Think of a motherboard as a highway with lots of junctions, it basically connects all the components such as the CPU Central processing unit and other parts as seen on the image to the left the place where the latter resides and from which commands, instructions, and power course through before being sent out to other components.
The motherboard which houses the CPU which gives the components in the case power allows the motherboard to host Peripherals such as the computers Monitor, mouse, speakers etc.
All information on the computer is sent and received by/with busses.
This would be connected via small screws (non magnetic) and attached to the computer case.
North Bridge
The northern bridge otherwise known as MCH
(Memory control hub) is traditionally one of the
Two chips in the core logic chipset on a PC
motherboard
The Northbridge typically handles communications
between the CPU, RAM, AGP or PCI Express,
The Importance of the NB is as followed;
The Northbridge on a particular system's motherboard is the most prominent factor in dictating the number, speed, and type of CPU(s) and the amount, speed, and type of RAM that can be used.
This would be hard wired onto the motherboard or soldered.
South Bridge
The Southbridge handles the slower traffic on the computer
(SATA and IDE hard drive and expansion slots, RAID, USB, FireWire, direct access memory (DMA) controller, system clock, power management, interrupt controller and audio codecs all fall under the control of the Southbridge chip)
This would be hard wired onto the motherboard or soldered, exactly like the north bridge
Fan
http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/images/80mm-black-fan-350x350.gif
Used for a cooling purpose a computer fan is any fan in a computer that vents and chills the computer fans that draw cooler air into the case from the outside, expel warm air from inside, or move air across a heatsink to cool a particular component.
Having cool components means that they will not overheat and cause the computer to literally "meltdown".
There are two fans in total one of which is on the motherboard and connected via hard wiring and the other sits firmly on top of the heat sink.
CMOS Battery
http://support.oslri.net/image/cr2032bat.jpg
This Lithium coin cell is preserved to power the CMOS and Other components on the motherboard.
This piece of hardware is placed in manually to fit in a certain slot. Much like any battery
CMOS
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/depth/CMOS%20Chip1.jpg
CMOS) is a type of semi-conductor chip that holds data without requiring an external power source. In a personal computer (PC), CMOS holds the basic instructions the computer needs to initialize its hardware components and boot up.
CMOS functions the POST (Power on self test) which just checks the computer in a pre-boot up stage; bootstrapping)
Inserted into the motherboard and attached with pins, maybe clips or a bit of solder.
BIOS
http://images.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/1916-bios.jpg
The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is boot firmware, designed to be the first code run by a PC when powered on. In the bios you can change the boot-up process of your computer; you can also access other misc contents to modify your hardware. The initial function of the BIOS is to identify, test, and initialize system devices such as the video display card, hard disk, floppy disk and other hardware.
The BIOS is located on a chip inside of the computer and is designed in a way that protects it from disk failure. This would be hard wired into the slot it belongs too.
Graphics Card
http://www.desinformado.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/AMD-ATI-radeon-hd-5970-graphic-card.jpg
A graphics card is Responsible for rendering the image on the computer's monitor or display screen. Many video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light pen, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors
The card features an interface that plugs into a port or slot inside the computer on the motherboard.
Sound Card
http://www.cybercafelatino.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Sound-Card.jpg
A sound card is an internal computer component that processes audio files in order to provide high-quality playback through computer speakers.
A sound card has the same concept as the said card above the better the sound card the better the quality of sound, it provides the end user with many formats of sound such as mono, stereo, hall etc. Typical uses of sound cards include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education, and entertainment (games etc).
The card features an interface that plugs into a port or slot inside the computer on the motherboard. Or it can be built in the computer itself such as it being hard wired onto the motherboard.
Network Card
http://www.petervaldivia.com/technology/networks/image/network-card.jpg
This is a component used to allow users to connect to networks; this device allows computers to be joined together in a LAN.
The network interface card acts as the liaison for the machine to both send and receive data on the LAN.
A NIC is placed inside the computer via a port slot or similar to a sound card it may be built into the motherboard (Laptops are an example of this)
CPU
http://www.repairitware.co.uk/images/cpu.jpg
The CPU is the main backbone to the computer it proved power to all the hardware components on the motherboard etc.
Consider this as a brain; without the CPU, you wouldn't be able to play games, type research papers, or surf the Internet. Your computer would basically be a very expensive paperweight.
Intel is currently the most common/popular Central processing unit out on the market.
Optical Drive
http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/81680_dvdwriter.jpg
A disk drive/dvd drive is something you would use too input optical discs normally CDs this can be used for formatting also with the operating system disk.
Floppy Drive
http://www.pcpsinc.com/osc/eshop/images/Beige%20floppy%20drive.jpg
A Floppy drive is simply put are an old data storage or used to input information onto your computer, originally used on IBM
Case
http://www.1stpc.biz/assets/images/Black_computer_case.jpg
A Case is what holds all the hardware, it's the shell of all the components and acts as something to house all the components inside, if there was no case the components may/would be scattered.
Cache
http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/computer/CACHEMEM.GIF
Heat Sync
http://burn360.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/HeatSync_Three_Sixty.png
Hard Drive (Secondary)
http://emonitoringsolutions.com/shopping/images/harddrive.jpg
The disk drive hard drive is used as your computers base memory, this is where you will store all your information in fragments.
RAM
http://www.cartersmounts.co.uk/ram3.jpg
Not a sheep.
Fields.
ROM
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/kickstart-rom-4070.jpg
USB Drive
http://www.londonfrequently.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/lego-usb-stick.jpg
Used by many as a way too store and manouver data in a safe professional manner, the use of these includes such things as transferring data to another computer in order to access it away from your main workstation, also it provides a back-up for said files.
Ports
A Port is a Basic input/output system for electronic devices. Such as monitors, USB's, audio ports, Ethernet, wireless. Etc.
Monitor
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Computer_monitor.jpg
A monitor is a device used to provide the end user with a graphical display such as GUI and Text etc.
Keyboard
http://tiredblogger.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/dell_keyboard.jpg
A Keyboard is a input device that a end user would use
Mouse
http://www.techgadgets.in/images/microsoft-sidewinder-mouse.jpg
Speakers
http://freshome.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/eye-speakers.jpg
Printer/Scanner/Fax
http://www.image-acquire.com/HP%20Officejet%20Pro%20L7590.jpg
Webcam
http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/bigfoot-usb-webcam.jpg
Water Cooling
http://xtreview.com/images/water%20cooling%20PURE%20ST%20system%202.jpg
