Picking up where the previous entry left off, this one will cover the basics of the connectors on the rear-plate and PCB (circuit board) of the motherboard. All motherboards have a rear-facing array of ports and connections which can vary greatly. Certain motherboards also have additional ports which can be connected by pin-outs and may connect to ports on the case or to PCI brackets. Other ports that can be found on the PCB are used to connect up major hardware pieces, such as add-in cards or hard drives, as well as power connectors and CPU/Case fan control connections.
Some smaller-sized motherboards, such as MITX, include a significantly smaller amount of ports on the back, but offer a lot more pin-out areas on the actual board that can be connected up to provide additional connectivity. However they also often offer a very small amount of hardware ports.