Motherboards - Intel

A Motherboard is one of the main pieces of hardware that make up a computer system. The Motherboard features the primary software that allows your system to boot up, known as the BIOS. The Motherboard contains the chipset, real time clock and provides the electrical interface for the other pieces of hardware to connect to. The central processing unit (CPU) connects directly onto this board. Other components which include hard drive, RAM memory, graphics and sound are attached to the Motherboard via specific connectors, such as PCI-e, SATA, along with other various headers for external interfaces such as eSATA, USB and Firewire. Some motherboards can have sound, graphics and other peripherals ready integrated on the board. The performance of a computer is dependent on the Motherboards chipset, which is what allows the CPU and connected hardware to work together as a computer system. Updated 31/05/11

Socket 771 - Xeon™

The Intel® 5400 Chipset is bandwidth-enhanced for dual socket high performance applications. It provides support for faster processor, bus, and I/O speeds to enhance performance in demanding technical computing environments. The Intel® 5400 Chipset improves data movement across Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 and Intel® Xeon® processor 5200 series-based systems by increasing interconnect bandwidth, optimizing system bandwidth, increasing memory capacity, and improving network traffic processing while reducing I/O latency. These platform advancements help to match the improved performance provided by the Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series.