Motherboard

The motherboard is the foundation of a computer. It allocates power and allows communication to and between the CPU, Memory, harddisk and all other hardware components.

It is a printed circuit board and is always the largest board within the computer chassis.

Network card
- They can be internal and built into the motherboard or external as in the case of USB adaptors.
Chipset and controllers
- The chipset manages the data flow between the different components that comprise the motherboard: processor, Memory, harddisk and peripherals.
Bus
- Connects peripheral devices such as disks and printers to the motherboard
- Main computer bus that determines data transfer rate speed and is the primary data transfer path between the CPU, RAM and other motherboard devices.