Gavin Bonshor
breaks down just
what makes your
mobo tick, in this
primer on the
computing world’s
most underlooked
piece of tech
LET’S FACE IT, much of the buzz surrounding product
launches of new CPU architectures revolve around
core count, thread count, clock speed, turbo clock
speed, supported memory speeds—you name it.
However, if the CPU is the engine of a system, then
the motherboard is the manifold without which
nothing would function.
With so many different key components that
make up a computer system, the motherboard is the
central hub that binds and connects the processor
to the graphics card, memory, storage, and so on.
Not only that, but it also connects a whole host of
controllers from the motherboard chipset to the
CPU, which essentially manifests into input and
output, such as USB ports, audio jacks, M.2 slots,
networking controllers like Ethernet and Wi-Fi,
and even Thunderbolt 3 on premium models. At the
launch of every new chipset, motherboard vendors
release swathes of models, from the more budget-
focused to the highly premium that are decked out
with more features than you can shake a stick at.
The core fundamental aspects of a motherboard
consist of much the same across all models, whether
that’s an AMD or Intel-based board, with each
motherboard vendor implementing its own aesthetic
and feature sets based on support from both the
processor and the motherboard chipset.
In this issue, we’re going to take a journey through
how a motherboard “works,” what components
make up a conventional consumer-level desktop
motherboard, and why each component is important.THE MODERN MOTHERBOARD
A BASIC DIAGRAM
One of our favorite quips within this industry is that
“no motherboard is created equally,” and although
true to a certain degree, in this instance it doesn’t
have much swing. This is because each desktop
motherboard has the same core characteristics that
makes it a motherboard, and that remains the sameM
O
T
H
E
R
B
O
A
R
D
S
U
N
W
R
A
P
P
E
D
18
2
20
4
9
motherboards unwrapped
34 MAXIMUM PC SEP 2020 maximumpc.com