THE MOTHERBOARD
| The motherboard: also known as "the brain of the computer". It is what all the other components are plugged into. The motherboard is also probably the most costly and definitely the most important part of a computer. Since the first and probably slowest of computers, they have existed - for how is a computer to exist with no central controller? Motherboards also define how far your computer can go. A good and updated motherboard, for example, would support the latest slots, ram, and processors. It would be compatible with most graphics and sound cards, hard disks drives, scanners, and, most importantly, would make the whole of your computer function faster. Motherboards of today change fast, and vary in types and brands, and the best way to get one would be to ask your nearest computer parts shop man, or do in-depth reading of the newspapers. Note: The motherboard is only the "skull" of the computer; other components must be added and mounted on top of it for a PC to be created. |  |
TYPES OF MOTHERBOARDS
Socket 1
- This is an old motherboard type. Its found on 486 motherboards and supports
486 chips, plus the DX2, DX4 Overdrive. It uses 169 pins. The only overdrive
it will support is the DX4 Overdrive.
Socket 2
- This socket is a minor upgrade from the Socket 1.
It uses 238 pins runs at 5 volt. Better support for OverDrives
Socket 3
- This socket uses 237 pins and operates at 5 or 3.3
volts, switchable by the jumper. Considered the latest of the 486 sockets.
Socket 4 - Pentium class socket by Intel. This
socket uses 273 pins. It operates at 5 volts. Due to this voltage, the socket
only supports 60-66Mhz Pentiums. Quickly replaced by Socket 5. Socket
5 - Uses 3.3 volts with 320 pins. Supports Pentium chips from 75MHz
to 133MHz. Does not support MMX. Quickly replaced by Socket 7.
Socket 6 - Last of 486 sockets. Never used by
major manufacturors. 235 pins and 3.3 volts Socket 7
- Socket 7 uses 321 pins and 2.5-3.3 volts. Supports MMX and CPUs with speed
350Mhz and growing. Socket 8 - Pentium Pro socket. 3.1-3.3 volts and has 387
Pins. Mostly used in servers.
Slot 1 - Pentium II and Celeron socket. 2.8-3.3
volts and has 242 'pins' . Can be used with a Pentium Pro chip.
Slot 2 - Intel Xeon proccessor slot. Not much
spec are known as of yet.
Slot A - Athlon (K7) proccessor slot. 200Mhz
bus speed. PC133 RAM.
COMPONENTS ON A MOTHERBOARD
CPU
The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the heart
of the motherboard. For the most part the choices are the Athalon K7, and
the Pentium 2, 3, or even 4. It may be tough to choose a correct chip - weighing
out the price and the abilities can be difficult at times. A Pentium 3, for
example, would be more capable of multi-tasking and running games than the
Pentium 2. Also, there's the question of running speed. For example, there
is no point buying a Pentium 3 which would run at 400 MHz when a Pentium 2
can do 450 MHz (of course, speeds rarely counts nowadays as Pentium 3s are
all made at 450mhz and above whereas Pentium 2s are made at 450mhz and below).
There are a few different manufacturers of CPUs, Intel being the leader. They
are also the most expensive. I have used AMD chips without problem, and the
others are probably fine too. The only word of caution might be to try to
avoid the first generation of a chip since the bugs aren't always hammered
out. The new 686s by Cyrix are really cool and fast for 32-bit OSs (like Linux).
Cache
The cache caches data. That's about it. It takes recently
accessed data and stores it on a really fast memory chip. Having a lot of
cache will come much in handy - your computer will be able to work multiple
tasks faster and repeat operations quicker. A 512kb primary cache would suit
well for 128MB of RAM (see below). You may want to get more, though, if you
are putting on more ram onto your motherbaord.
The BIOS
The BIOS records what size hard drive you have, how much RAM, and other system
information, such as default boot drives, time, etc. Phoenix and Award are
the big BIOS makers. Make sure you get the most recent BIOS chip possible
and you may save yourself some problems.
RAM
Ram - or Random Access Memory is what you need more of to multi-task. RAM
is basically what your computer can hold in its brain at one time. If you
plan to be running several applications at a time, such as MP3, graphics tools,
browsers, Internet servers or such, be sure to pump up on these. The latest
RAM standard, RD-RAM, may be better than the long-used SD-RAM, and may suffer
fewer crashes. Do check the MHz running speed of the RAM, as running a RAM
of low speed will of course make your computer slower. Many PCs have also
been known to give problems when RAM of different types was used at once.
