What is north/south bridge

[jkanzler]

On newegg when looking at specs there is north bridge and south bridge under chipsets. What exactly are these. Are the chips listed the only ones that will be compatible with that motherboard??

Thanks for the help.

 

[Aenslead]

No.

A motherboard is esentially able to work thanks to these "chipsets".

Northbridge usually stands on the "north" of the motherboard. Northbridge is more important than Southbridge (which... err... stands in the south) because it controls the AGP, memory, and processor bridges. In other words, the Nortbridge determines what memory, processor and graphic interfase you can use.

Southbridge controls mostly all of the I/O in the motherboard, such as hard disk drive ports (PATA or SATA), floppy, PCI (regular one) and integrated functions, such as on board LAN, Sound, Parallel ports, PS/2 ports, USB, and Serial ports. While important, many overlook this chip in favor of the northbridge.

cheers.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

As long as neither have trolls living under them, you should be set.

 

[Aenslead]

Originally posted by: Gigantopithecus
As long as neither have trolls living under them, you should be set.