Computer Motherboards Review... How To Choose The Right Motherboard

The motherboard is second only to the CPU as the most important component in a Personal Computer System.

It contains the memory, all of the integrated circuits, ports, slots and connection points for the hardware that makes your PC a fully operational system.

The motherboard is the central interface for every component that connects to your PC. making it a complete. operational system.

It is the place where everything is held together. So, any time you want to add any thing to your system such as an add-on device, or if you decide to upgrade a component, it is done at the motherboard.

In the early days of the motherboard, it was nothing more than a plain board full of slots where you could plug in other boards such as the CPU, memory, hard drives and floppy drives... So, if you had to change the motherboard it was no big deal. You didn't lose any of your major components.

However, the modern day motherboards have changed drastically. The motherboard is almost a completely integrated system, with billions of components including the following:

	●	The CPU
	●	RAM Memory
	●	I/O Ports
	●	Expansion Slots
	●	Integrated Audio
	●	Integrated Video
	●	Integrated LAN Support Or 56Kbps Modem
	●	Integrated Floppy controller
	●	Integrated Serial Port
	●	Integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB)

This is just to name a few of them. Take a look at figure 1 and 2 below for more details

As you can see, the motherboard is your computer. Everything else is just decoration and attached peripherals.

There are two major advantages of the motherboards with integrated components:

	●	The Motherboards are less expensive.
	●	The integrated components are worth dollars you don't have to
		spend.

The two major disadvantages with integrated components on the System board are:

		●	Some of the motherboards with integrated components don't
			have a way to disable the integrated component so you could
			use a card in one of the expansion slots if you wanted to.

		●	If any one of these integrated components malfunctioned you
			would probably have to replace the entire motherboard to
			solve the problem.

However, if the integrated components can be disabled , you can replace at least 3 or 4 of them by installing the appropriate controller cards in expansion slots if they are not already in use.

Okay, lets say you have reached a point where you need to upgrade your motherboard. In this case I can only imagine that you intend to replace your system board. Right?

Well, if you have read my review of CPUs you already know that the first thing you want to do is decide which CPU you want to use, the Intel Pentium class or The AMD Athlon XP class. Your choice will determine which motherboard you use.

Just remember, the CPU's speed and the motherboard bus speed should match, if you want maximum data transfer speed between the CPU and the other components on your system board.

Also, Intel and AMD are not interchangeable between motherboards. You can read the CPU Review here

The two types of System Boards are the ATX and the AT.

The term form factor in this case, refers to the size and shape of a given motherboard type (The ATX or AT).

And the computer case size and type which determines whether or not a motherboard can be mounted inside the case and whether or not the power supply connector is compatible with the connector on the motherboard.

The ATX motherboard form factor is the newest form factor version, and the AT motherboard is the older version.

Anytime you decide to buy a motherboard, you must make a distinction between the ATX board and the AT board. Why? Because the ATX and AT boards are not interchangeable between computer cases.

You have to match an ATX motherboard with an ATX computer case. And the same applies to the AT system board.

The reasons why these two system motherboard aren't compatible is because of difference in :

Size and shape
Power supply connector and
Mounting studs inside the case

Power Supply voltages for Motherboards

The older system boards, +5/+5.
The newer system boards, +3.3/3.3, +3.3/+2.8,+3.3/+1.8, and +3.3/1.45.

If you have doubts about these voltages they can be confirmed by checking your manual or checking the side of your power supply that is exposed when you have your computer case cover removed.

Figure 1

Components on the ATX motherboard

Mach Speed Matrix P4MBMS Via Socket 775 Micro ATX Motherboard and an Intel Celeron D 351 3.20GHz OEM Processor

Figure 2

The back panel connectors.

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Thanks,

Lander Pierce