THE x86 BASED PERSONAL COMPUTER 583
positioning of connectors, screw holes and so on. e biggest component (and also the most
important) in a PC is the motherboard – its size, position, angle at which it is placed are impor-
tant. It is based on this that the cooling system, the plug in cards and the position of the power
supply can be decided. Because of all these, the form factor is a standard and over the years,
standards have changed – the older motherboards were made for the AT cabinet. From 1996, the
ATX (AT Extended) cabinet is the most popular standard and there are versions of it like mini
and micro-ATX. e ATX standard has changed a bit from the year it was introduced to now.
See the ATX connectors in
Fig 17.1 and Fig 17.15. ...