PC Hardware book

Typical Pentium (and 686) Hardware

Two EIDE interfaces A Floppy Disk Drive Interface Two high speed Communications (Serial) Ports One Enhanced Parallel Port

The following three images show a typical Pentium System Board of 1997 vintage

In these three images look for:

• PCI and ISA slots
• 72 pin SIMM RAM sockets and RAM modules
• Socket Seven Processor socket
• Voltage regulators to supply the lower Core Voltage required by the processor
• The headers connectors for:
  • Two Comm (Serial) Ports
  • Parallel I/O Port
  • Primary and Secondary EIDE interface channels
  • Floppy Disk Drive Interface
• Keyboard sockets, both 5 pin DIN and PS/2 type
• Power connector

The board below is a Pentium Pro system board.

Most Pentium Pro system boards are ATX format, this board is a Baby AT type (conventional) board.

Notice:

• the larger processor socket
• the VRM (voltage regulator module) next to the processor socket
• the BIOS ROM and the "Dallas" clock module above the processor

The board below is an ATX format System Board

This board is a Dual Pentium Pro System Board

Notice

• the two processor sockets
• the six 72 pin SIMM sockets
• five PCI bus slots and three ISA bus slots
• I/O (Input / Output) function sockets on the rear of the board (ATX format)
• the IDE (hard drive interface) and floppy drive interface connectors on the lower right side

The following two pictures show a January 1997 SIS chip set Pentium/686 system board.

• Look for the single chip set chip, the one with the green heat sink
• This board is fitted with an IBM 686 processor, note the clip on heat sink required with this chip.

Note the Processor has a built in fan, and look for the Dallas chip.

The following images show a System Board that can use 72 pin SIMM's and a DIMM

These two images show DIMM and 72pin SIMM RAM fitted to this same board.

The next four images show a modern Pentium II System Board

The Pentium II processor is a Slot One processor

This is a Baby AT System board but it has Baby AT and ATX power connectors

This System Board has three DIMM RAM sockets, two ISA Bus slots, four PCI slots and an AGP port.