Computer Series: The Motherboard

How to detail this part of a computer…Also known as the mainboard or “mobo” for short, this device wins the most underrated award. What I’m thinking is that it’s important to have an understanding of but is not really important to _really_ know unless you are building your own system. So I’ll try to start off by explaining some basics about the motherboard, what it’s for, and why it matters. Then I’ll leave you with some food for thought about motherboards.

The motherboard is that large green, sometimes a different color, thing that you see in your computer case…it looks somewhat reminiscent of cardboard, but is really a bunch of wires and connectors pieced together to allow your computer to function. Not very interesting eh? Well, I would say that you wont get much more interesting than that when you’re looking at motherboards. I’m not kidding. That being said, the motherboard is the most important part in a computer second only to the processor.

When you combine the processor and the motherboard you’ve in essence detailed the entire architecture for the computer you will build or buy. So to get you from novice to novice “but dangerous enough to challenge that dude in the store” lets talk shop. *Warning* - This may get technical.

The motherboard has a “chipset”. This means that you have a few mini processors that control the flow of information to the cpu. Within modern  chipsets, based on the Pentium processor, you typically have two separations; a north and south bridge. The north bridge is the faster of the two. Think of these as highways with many lanes. The north bridge speed limit is 175 MPH or more while the south bridge is generally much slower at like 35 MPH. The northbridge generally connects the CPU, RAM, and graphics card while the south bridge connects the rest of the peripheral devices. There are many reasons for the speed differences. Let me explain.

Naturally there are a number of ways to increase the speed of a computer. One of these ways is to take the mission critical pieces of a computer and attach them directly to the cpu with a very high speed highway. Now, if you still don’t understand what I’m talking about thing of it this way. If I’m the CPU and I’m running at horrifically blazing speeds because I’m in the fast lane and my memory is in the slow lane carrying something that I need, I will get to a point where I must wait for that information before I can continue driving like a maniac. Also, if you are thinking, why not just have everything connected the same way and on the same wires, think of rush hour traffic. You have the ability to use all lanes at 3AM when nobody is around. You can drive as fast as you’d like and pull off stunts. But, as soon as 7AM hits you could be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with a long wait ahead of you. I suspect none of us is patient enough to let others go in front of us and so we’re all pushing forward with the expectation that we should finish first. This is how the computer works. So, the chipset designers give precedence to certain things. This is why it is important that you take advantage of those changes and speeds. In fact, the reason this is important is because places like Dell will let you select a processor and then your RAM. They will leave out the motherboard, but they tell you information about bus speeds. These speeds are the ones we just talked about. When dell gives you a combo where the Froint Side Bus (FSB) runs at 800 MHz and you select RAM that runs at 667 MHz, you’ve selected RAM that will never allow your system to fully utilize your motherboard. You should take advantage of this. So keep this in mind.
If you are not building a computer then you have very little control over the rest of the motherboard specs. Most of the time motherboards come with a number of “on-board” additions that help you so that you don’t have to spend as much on the motherboard and additional parts and so that they can manufacture a cheaper board. These on-board things usually include networking, sound, USB, and a few other things. This means that you don’t need to look elsewhere for a network card or extra USB connectors. It’s a convenience to you, but also reduces the cost. If you are getting a system from a place like Dell or Gateway, you’ll need to know this because they will offer you upgrades to things such as sound and otherwise that you may or may not need. I recently built a new system and am using the on-board sound. I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever. So, them telling you that you need to spend an additional $50 for sound or something similar isn’t really worthwhile unless you are running a production studio. And if you are, get someone to build you a crazy system, don’t cheap out on parts. For the rest of us, most of the on-board stuff will be sufficient. My last note on the on-board items is that USB ports are important. Usually you’ll only see USB 2.0, but on the rare occasion you see USB 1.0 or 1.1 shy away. Most devices will use 2.0 and require it for speed. And, with the speed, you also want to get as many USB ports as is possible. I have 4 in the back of my machine, and then 4 more through my case. I’ll be all set and wont ever have to use a USB port replicator. That means I’ll get full power and full throughput from the device I’ve connected to the motherboard and not have to share that port with another device.

Well, I know this has been technical. It’s hard to talk about the motherboard without getting technical, but I hope I’ve covered everything about the motherboard. This is the stuff that I can think of. I’ve been writing this over a couple of weeks and tweaking it to remove some of the tech speak. If you have questions, feel free to ask. Also, if one of you is a techie and I’ve mistated something or forgotten something, let me have it. Hope it helps.