What Are The Different Types Of Motherboards? And How Are They Different?

The motherboard is also recognized as baseboard, logic board, mainboard, system board, planar board, main circuit board, and mobo in short. It’s a non-conductive plastic sheet that comes with the essential circuit and place holders such as slots/sockets for connecting components and offers logistics for all the parts to work in a coordinated manner.

Thin narrow layers of copper or aluminum printed on the plastic sheet of your board act like a circuit that connects different components. It’s a chassis in which all the parts are fitted in the designated place, and they’re all powered and well interfaced with one another. A typical motherboard has the following components and interfaces:

• Expansion card slot
• Clock generator for synchronizing with components
• Power connector
• SATA connector (Storage)
• Memory slots
• CPU socket
• Rear fan connector
• IO Chip
• Floppy connector
• Chipset
• Audio connector
• USB ports
• IO connectors
• Chassis fan connector
• Nonvolatile memory (ROM) for holding the boot program
• PCI slots
• CMOS battery header
• IDE connector

A motherboard is comprehensive in all parts, and it has provisions for connecting any sort of components for meeting app requirements. The motherboard is independent in meeting all requirements, and it’s a single board for managing all the functions, unlike the backplane that has provision for connecting to several extension boards for holding more components.

The name mother in a motherboard is attributed to the character as it takes the management role of managing all the parts connected to it. Keypads and mice are connected to USB ports on a motherboard.

Apple PCs motherboard has minimum provisions for connecting to different peripheral devices. A lot of boards have a provision of expansion for connecting to extra devices. Heat sinks and fan points are accessible in the modern motherboard for transferring excess heat.

Types Of Motherboard:

There are two diverse types of motherboards, and below explain both.

• Non-Integrated Motherboard:

Frequently, traditional motherboards were created as non-integration. Such types of motherboards weren’t supported directly by different connectors such as CD drive connectors, hard drive connectors, I/O port connectors, and more.

Make use of the expansion board to connect such connectors on those types of motherboards, so its case has more space to make use of the external expansion cards. If any parts get defective, then they can be fixed and maintained at a low cost.

• Integrated Motherboard:

Today, all the motherboards are created as integration. Such types of motherboards don’t require an external expansion card because all connectors and ports such as parallel and serial ports, CD drive, IDE, and more are embedded on a motherboard, but its maintenance and repair are expensive as compared to the non-integration motherboard. There’re a few features like fast speed, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness along with their rich features.

Motherboard Form Factors:

In the motherboard form factor, measure different factors like size, logical design, its components, and power supply connectors placement. Types of a motherboard according to the motherboard form factors

• AT Motherboard:

Such motherboards have larger physical dimensions of hundreds of millimeters, and hence they aren’t the correct fit for the mini desktop category of PCs. A larger physical size also inhibits installing different new drivers.

Pix-pin plugs and sockets are utilized as power connectors in such motherboards. Such power connectors aren’t that simply identifiable, and hence users come across difficulties in connecting and making use of it. This type of motherboard was trendy in the 1980s, and it enjoyed a considerable self-life.

• LPX Motherboard:

This board had two improvements over the previous versions. The first one is Output and Input ports were taken to the rear and the second one was the Riser card introduction for facilitating more slots and simpler connection.

A few of such features were deployed in the AT motherboard. The main problem with this board is the lack of AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port) slots which led to the direct connection to PCI. Problems in such motherboards were addressed in NLX boards.

• ATX Motherboard:

ATX means advanced technology extended, it was created by Intel throughout the 1990s, and it was the improved version over the earlier version of AT motherboard. It’s smaller in size when compared to AT, and it offers the interchangeability of the connected parts. There’s a marked enhancement in the connector aspects.

• Pico BTX Motherboard:

Such boards are little in size and hence the word Pico. There are two expansion slots for being shared in the top half of BTX. Half-height or riser cards are amazing features, and it supports the demands of the digital applications.

• BTX Motherboard:

BTX means Balanced Technology Extended; designed for managing demands of new technologies in terms of more power needs hence more heat generation. Intel stopped further enhancement of BTX boards throughout the mid-2000s for concentrating on the low-power CPU.

• Mini ITX Motherboard:

It is a miniature motherboard version over the previous versions. Created in the early 2000s and the dimension is 17×17 cm. Mainly utilized in SFF (small form factor) PC because of the faster cooling ability and lower power consumption. This motherboard is the most ideal in a home theater domain because of the lower level of fan noise that’ll improve the theatre system quality.

Conclusion:

Form factor plays a significant role as the PC takes a lot of shapes because of the digital app needs where PCs have to be inbuilt in the moving vehicles, machines, and in any other equipment. The size and nature of a motherboard will go through continuous changes in the days to come.

All About Motherboards:

• Do Motherboards Come With SATA Cables? Here’s What You Should Know
• Do All Motherboards Have Screws In The Same Locations?
• What Is The Function Of PCI Slots On Motherboards?
• Do All Motherboards Have Integrated Graphics?
• How To Repair A RAM Slot On The Motherboard – Easy To Understand Steps
• Does Motherboard Affect FPS – The Truth Revealed
• Does My Motherboard Support UEFI? – Clear Your Confusion
• How To Test A Motherboard With A Multimeter– Guide By Computer Expert!
• How To Upgrade Motherboard Without Reinstalling Windows? – Easy Steps!
• Motherboard Failure Causes – Know Signs Of Bad Motherboard
• What Are The Different Types Of Motherboards? And How Are They Different?