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Motherboards

A motherboard is the central circuit board of a computer, which is also referred to as a logic board in Apple computers. Every component within a computer connects to the motherboard in one way or another, some directly into it, like a processor, video cards, or memory. While other components connect via cables like a hard disk, dvd-rom drive, keyboard and a mouse.

Motherboards are available in a range of form factors, which fit into a corresponding case size. Some of the most popular form factors have been,

• PC/XT
• AT
• Baby
• AT
• ATX
• ETX
• Mini-ATX
• Micro-ATX
• LPX
• NLX
• BTX
• WTX

  - ATX Motherboard - Micro ATX Motherboard

All the of the aforementioned form factors are for a desktop computer. Laptops generally use customised form factors, designed by their manufacturer, which means repairs and upgrading are difficult and expensive.

Motherboards feature a BIOS, which stands for Basic Input/Output System. Generally loaded from flash memory, a bios boots up when the computer is turned on and prepares the way so that other software programs can be loaded and executed from devices like hard disks, cd-roms and floppy disks.

A motherboard will only support specific types of components, therefore, if you're upgrading your video card, memory or CPU, it is vitally important to make sure your motherboard supports it. Motherboards can come with built in sound and graphics capabilities, however, they are never usually of a high standard.