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Did You Know?
- Most computer dealers say they build their computers. If they
carry a 3 year warranty they are built by someone else or the warranty
is out of their back pocket. Very few parts outside of monitors carry
anything pass one year, a few motherboards and even less hardrives carry
a 3 year warranty.
- Integrated Motherboard: A motherboard where some or all of the internal input or output devices are soldered into it.
- Motherboard was the original name of the what is now called
"main board." The difference is that motherboards had "daughter boards"
plugged into them. These "daughter boards" later became simply "cards."
Most brands of "main boards" have no cards, some don't even have plug-in
slots for such.
- Integrated motherboards cause problems when wanting to upgrade
your computer, also, LOTS more money. EXAMPLE: Most Compaq /HPs, Dells,
Gateways, IBMs have only three pieces usable in an upgrade: the CD ROM
($25 new), hard drive (usually too small to be used, $65-$95 new) and
the 3.5" drive ($10 new).
- The motherboard is the main board in a computer that supports
the processor (CPU) and all internal input and output devices. Input and
output devices are the video, modem, sound card, hard drive and floppy
controllers, memory (RAM), network cards. All modern PCI motherboards,
thanks to Intel, contain integrated floppy and IDE hard drive
controllers. Again thanks to Intel & Via almost all motherboard now
have integrated sound also. Luckily we can disable the on-board sound
and put in a real Sound Blaster sound card.
- Compaq/HP, Gateway, Acer, IBM, Pionex, Dell, NEC, Sony and
Packard Bell computers make good landfill after crushing. That is if
they have biodegradable motherboards. A case of Samsung and most Maxtor
hard drives make fair boat anchors.
Types of PC Motherboards
The
motherboard inside the pc is sometimes called the main board, or the
system board. It is made up from several components including the
central processing unit (CPU), the memory slots, a video section, and
some others but these ones are the main parts to be able to get the pc
working. Every component on the motherboard deals with a specific
activity. Motherboards are divided into the following two main
categories.
Integrated motherboards
Integrated
motherboards come with all the essential components built in to them.
The major advantage of this type of motherboard is that all major
functions This means that all the functions that your pc needs are all
ready from the getgo on a single circuit board. As the price of pc
technoligy has dropped over the years, there has been a big push towards
intergrating allmost every aspect of a pc onto the motherboard.
Although the only drawback is that if one of the components breaks you
will have to replace the whole motherboard. However, this rarely
happens. Another drawback i have found though than can be a challenge is
that sometimes the expansion slots for future upgrades of the
motherboard or new components can be limited.
Non-integrated motherboards
Non-integrated
motherboards don't have most of the main components built into them,
but they normally have more expansion slots to allow you to add your
own. This can be preferable for high performance PC users. They may want
a more advanced soundcard, or a top of the range network card, or video
card if you are a serious pc gamer. The downside of this type of
motherboard is that you need a larger case, and experiance pluggin
components into the mainboard.
Designs of the Motherboard
Form
Factors are the design of the motherboard. It is how the components of
the mainboard are laid out, and especially what what type of case they
fit into, and so what power supply they will be using.
ATX
ATX
stands for Advanced Technology Extended. ATX was designed by Intel to
allow easier expansion, and a higher degree of compatability amoung
component manufacturers, while still allowing the main components of a
pc intergrated into the motherboard. Its like the best of both
intergrated and non intergrated motherboards. There is specific design
changes that have taken place over the yearws in motherboards and since
the ATX is one of the most recent, you can see that the journey of
motherboards has sometimes been drastic difficulties, including where
the expansion slots are in relationship to the processor. It used to be
that some motherboards couldn't have new components added to them, as
there was no room becuase of other parts of the board. The power supply
connector for an ATX board is a 20-pin, and can support soft power off.
Micro ATX
The
Micro ATX Form Factor motherboard is much smaller than ATX. The maximum
motherboard size is 9.6" × 9.6". Micro ATX uses a compact design, which
is favoured by pc manufacturers, who like to focus on space saving pc's
and designs for their customers. Typically their custoemrs are not pc
enthuasats who prefer to get their hands dirty. This is the reason and
shift from a few years ago when a pc was an enourmous tower, to the
slimline versions that you see now. Normally the board will have more
USB peripherial slots to allow external devices to be connected. There
is also an even smaller version of the Micro ATX which is called the
flex atx. This is a motherboard at the size of 9.6" × 7.5". Don't expect
to be able to add a pumping hot hardcore graphics card to motherboards
like this.
BTX
The
BTX Form Factor is the smoothest and quietiest of motherboard designs.
It was designed to make sure that heat that is generated from the
components is not concentrated in one place, and the motherboard can be
kept cool by the primary airflow from the pc power supply.
NLX
NLX
or New Low Profile Extended Form Factor, was the first effort of
motherboard manufacturers at fitting slimline cases. The way they done
this was to add riser exapnsion slots, which meant that the components
would be parrarell against the motherboard. This style was not popular
amoungst consumer of manufacturers, and quickly became replaced. Thats
the reason you have probably never heard of it. However the concept may
return in the future, once the issues of heat, and expansion are solved.
It certainly is a good way to compact components into a small amount of
space.
TIPS
CPU Compatible
There are a wide variety of different types of CPU Sockets and Slots.
When looking at purchasing a motherboard ensure it is compatible with
the CPU you have or that it will be compatible with the CPU you plan on
purchasing.
Upgrade
Upgrading a motherboard on the computer allows for new improved hardware to be added into the computer.
Upgrade
Upgrading a motherboard on the computer will speed up the overall performance of the computer. May not be noticeable.
P4 System Optimization During Installation
When you install OS (other than WinXP) on an Intel 845 or 850 chipset
based Pentium4 system, you need to install the chipset driver before
any other drivers, such as video card and sound card. Here's the
installation order.
- OS (Win2000, 9x, Me)
- Service Pack (if necessary)
- Chipset Driver (usually in the CD that comes with your motherboard)
- Drivers for Other Devices
It makes difference in performance, especially for video.
ASUS P4T + 1GB RDRAM + Win9X/Me = Not Good
Currently, ASUS P4T motherboards with 1GB of populated RDRAM will not
work within a Windows 9X/Me environment. This is not much of a tragedy
since there is no particular reason to have 1GB of RAM on a Win9X/Me
system -- they only offer performance gains up to 512MB. However, this
may cause problems for people intending to do dual-boot systems, so be
aware.
General P4 Guidelines
P4 systems currently require RDRAM memory (Rambus, RIMM..). The P4 platform will supposedly support SDRAM by the end of 2001.
General P4 Guidelines
Boxed CPUs come with 2 x 64MB (total of 128MB) RIMM. These are not ECC. Intel may begin packaging 2 x 128MB RIMMs in the future.
General P4 Guidelines
RDRAM can be PC600, 700 or 800. The modules that come with the CPU are PC800, the fastest type.
General P4 Guidelines
Memory has to be installed as a pair. That's why the CPU comes with 2
x 64MB, instead of 1 x 128MB. The pair of the memory has to be the same
size, type (ECC or non-ECC) and speed (PC600 or PC800).
General P4 Guidelines
The case has to have 4 specific holes to support a big heatsink. An
Antec case (#A58) and a mid tower case (#A51) have the holes. The new
aluminum cases do as well.
General P4 Guidelines
P4 motherboards have a new 12V connection. In order to use P4 with a
regular power supply (without the 12V connector), you need to use a PC
Power&Cooling 12VATX adapter. This will convert the regular power
connection to 12VATX connection. Or, you can replace the power supply
with one that already has the 12VATX connection.
Microsoft Windows 2000 Patch for AGP Applications on AMD Athlon and AMD Duron Processors
AMD says, "An issue has been identified that could result in the
corruption of video data shared between AGP graphics adapters and AMD
Athlon or AMD Duron processors when running Microsoft Windows 2000. This
issue is independent of system chipset and has been observed when
running Ziff-Davis 3D Winbench 2000 and Mad Onion 3DMark 2000 in
benchmarking mode. AMD and Microsoft have worked together to identify a
patch that involves adding a key to the registry. To add the key run the
registry key installation file below or add the registry key as
detailed in Microsoft KnowledgeBase article Q270715. AMD recommends that
AMD Athlon and AMD Duron users with AGP graphics adapters running
Windows 2000 install this patch.
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