Motherboards, processors and memory work together to power your computer. If even one of these pieces of hardware is missing, a computer cannot operate. Computer hardware comes in all form factors and sizes. An understanding of what these components do and how they function as one can help aid in purchasing decisions.
Motherboards
Motherboards are designed around the size of the case they're intended for (such as ATX or mini-ATX) and the processor type (such as Socket A or Socket 478). Most motherboards are color-coded, allowing you to easily locate select ports, slots and inputs. Almost all motherboards include multiple PCI slots, a primary graphics card slot (PCI-Express is the standard as of August 2010) and SATA ports for SATA-based hard drives and disc drives.
Processors
The processor (also referred to as the CPU) is the main component of any computer. The processor tells your computer what to do and how fast to do it. As of August 2010, there are two main brands for processors: AMD and Intel. These companies produce processors for all levels of computing, from business to consumer. Intel processors are generally named based around the amount of cores they use, while AMD names are generally based around collective benchmarking results.
Memory
The term "memory" can refer to either RAM (random access memory) or storage (via hard drives). While the term itself is interlaced, knowing the difference between the two is very important as they aren't referring to the same thing. As of August 2010, RAM is measured by GB (gigabytes) and comes in different forms such as: SDRAM, DRAM, DIMM and RIMMs. A motherboard will only support one type of RAM. Hard drives are used to store data and come in different forms such as IDE, ATA and SATA (as of August 2010, SATA has become the standard).
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