COMPUTER HARDWARE
SYSTEMS
COMPUTER CHASSIS AND
MOTHERBOARD
COMPILED BY: ELIAS OCQUAYE (PHD)
STEPHEN KOFI DOTSE (PHD)
MR. JEREMIAH OSEI-KWAKYE
MR. ALEX ANSAH
CONTENT
❑ Types of Computer Cases (Full Tower, Mid Tower,
Mini-ITX)
❑ Motherboard Components and Layout
❑ Chipsets, BIOS/UEFI, and Expansion Slots
❑ Installing and Configuring a Motherboard
DEFINITION OF CHASSIS
❑ Alternatively called the case, system unit, or base unit,
the chassis is the housing that protects and organize all
the components that make up a desktop computer.
❑ It is the physical structure that houses a computer's
internal components. It protects the computer's hardware
from damage and provides support for the internal
components.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Computer cases come in different sizes and shapes,
including
✓ desktop,
✓ mid-tower, full-tower, mini-tower,
✓ micro-ATX, and
✓ mini-ITX.
❑The main types of computer cases are desktop and tower.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Desktop Case
• A single form factor that lies flat on a desk. Usually made
of steel or aluminum.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Full-tower, Mid-tower, Mini-tower Cases
✓ A full tower case is the largest computer case, offering the
most space for components.
✓ while a mid-tower case is a medium-sized option, and
✓ a mini tower case is the smallest, with significantly less
room for hardware.
Essentially, full tower provides the most flexibility for high-
end builds, while mini tower is better for compact setups
with basic needs.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Full-tower, Mid-tower, Mini-tower Cases
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ micro-ATX Cases
Micro-ATX stands for “Micro Advanced Technology
Extended” and refers to a compact motherboard form
factor.
A Micro-ATX Case is a computer case
designed to fit a Micro-ATX
motherboard, essentially meaning a
smaller, more space-efficient case compared
to a standard ATX case
TYPES OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ mini-ITX Cases
A Mini ITX case is a small form factor (SFF) case designed
to house Mini ITX motherboards,
which are the smallest mainstream
boards available for personal computers.
IMPORTANCE OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Protection
✓ Protects the computer's components from physical
damage, electrical interference, and dust
✓ Prevents shorting out that can damage the computer
❑Support
✓ Provides a framework to support the computer's internal
components
✓ Creates space for expansion slots, warning lights, graphics
cards, RAM, and other server applications
IMPORTANCE OF COMPUTER CASES
❑ Cooling
✓ Helps keep the computer cool and operational by allowing
for airflow
✓ Newer cases include mountings for larger cooling fans for
quieter operation
❑Organization
✓ Keeps the computer's internal components safe and
organized
✓ Keeps the internal parts separate from each other
CHIPSETS
❑ It is a collection of electronic components that work
together to enable the functioning of a computer system.
❑ It is typically made up of two main parts: the
Northbridge and the Southbridge.
❑ The Northbridge handles high-speed communication
between the processor, memory, and graphics card,
❑ while the Southbridge manages the slower, peripheral
devices such as USB ports, hard drives, and audio
interfaces.
CHIPSETS
CHIPSETS (Northbridge)
Northbridge has four buses connected to it:
✓ The memory bus – The northbridge’s memory controller
uses this, and performs all of the memory accesses with
RAM
✓ The frontside bus (FSB) – CPU connects to a
northbridge using this
✓ PCI bus – Connects the northbridge with the southbridge
chip, and add-on devices like the video card, ethernet card
✓ The L2 cache bus – This is placed between the RAM and
the CPU
CHIPSETS (Northbridge)
❑ With the advancement of CPU design, cache memory
became part of the CPU hence the L2 cache bus is not in
use anymore.
❑ The memory bus, FSB, and PCI bus use different bus
protocols (communication language).
❑ The northbridge chips act as:
✓ Traffic routers for the memory bus, FSB, and PCI
✓ Translators, translating encoded information different bus
protocols
CHIPSETS (Southbridge)
❑The southbridge has the following bus interface
functionality:
✓ PCI controller – A PCI interface to communicate with
the northbridge and other connected devices on the PCI
bus
✓ IDE controller – The integrated drive electronics (IDE)
bus for storage devices such as hard disk, DVD drive
✓ ISA controller- The industry standard architecture (ISA)
bus was an expansion bus like PCI in earlier
motherboards
CHIPSETS (Southbridge)
✓ USB controller - The universal serial bus (USB) was
introduced to replace interconnect buses such as ISA,
PS/2, the serial port, and the parallel port
✓ X-bus interface – A bus for PS/2 supported keyboard and
mouse with the BIOS code
✓ DMA controller - Direct memory access (DMA) allow
components on the motherboard (like hard drives) to
directly access main memory, without interfacing the
CPU.
CHIPSETS (Southbridge)
✓ System timer – This generates a clock pulse for the ISA
bus the beeps during boot-up.
✓ Interrupt controllers (APIC, NMI, standard IRQs) –
This manages different types of interrupts to regain CPU
control
CHIPSET DRIVERS
❑ The chipset drivers support several specific
functionalities, like USB and core PCI.
❑ A chipset and device can work together when the drivers
are compatible.
❑ During the installation of the operating system, the device
drivers are installed.
❑ Over a period of time if the drivers become outdated or
incompatible they create compatibility and performance
issues.
CHIPSET DRIVERS
BENEFITS OF A CHIPSET
A chipset determines:
✓ Which input-output devices are compatible
✓ The room for expansion cards (like graphics card)
✓ Overclocking ability to boost performance
BIOS / UEFI
❑ BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and UEFI (Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface) are both firmware
interfaces that control a computer's hardware and
operating system.
❑ UEFI is the modern replacement for BIOS.
❑ UEFI defines a new method by which OS and platform
firmware communicate, providing a lightweight BIOS
alternative that uses only the information needed to launch
the OS boot process.
BIOS / UEFI
❑ In addition, UEFI provides enhanced
computer security features and supports
most existing BIOS systems with
backward compatibility.
❑It provides secure boot (without
malware)
BIOS / UEFI
BIOS / UEFI
BIOS / UEFI
EXPANSION SLOTS
❑ An expansion slot is a socket on a computer motherboard
that allows you to add hardware components to your
computer.
❑ Expansion slots are also known as bus slots or
expansion ports.
TYPES OF EXPANSION SLOTS
❑ Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI): A standard
used by expansion card manufacturers
❑ PCI Express (PCIe): A newer type of slot that allows for
faster data transfer rates
❑ Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP): A high-speed
channel for attaching a graphics card to a computer's
motherboard
❑ Industry Standard Architecture (ISA): An 8-bit and
16-bit wide bus that was developed by IBM in 1981
TYPES OF EXPANSION SLOTS
Using expansion slots
❑ To add a new hardware component to your computer,
you can purchase a compatible expansion card and install
it into the expansion slot.
❑ For example, you can install a video expansion card into
a compatible expansion slot to add a new video card to
your computer
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING A
MOTHERBOARD
❑ A motherboard is a circuit board inside general-purpose
computing systems, including personal computers, smart
televisions, smart monitors, and other similar devices,
which supports communication between different
electrical components and houses components such as the
CPU, memory, etc.
❑ There is a broad range of motherboards, each of which is
intended to be compatible with a specific model and size
of the computer.
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING A
MOTHERBOARD
❑ Since different kinds of processors and memories are
intended to function best with certain types of
motherboards, it is difficult to find a motherboard that is
compatible with every type of CPU and memory.
❑ Hard drives, on the other hand, are generally compatible
with a wide variety of motherboards and may be used
with most brands and types.
TYPES OF MOTHERBOARDS
❑ Advanced Technology (AT) motherboard
❑ Standard ATX motherboard
❑ Micro ATX motherboard
❑ Extended ATX motherboard
❑ Flex ATX motherboard
❑ Low-Profile EXtended (LPX) motherboard
❑ BTX motherboard
❑ Pico BTX motherboard
❑ Mini ITX motherboard
❑ Mini STX motherboard
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING A
MOTHERBOARD
READING ASSIGNMENT
❑ Read on the types of motherboard listed in the slide 33
and differentiate them using their unique features or how
they work.
❑ After one week of covering this topic, the assignment
will be submitted by mail.
ANY QUESTION?
THANK YOU
