Computer Mainboards: What You Need To Know
Computer Mainboards...
Building your own personal computer? Would you like to know what computer mainboards are?
You've come to the right place. We've created this site to give you an overview on computer mainboards and how to choose one depending on your needs. Look around for the best deal.
What Are Computer Mainboards?
Computer mainboards or more commonly know as motherboards or mobos, are a vital part of every personal computer. Taken from Wikipedia, "A motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, while providing connectors for other peripherals."
Computer mainboards hold the different components of a computer. As an example, modern mainboards include the following:
- sockets to hold the CPU or microprocessors
- slots into which you install the memory
- chipset which forms an interface between the processor, main memory, and peripheral buses.
- non-volatile memory which holds the system's firmware or BIOS
- Slots for expansion cards (e.g. video card, sound card)
- finally, power connectors to connect to the power supply and the different components
Popular manufaturers of computer mainboards are:
- ASUS
- ASRock
- Gigabyte Technology
- Intel
- MSI (Micro-Star International)
- Sapphire Technology
- Shuttle Inc.
- VIA Technologies
These are some things you need to consider when purchasing motherboards, e.g. CPU socket, and form factor or the size of the board.
A Guide To Buying Computer Mainboards
You need to understand your requirements before buying a computer mainboard. The first thing you need to consider is the form factor. In the past mainboards are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes called computer form factor. Usually these were specific to individual computer manufacturers. As of 2007, most desktop computer mainboards use one of the standard form factor. The popular PC form factor of choice is ATX. There is also the microATX which usually fits in an ATX case.
Next you need to know what kind of CPU you would be using. Would you be using an Intel or AMD CPU? Depending on your choice you would need to choose the correct socket in the mainboard to match the CPU.
How many available slots for the memory do you need? This is also an important aspect when deciding on a mainboard. Having multiple slots gives you the ability to expand later when you need to.
There are some boards with integrated peripherals. A typical modern budget mainboard might have the following:
- disk controllers for a floppy disk drive and SATA drives
- intergrated video card or graphics controller
- integrated sound card
- fast ethernet network controller
- usb controller
- temperature, voltage, and fan-speed sensors
If you are a gamer, them your requirements might be different. You might need to buy another video card which is capable of rendering the games.
Finally, you would also need to consider the brand of the mainboard. All my mainboards are all ASUS and I don't have any problems so far. I guess instead of focusing on the manufacturer you need to choose where to buy it. There are some online stores that have competitive prices and also have a good replacement policy just in case you have a defective board.
At the end of the day, you need to take your time and do your research. Computer mainboards holds everything in your computer and is an essential component.
Can you upgrade the mainboards of computer notebooks?
Computer notebooks usually have different mainboards than a desktop computer. Because of the size of a notebook/laptop, the mainboard is usually small and highly specific to a model. Unlike the desktop mainboard, the laptop mainboard usually have no room for expansion. Everything is integrated in the board and all funtionalities are built in. The only expansions you can have are those port such as USB or ExpressCard. Several other functions are implemented is the computer mainboard such as the storage, networking, and sound card.
Unlike the mainboard for a desktop, if one component stops working (e.g. sound card) in a computer notebook, you need to replace the entire mainboard. In a desktop, you can just replace the sound card and install a new one. This is one of the reason why it is not recommended to modify your laptop aside from the usual adding of memory.
With the popularity of the netbooks, computer mainboards were reduced in size on these new breed of notebooks. Becuase of the size and the integrated functions, the mainboard of a computer notebook is usually more expensive compared to the desktop. You can have a decent mainboard for the desktop for $50. If you need to upgrade or modify your mainboard, I suggest you bring your computer notebook the manufacturer. Or maybe you should also consider buying a new one. With the advancement in the technology, the prices also goes down. Imagine having a 750 Gigabyte external hard drive now for just more than $100.
How to Choose The Best Computer Mainboard for a Gaming Computer?
Some of the requirements of a gaming computer are fast video cards, an efficient CPU, extremely responsive memory modules, and fast disk read and write. All of these components are important to experience the best of what a game can offer. Of course, the compouter mainboard is what holds all of these components so it is something that we should take the time and make sure that it works well wit the rest. I'll be listing the things that you need to look at in your mainboard for your rig.
The first thing that you need to look at is the CPU or processor. There are two popular manufacturers of CPU which are Inter and AMD. For a gaming computer, I usually go with AMD. From my experience, AMD's performance is comparable with Intel's and it is a little bit cheaper. Of course there are some who swears that Intel is the best. My advice is to try the game thay you would be playing with Intel and AMD and choose whichever you like.
Once you've chosed a CPU or processor, you need to make sure that your mainboard is compatibile with this CPU. The chipset in the motherboard is also important since it interacts directly with the CPU. Always look at the specification and manual of both the CPU and mainboard before purchasing.
The next thing you would look at are the slots for the memory modules. Gaming computers usually require large amount of RAM. The speed by which the game can read and write to it is also important. You need to look at the performance of the mainboard with the memory module that you intend using. There are lots of different configurations in the web and their performance.
For the video card, you need to know if you'll be installing more than one card. Depending on the game that you would be playing, you can play using one video card only with 512MB or 256MB. For those who have the budgetr, and wants the best in their gaming rig, you can go with two video cards. Just make sure that your mainboard can support it.
Games just like any other program still needs to be stored in a hard drive or storage. Gaming computers usually have fast hard drive and the disk controller in the mainboard should support SATA 2.0 at least.If you really want a fast storage, you can use solid state drives which are storage devices using a flash based memory. This will be faster since all the moving parts in a typical hard drive will be gone. Reads and writes to the storage are extremely fast which is important in some games, especially 3D.
Other important items to look for in a mainboard for gaming are the number of USB ports, Firewire, LAN connector, etc. Also, you can check if the mainboard allows overclocking the processor through the BIOS.
As you can see, there are things that you need to look at in a mainboard for a gaming computer. Integrated video card and soundcard are not advisable in a gaming computer. You should always aim for a separate video card and/or sound card.