Hardware and Firmware 1.

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PC Chassis/Case
What is a
computer
chassis?
 A computer case, also known as a
computer chassis, tower, system unit,
CPU (when referring to the desktop as
a whole), or cabinet, is the enclosure
that contains most of the components
of a computer (usually excluding the
display, keyboard, and mouse).
 Cases are usually constructed from
steel or aluminum. Plastic is
sometimes used, and other materials
such as glass, wood and even Lego
bricks have appeared in home-built
cases.
Full-Tower Chassis
 PCI-E Slots: 7 – 10.
 Fan Support: 10 – 12.
 Better for Water-cooling.
 Better for More Hardware.
 Most Commonly Used For: Homer Servers, DAW, Video
Editing.

 When to buy a full tower case:

 Large motherboards for use with 3/4 way GPU
configurations.
 Large amounts of disk drives.
 Advanced/custom water loops.
 Special case mods or custom designs.
 Want more ease and comfort with building in a case.
Mid-Tower

 PCI-E Slots: 7 – 8.
 Fan Support: 6 – 7.
 Better Active Airflow.
 Most Commonly Used For
Workstation, Gaming PC.

 When to buy a mid-tower case:

 You only need standard ATX
motherboards with 1-2 GPU
configurations.
 Are conscious of price/space.
 Better active airflow.
Small Form Factor PC

 A small form factor (SFF) is a computer

form factor designed to minimize the
volume and footprint of a desktop
computer.
 It has been designed to have the same
features as a desktop computer, however,
due to the form factor it does not have
many expansion options.
 Intel® NUC is coincided as a Ultra-
compact Form Factor Computer.
 Small form factor computers are also
used as Home Theater boxes (HTPC).
Computer Rack / Rack
Cabinet

 A computer rack (commonly called a

rack) is a metal frame used to hold
various hardware devices such as servers,
hard disk drives, modems and other
electronic equipment.
 Rack Chassis

 System chassis that can be installed

properly on a rack cabinet. 1U Chassis

2U Chassis
4U Chassis
All-in-One PCs

 All-in-one PCs, also known as all-in-one

desktops, integrate the computer case and
system components into the monitor so that
the entire PC is contained all in one unit.
 All-in-one (AIO) desktop PCs offer the
advantage of a smaller form factor than
desktop PCs, but they often come with
several drawbacks as well, including
higher cost, weaker performance and
limited upgrade options.
Front Panel
 A front panel was used on early
electronic computers to display and allow
the alteration of the state of the machine's
internal registers and memory. The front
panel usually consisted of arrays of
indicator lamps, toggle switches, and
push buttons mounted on a sheet metal
face plate.
 Usually it has the Power & Reset buttons,
UBS ports, audio jacks socket, SD card
slots and others.
 Some modern cases have a display
showing the temperature of the CPU and
the fan speed.
 I/O Shield

 Is a thin removable metal plate that

protects the back of a computer and gives
access to I/O devices like USB.
 Motherboard usually come with their
own I/O shield.
Motherboards
 What is a
motherboard?
 A motherboard (sometimes
alternatively known as the main circuit
board, system board, baseboard, planar
board or logic board, or colloquially, a
mobo) is the main printed circuit board
(PCB) found in general purpose
microcomputers and other expandable
systems. It holds and allows
communication between many of the
crucial electronic components of a
system, such as the central processing
unit (CPU) and memory, and provides
connectors for other peripherals.
Motherboard Form
Factor

 What is a form factor?

 The form factor of a motherboard
determines the specifications for its
general shape and size. It also
specifies what type of case and
power supply will be supported, the
placement of mounting holes, and
the physical layout and organization
of the board.
Standard ATX
 ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)
is a motherboard configuration
specification developed by Intel in 1995
to improve on previous de facto standards
like the AT design. It was the first major
change in desktop computer enclosure,
motherboard and power supply design in
many years, improving standardization
and interchangeability of parts.
 Dimensions: 12 × 9.6 in (305 × 244 mm).
Micro-ATX

 Was introduced in December 1997.

 The maximum size of a microATX
motherboard is 9.6 × 9.6 in (244 × 244
mm). The standard ATX size is 25%
longer, at 12 × 9.6 in (305 × 244 mm).
ITX or Mini-ITX

 Mini-ITX is a 170 × 170 mm (6.7 × 6.7

in) motherboard, developed by VIA
Technologies in 2001.
 They are commonly used in small-
configured computer systems. Originally,
they were a niche product, designed for
fan-less cooling with a low power
consumption architecture, which made
them useful for home theater PC systems,
where fan noise can detract from the
cinema experience.
Nano-ITX

 Nano-ITX is a computer motherboard

form factor first proposed by VIA
Technologies at CeBIT in March 2003.
 Implemented in late 2005. Nano-ITX
boards measure 120 × 120 mm (4.7 × 4.7
in), and are fully integrated, very low
power consumption motherboards with
many uses, but targeted at smart digital
entertainment devices such as PVRs, set-
top boxes, media centers, car PCs, and
thin devices.
 Pico-ITX

 Pico-ITX is a PC motherboard form

factor announced by VIA Technologies in
January 2007 and demonstrated later the
same year at CeBIT.
 The formfactor was transferred over to
SFF-SIG in 2008. The Pico-ITX form
factor specifications call for the board to
be 100 × 70.2 mm (3.9 × 2.8 in), which is
half the area of Nano-ITX.
Motherboard Ports and
Expansion Slots
 CPU Sockets
LGA PGA
Land Grid Array Pin Grid Array
 Is notable for having the pins on the  The pins are arranged in a regular array on the
socket (when a socket is used) rather underside of the package. The pins are commonly
than the integrated circuit. spaced 2.54 mm (0.1") apart, and may or may not
cover the entire underside of the package.
RAM Slots

 A memory slot, memory socket, or RAM

slot is what allows computer memory
(RAM) to be inserted into the computer.
 Depending on the motherboard, there
may be two to four memory slots
(sometimes more on high-end
motherboards).
Chipset

 The term chipset often refers to

a specific pair of chips on the
motherboard: the northbridge
and the southbridge.
 The term chipset commonly
refers to a set of specialized
chips on a computer's
motherboard or an expansion
card.
 Controls the communications
and interactions between the
CPU and other components on
the motherboard.
Northbridge

 A northbridge or host bridge is one of

the two chips in the core logic chipset
architecture on a PC motherboard, the
other being the southbridge. Unlike the
southbridge, northbridge is connected
directly to the CPU via the front-side bus
(FSB) and is thus responsible for tasks
that require the highest performance.
 It connects the CUP to the RAM, PCIe
and to the southbridge.
Southbridge

 A southbridge chipset handles all of a

computer's I/O functions, such as USB,
audio, serial, the system BIOS, the ISA
bus, the interrupt controller and the IDE
channels. Different combinations of
Southbridge and Northbridge chips are
possible, but these two kinds of chips
must be designed to work together.
System Bus

 A system bus is a single computer bus

that connects the major components of a
computer system.
 Combining the functions of a data bus to
carry information, an address bus to
determine where it should be sent, and a
control bus to determine its operation.
 The technique was developed to reduce
costs and improve modularity.
 Bandwidth

 Bandwidth is the amount of data

that can be transmitted in a fixed
amount of time.
 The bandwidth is usually
expressed in bits per second(bps)
or bytes per second.
 For analog devices, the bandwidth
is expressed in cycles per second,
or Hertz (Hz).
 CMOS
 Complementary metal–oxide–
semiconductor, abbreviated
as CMOS.
 Two important characteristics of
CMOS devices are high noise
immunity and low static power
consumption.
 Usually used to describe the small
amount of memory on a computer
motherboard that stores the BIOS
settings. Some of these BIOS settings
include the system time and date as
well as hardware settings.
 Sometimes referred to as Real-Time
Clock (RTC).
 PCI Express (PCIe)

 PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect

Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e,
is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus
standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X
and AGP bus standards.
 Lane
 A lane is composed of two differential
signaling pairs, with one pair for receiving
data and the other for transmitting.
 PCI Express links may contain from one to 32
lanes, more precisely 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16 or 32
lanes.
 The most common configuration of the lanes in
nowadays computer are x1, x4, x8, x16.
 M.2 Port/Connector
 M.2, formerly known as the Next
Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a
specification for internally mounted
computer expansion cards and associated
connectors. It replaces the mSATA
standard, which uses the PCI Express Mini
Card physical card layout and connectors.
 Computer bus interfaces provided through
the M.2 connector are PCI Express 3.0 (up
to four lanes), Serial ATA 3.0, and USB 3.0.
 Uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical
card layout and connectors.
 It can have widths of 12, 16, 22 and
30 mm, and lengths of 16, 26, 30, 38, 42,
60, 80 and 110 mm.
 SATA
Serial AT Attachment

 Connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives,
optical drives, and solid-state drives.
 Revision 1.0 - 1.5 Gbit/s, 1 meter.
 Revision 2.0 - 3.0 Gbit/s, 1 meter.
 Revision 3.0 - 6.0 Gbit/s, 1 meter.
 eSATA
 Matches the associated SATA revision.
ATX Power Connector

 It is one of the largest connectors inside a

computer.
 It connects a power supply to an ATX
style motherboard.
 This cable is now a 24-pin cable.
Front Panel Connector

 The front panel header or connector is where the

connectors of hard disk drive activity lights,
case speaker, reset button, power on/off
button, computer power on light, and key
lock, are connected to make them function
smoothly.
System Fans Connectors
 3 or 4 pin connectors used to connect the
CPU and system fans.
 Can be located in different sides of the
motherboard depending on the
specifications of the OEM.