Tech-Burrow

The motherboard is a strong defining factor in building a computer, depending on what motherboard you choose, you pretty much dictate what hardware you’re able to use and add. Before getting into detail about the different technologies you’ll find packaged into your motherboard, let’s go over hardware really briefly.

First of all, not all motherboards are the same size, there are many different factors, the most typical is the ATX factor, but there’s also MATX, EATX,  and MITX (and a few others that aren’t as common). Keep in mind this is only in terms of desktop-class motherboards, server and laptop motherboards have different sizes still.

Picking the right size motherboard depends on your needs, if you’d like a small computer, then MITX is probably better suited, if however, size matters note, an EATX or ATX motherboard is preferable. Not all cases support all sizes, and not just because of case size, but rather because of mounting points on the case’s motherboard tray, you’ll also want to keep in mind that certain motherboards coupled with certain cases may make adding long video cards a real pain or maybe even render it impossible to fit everything properly.

However, size does not mean quality, as different motherboards use different chipsets (Southbridge and Northbridge) which in turn dictate what peripherals and hardware are supported, such as: CPU type (AMD/Intel), CPU socket (LGA775, AM2, etc), RAM type support (DDR2 800, DDR2 1066, etc), power connections, circuitboard layout, capacitors, expansion slots (PCI, PCIe, or even AGP for older boards), USB ports, Firewire (if any), Audio, etc..

Since this post is only about a very brief overview on motherboards, the next few posts will talk about hardware in groups (video, sound, networking, etc) as well as the software aspect (BIOS).

Tags: AGP, Audio, CPU, Firewire, Hard Drive, LAN, Motherboard, PCI, PCie, PS/2, PSU, RAM - Memory, Southbridge, SPDF, USB