Friday, February 15, 2008

Say hi to your computer - part 3 - the motherboard



Today let's talk about the motherboard. The motherboard is not really too much to talk about, except that there are 2 main different kinds of motherboards based on the processor. Of course, again, that would be one type for Intel and one for AMD.

OK - that's not entirely true, as there are different sizes involved for each processor, such as 939, or 754, but that's really too much information for the run of the mill guy.

The motherboard again is where everything comes together. You have the processor placed in the middle area, and then you have wires that attach to your peripheral items, such as your CD/DVD drive, and your hard drives.

It also has your input plugs, such as USB, PS/2 (the round one for the keyboard/mouse), printer, and some more recent ones even have firewire. Usually it also has your inputs for sound and video as well, as they are integrated.

If you want better sound or video, you have to purchase a separate video card or sound card, but that's not usually necessary unless you're a hard-core gamer or video editor. But if you were, you wouldn't be reading this!

The motherboard itself often also comes in 2 main sizes, the regular and microATX, and yeah, like you guessed, the latter one is smaller.

How will you even use this information? Is this all too much and useless?

No, it's not. I'm just laying down the foundations for you, so that you can build upon it yourself, and even get to building your own PC one day just for fun (and for quality).

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