Motherboard is an important feature of your computer. For proper stability, you need to invest in a good motherboard and also make sure that it has some features if you want to use your computer for a specific task. For example, if you’re into animation, you may have to select NVMe SSD for faster rendering times. But, to use NVMe SSD, you have to make sure your motherboard has got NVMe M.2 slot. In the same way, several other aspects are dependent on the motherboard for stability and compatibility issues.
Keypads and mouse are connected on your motherboard to USB ports. Besides Apple PC’s motherboard does not have enough provisions to connect over to the peripheral devices. Most of the boards have the provision of expansion and connect to extra devices. Fan points and heat sinks are accessible in today’s modern motherboard that will transfer excess heat.
What’s Motherboard Form Factor?
Motherboard is a primary component of the internal structure of computers. It is responsible for the interaction of various elements of a computer, like the graphics card, RAM, CPU, storage, I/O, and others.
It’s very important you recognize various capabilities, limitations, and primary features it has so that it does not repress any potential of another piece in the computer. Another important element is its form factor (those are exterior physical size & shape) that must be considered for a computer application as per the field it is used. Let us go ahead and check out different types of motherboard available in the market:
Different Types of Motherboard
With the development in the current technology, the computer motherboard is dramatically changed and they differ in size, shape, compatibility, as well as the capacity of holding your CPU. There’re a lot of big companies that make motherboards nowadays as there’re a lot of manufacturers following a few common guidelines like the placement of the CPU Socket, Expansion slots, RAM slots, SATA Ports, USB, IDE, connectors guidelines are called as FORM FACTOR.
Although different types of motherboards have got different capabilities, features, limitations, Physical shapes, and sizes (form factor), they’re identified, grouped, and categorized mainly by their form factors. Every manufacturer has introduced its form factor that will suit the design of the computers. Motherboard made to suit IBM & other compatible computers fit in other case sizes too. Motherboards made using ATX factors were mostly used in several computers manufactured in the year 2005 that includes Apple and IBM.
AT Motherboard
AT board categories generally have hundred millimeters dimensions hence they cannot be used for the mini desktops as they do not fit. The large dimensions make it tough to install any new drivers. This kind of motherboard makes use of sockets and 6 pin plugs, which work as the power connectors.
Power connectors are tough to distinguish and thus prove very difficult for people to rightly connect & use. Made in the ’80s, AT motherboard types lasted for a very long time.
ATX Motherboards
The second type of motherboard introduced was the ATX form factor that was initially sold in the mid-1990s. This type of motherboard was considered revolutionary as it brought several changes to the system back then. Earlier, expansion slots used to came with riser cards, which to get plugged in a board. But, with ATX no riser cards for required and it decreased the requirements of space.
ATX motherboard comes with power pins that have 20pin connector with headers that provide better air ventilation. This board had lesser overlaps with drive bays & connectors, unlike the predecessors. Internal connections were soldered to this board.
Micro-ATX Motherboard
The next type of motherboard is Micro-ATX, they are smaller than a standard ATX board and generally come in the size of 24cm x 24cm and some manufacturers have reduced its breadth by over 1 cm. Besides they have lesser slots & connectors compared to the ATX motherboard as well as are famous amongst their users who don’t want to connect several devices and expand their RAM & graphic cards in the future. Micro-ATX board will fit in a case having space that is equal to motherboard dimensions & in big cases that will accommodate standard ATC boards.
LPX Motherboard
LPX motherboard had got two improvements over its earlier versions. The initial one is Input & Output ports that were taken over the backside and the second one was the introduction of the Riser card that will facilitate many more slots and simple connection. Some features were installed on the AT board. Just one drawback of this type of motherboard is that lack of its Accelerated Graphic Port can lead to PCI direct connection. Some of the issues in these types of motherboards got addressed in the NLX boards.
BTX Motherboard
BTX or Balanced Technology extended motherboard was formed in 2003 by Intel that solved all problems that ATX motherboard has. BTX board comes with low profile features and they also support different dimensional boards or verities of components. However, because of some issues, Intel decided to stop the BTX board in 2006.
Mini TX Motherboard
This is the low-power factor board having 17X17cm dimensions. Mini TX boards were made by VIA Technologies in 2001. Normally, they’re used in the SFF computer systems as they have a lesser power consumption rate & cool quite fast. Thus, they are highly preferred in home theater systems and where fan noise can reduce the system quality.
Final Thoughts
Selecting the right kind of motherboard, which is compatible with various other parts of your computer is an important step to decide on the overall speed of the PC. When you learn about different components of the motherboard, you may easily assemble your PC and solve basic hardware issues found in the motherboard.
The form factor is the most important thing of a motherboard because computer has to take many different shapes because of the digital application requirements where computers are inbuilt in machines or moving vehicles or other equipment. The size and nature of this motherboard can undergo constant changes in the coming time.