port header
    PS/2 header
    Resistor
    Serial port header
    Screw hole aka mounting hole
    SCSI
    Voltage regulator
    Voltage regulator module (VRM)

Motherboard form factors

As computers advanced, so have motherboards. Below is a listing of the various motherboard form factors and additional information about each of these form factors including ATX the most commonly used motherboard form factor today.

    AT
    ATX
    Baby AT
    BTX
    LPX
    Full AT
    Full ATX
    microATX
    NLX