The motherboard is like a big city with many streets and highways that connect all of the buildings together. Instead of streets and highways, the motherboard uses tiny electrical paths to connect everything together. These paths are called "buses." The more buses that connect to something, the faster it can operate. Larger buses are able to operate faster than smaller buses. Buses work just like highways. Wider highways and highways with more lanes are able to carry more traffic than smaller highways and highways with less lanes. Like a traffic cop, the chipset manages and directs the flow of information between each item. The BIOS is where the computer's settings are stored and changed. In the first picture of the motherboard above, you can see most of the connecting slots, ports, and connectors. Some are labeled to show what they are. Below is a picture of a more recent motherboard.
