How to plug motherboard connectors

Motherboard is the true “body” of any computer and there is no system unit that can exist without it. All system unit components are attached and connected to the motherboard. Frankly speaking assembling of a computer (wich is basically connecting all necessary elements to the motherboard) is not an extremely difficult task, but there are important details that need to be mentioned. In this article we will take a closer look at the main connectors on the motherboard, see what has to be plugged to them, in which cases they are compatible, and in which cases they are not, and also discuss some other issues.

Table of contents:
1. Processor connector on the motherboard
2. Video card connector on a motherboard
3. Memory (RAM) connector on the motherboard
4. Hard disk connector on the motherboard
5. Power connector on the motherboar

Processor connector on the motherboard

Central processor is one of the main components and the “heart” of any computer. If it is not connected, the system unit will not start, and it’s very important to install it correctly. When choosing a processor, you need to focus on what kind of motherboard is used, or vice versa. The fact is that there are 9 modern standards of processor connectors, having different pinouts or not compatible with each other for other reasons.

Video card connector on a motherboard

The next connector on the motherboard, which for sure will be required when building a computer, is a video card connector. Some time ago there were two types of connectors used to connect video card to the motherboard – AGP and PCI Express. Nowadays all video cards are connected to the PCI Express connector only.

Most often, the PCI Express connector is located in the lower left corner of the motherboard. It can serve not only for connecting a video card, but also other devices.

The PCI Express X16 connector for video card connection can be of different versions. As of 2017 there are 4 types of PCI Express connectors:

• PCI Express 1.0
• PCI Express 2.0
• PCI Express 3.0
• PCI Express 4.0

These connectors differ from each other only by their throughput. In the same time they are inversely compatible.

If you are connecting a device made for PCI Express 2.0 to the PCI Express 3.0 slot, it will most likely work without any problems. But if done vice versa, a device designed for a higher type of connector may not have enough bandwidth to fully or partially perform it’s functions.

Memory (RAM) connector on the motherboard

Connectors for RAM are most often located to the right from the processor (sometimes they can be located on two sides). Modern motherboards have at least 4 connectors.

Currently, slots for RAM connection belong to the DDR3 protocol. Before there were used DDR1 and DDR2, which are no longer corresponding to the current bandwidth standard. DDR1, DDR2 and DDR 3 connectors and devices are not compatible. Which means that you will not be able to install the DDR1 device into the DDR3 connector.

It should be noted that on the modern motherboards, you can see that several RAM connectors are made in one color, and several in the other. This is due to the fact that different channels are marked with different colors. If you have several memory slots, it’s best to plug them into connectors of the same color.

Hard disk connector on the motherboard

On the motherboard (most often in the lower right part of it) there are several connectors for the hard drive. These connectors are called SATA, and they come in three versions: SATA 1.0, SATA 2.0, SATA 3.0. Most often these connectors are color-marked, differing from all other connectors on the motherboard.

All versions of SATA connectors are backward compatible, and they only differ by speed. SATA 3.0 connector is the fastest at the moment, therefore it is used in all modern motherboards.

Power connector on the motherboard

On the right side of the motherboard there is another important connector, which serves to power the motherboard. It usually consists of 20 or 24 contacts and serves to connect wires from the power supply. Motherboard can not work without getting power through this connector.

Above we have examined all most important motherboard connectors that are used to plug the main components of any system unit. In fact, the amount of connectors is much larger, some of them serve to connect buttons from the computer case, others to plug the case connectors or additional power and so on.