What is meant by north, south, east and west side of the motherboard?
When looking at the front side of a motherboard so that the I/O panel is at the left side of the motherboard, the north side will be the towards the top edge of the motherboard, south side will be towards the bottom edge, west towards the left and east towards the right:
Historically, the northbridge was one of two main chips on the motherboard (northbridge and southbridge), and handled communication between the CPU, RAM and PCI(e) slots.
Nowadays, this functionality is typically already integrated into the CPU, but the concept of “north”, “south”, “east” and “west” is still commonly used for orientation on a motherboard or CPUs installed on the motherboard.
Motherboards with a rotated layout
Some motherboards have the socket and RAM layout rotated by 90 degrees, but even in this case the north side will be at the top when the I/O connectors are towards the left.
Related FAQs
Related articles
Want to know more on this topic? Explore relevant articles and resources.
Noctua confirms AM5 heatsink compatibility and announces free-of-charge upgrades for low-profile coolers and older heatsink models
22/09/2022
Noctua today confirmed that all its CPU coolers and mounting-kits that support AMD AM4 also support the upcoming AM5 socket, except the NH-L9a-AM4 low-profile cooler and the NM-...
Noctua announces free-of-charge mounting upgrades and updated CPU coolers for LGA1700
17/08/2021
Noctua today announced that it will provide free-of-charge mounting upgrade kits for Intel’s upcoming LGA1700 platform, enabling customers to keep using existing CPU coolers on ...
Intel LGA1851 heatsink compatibility & upgrades for older heatsink models
10/10/2024
Noctua today confirmed that all its CPU coolers and mounting-kits that support Intel® LGA1700 also support the new LGA1851 socket of the upcoming Core™ Ultra desktop processors ...
Noctua offers upgrade-kits for AMD’s Ryzen platform free of charge
25/01/2017
Noctua today officially announced that it will provide users of its CPU coolers with free mounting upgrade kits for the new AM4 socket of AMD’s upcoming Ryzen architecture. The ...