What is a Motherboard? What are the Motherboard components & how do they work?
A motherboard, Mainboard or MOBO is a Circuit Board of components and expansions, Bus Slots, Memory Speed, Graphics Cards, Audio, Overclocking, Network Adapters & more. They provide a base for our Digital Connection and our focus here. Video Cards, Networks, hard Drives or other forms of persistent storage, TV Tuner Cards, cards providing extra USB or Firewire Motherboards are also Designed for specific CPUs. AM3+ for AMD Phenom II and FX CPUs and a separate motherboard for Intel’s chipsets.
A few years ago during the CPU speed wars, the chip manufacturers were busting their backs to get speeds up. They decided it would be smarter to focus on increasing the speed of everything else. So we now have very fast machines with the same speed CPUs. They also reduced the physical size of the CPU by reducing the Die size (A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated). Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon (EGS) or other semiconductor (such as GaAs, Gallium Arsenide replacing silicon) through processes such as photo-lithography. The wafer is cut (“diced”) into many pieces, each containing one copy of the circuit. Each of these pieces is called a die.). The chip foundries, as we call them, have been able to add more capabilities to the CPUs. Most striking has been the amount of actual CPUs on the chip. I believe AMD has up to 24 CPUs on one chip. (not released commercially). With an Unlocked CPU, through the Flash ROM (BIOS), you can tweak the speeds of the memory controller NorthBridge and SouthBridge. Even the Voltage running the CPU Cores. AMD has said that with the FX 8150 CPU and water cooling you can get 4.8 GHZ with overclock tweaking. They may get more speed but we are talking about Stable CPU.
USB Speeds have gone from USB 1.1 (5 mbps) 150 Milli-Amps with data transfer to 2 (480 mbps)and now USB 3 (5 gbps)900 MilliAmps with data transfer to 1.5 amps without data transfer. Now we are talking fast. Also increased is…
the maximum current drain for USB. My new motherboard was 3x more powerful. Some motherboards can be programmed to stay on after shutdown to allow charging of your toys at night with the USB ports. Is that cool or what? The USB design group is set to change the speed of USB 3 to 10 Gbps.
Memory speed used to be fast at PC133 (133mhz) now we are talking 6.5 GHz. Actual speed is hard to calculate memory because we do not use Bits Per Second; We transfer data words So word size can go from 8 bits per byte from 1 byte words to 64 or more byte words. That’s all we need to know about that (at least for now). The faster memory is sometimes backward compatible with slower memory. But with manufacturers all making faster memory, this is why older slower memory is so expensive and in short supply.
Bus slots for cards fall into two groups:One for normal expansion called PCI or video called AGP, PCI Express or PCI Express x16 for real fast graphics. (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), allows from the standard PCI 1 lane of serial traffic up to 32 lanes of serial traffic.
Per lane (each direction):
- v1.x: 250 MB/s (2.5 GT/s)
- v2.x: 500 MB/s (5 GT/s)
- v3.0: 985 MB/s (8 GT/s)
- v4.0: 1969MB/s (16 GT/s)
16 lane slot (each direction):
- v1.x: 4 GB/s (40 GT/s) v2.x: 8 GB/s (80 GT/s) v3.0: 15.75 GB/s (128 GT/s) v4.0: 31.51 GB/s (256 GT/s)
CPU Clocks cannot run stable at the CPU speeds of 2.5ghz or higher. These are microwave oven frequencies and Satellite communications frequencies. So we use a clock of say 800MHZ and a multiplier to raise the clock rate up. A Locked CPU only allows you to lower the multiplier number while and Unlocked CPU allows you to raise the multiplier number. (thus overclockers were born). Overclocking is set in the BIOS.CPU Operating Voltages range from 1volt to 2volts. These too can be manipulated by the overclockers in the BIOS. Remember the faster you overclock the hotter everything gets. The North and South bridge may not operate properly. The Temperature controlled fans will be running faster. My Xenon processors fans sounded like a jet engine on take off. Some Motherboards now come with Quiet mode. I would recommend to adjusts all of this stuff for maximum performance. Consider a Noctua NH-L12 Low-profile Quiet CPU Cooler with 120/90mm Dual PWM Fan or you could try a combo CPU/liquid cooling system for added benefits like the AMD FX-8150 with Liquid Cooling System 3.6 8 Socket AM3 AMD Processor – FD8150FRGUWOX
This is why upgrading and older PC can be more difficult. Good deals on motherboards means that they probably are not quite obsolete but maybe cannot go beyond 8 G RAM or have only USB 2 and not USB 3.
Built in Ethernet network adapters have managed to increase from 10 mbps, 100 mbps, 1 gbps, 10 gbps, to 100 gbps. This will allow us to talk to our router faster but not the Internet.
Wireless 802.11 b, g, n.
b= 2 mbps, g=53 mbps and N=150 mbps Future specs 802.11ac up to 866.7 mbps. and 802.11ad up to 7000 mbps
Audio
We are about to move up to HD Audio.
High Definition Audio refers to the specification released by Intel in 2004 for delivering high-definition audio that is capable of playing back more channels at higher quality than previous integrated audio codecs like AC’97. Hardware based on the HD Audio specifications is capable of delivering 192-kHz 32-bit quality for two channels, and 96-kHz 32-bit for up to eight channels.
Like AC’97, HD Audio is a specification that defines the architecture, link frame format, and programming interfaces used by the controller on the PCI bus and by the codec on the other side of the link. Codecs which can be used with such controllers are available from many companies, including Realtek, Conexant, Analog Devices (SoundMAX), Integrated Device Technology (IDT) (acquired from SigmaTel), VIA, Wolfson Microelectronics, and formerly C-Media. Currently we sample at a 42khz. We are talking about 192 kHz here. The more intelligent data we can get from the music, the better the quality out. Currently we have just been happily to have CD quality (Quiet with no noise). But the music is no better than what was recorded and that it has been compressed (squeezed for dynamic headroom) and filtered to cut frequencies below 100hz (to avoid resonance with the turntable at 60hz.) the upper frequencies clipped so it would fit on tape. We don’t have that limitation on CDs but most recording studios are reluctant to record more information. So we have not and album, but a collection of data files that have no life. With HD we can record more information so playback will be more dynamic. Since we don’t have HD recording yet gaining popularity we can use filters to reproduce or simulate that intelligent data that is needed too produce that “WOW” factor that you will hear with HD. If only we can get the recording studios to record at the higher sample rate we can have the density to do for audio what HD did for Television.
The support chips for the CPU also influence what motherboard (or MOBO) you purchase.
FORM FACTOR (Size)
Motherboard form factor specification developed by Intel in 1995 to improve on the original AT form factor. The specification defines the key mechanical dimensions, mounting point, I/O panel, power and connector interfaces between a computer case, a motherboard, and a power supply. A full-size ATX board is 12 in × 9.6 in (305 mm × 244 mm). This allows many ATX form factor chassis to accept Micro ATX boards. The Micro ATX motherboard usually has all of the components on the motherboard and little if any expandability. These were used in Mini Tower and Micro Desktop Machines.
An ATX power supply is typically controlled by an electronic switch connected to the power button on the computer case, and allows the computer to be turned off by the operating system. In addition, many ATX power supplies have an equivalent-function manual switch on the back that also ensures no power is being sent to the components. When the switch on the power supply is turned off, however, the computer cannot be turned on with the front power button The major changes were in the power supplies, which between revision 1.0 and 2.0 there were over 10 changes to cabling and power specifications The old AT Style had a power button that was soldered directly to the power supply making it difficult to replace. ATX also made the PS/2-style mini-DIN keyboard and mouse connectors the standard. AT systems used a large 5-pin DIN connector for the keyboard, and were generally used with serial port mice (although PS/2 mouse ports were also found on some systems). Many modern motherboards are phasing out the PS/2-style keyboard and mouse connectors in favor of the more modern Universal Serial Bus (USB). Other legacy connectors that are slowly being phased out of modern ATX motherboards include 25-pin parallel ports and 9-pin RS-232 serial ports IDE Hard Drive port and Floppy ports. In their place are on-board peripheral ports such as Ethernet, FireWire, eSATA, audio ports (both analog and S/PDIF), video (analog D-sub, DVI, HDMI, or Display-Port), and extra USB ports.
So, as you can see, upgrading can be very difficult. I recommend building a new DIY project, (with a budget of course). Follow our reviews for every component and peripherals. Have fun creating your Custom PC.
Below are some of the most popular motherboards by Intel or AMD according to their performance:///////////
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard</>
ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Republic of Gamers Series Motherboard</>
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 Quad CrossFireX and Quad SLI A GbE ATX Motherboard Z77 EXTREME4
