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IT Support & Hardware · Intermediate

Chipset

Motherboard logic that manages communication between the CPU and peripherals such as storage, USB, and expansion slots.

Definition

Modern chipsets (platform controller hubs) provide extra PCIe lanes, SATA ports, USB controllers, and networking, connected to the CPU over a dedicated link. The chipset determines features like overclocking support and number of ports. CPU compatibility depends on both socket and chipset.

Example

Intel Z890 chipsets support CPU overclocking while B860 chipsets do not.

Exam tip

Older designs split the chipset into northbridge and southbridge; modern CPUs absorbed the northbridge.

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