1. What Does A Motherboard Do?

Well, the main job of a computer motherboard is to hold the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and have every other computer part connect to it. It is the 'glue' that really holds all portions of your computer together.
 

2. Form Factor

The form factor is nothing but the shape and layout of a motherboard. The form factor determines what kind of PC case the motherboard can fit into and what types of components it can hook up.
 

3. Sockets And CPUs

On the motherboard, there is a socket for the CPU. This determines what kind of CPU the motherboard can use. Commonly used sockets are:

• Socket 478 - for older Pentium and Celeron processors

• Socket 754 - for AMD Sempron and some AMD Athlon processors

• Socket 939 - for newer and faster AMD Athlon processors

• Socket A - for older AMD Athlon processors

If you have a particular CPU in mind, then look for a motherboard that has a socket for that CPU.
 

4. Chipset

The chipset is is another concept related to motherboards. It is usually made up of the the northbridge and the southbridge. These connect the processor to other parts of the computer.

What does the northbridge do? Think of the northbridge as a connecting directly to CPU via the front side bus (FSB). On the northbridge, there's a memory controller for the CPU to access, and it also connects to the AGP or PCI Express bus.

On the other hand, the southbridge has no direct connection to the CPU. Information must pass through the northbridge before reaching the southbridge. Buses that connect directly to the southbridge include the PCI bus, USB ports IDE or SATA connections.
 

5. The System Bus

We've been talking about buses and buses. What's that? Well, on the motherboard, a bus is a circuit that connects one part of the motherboard to another.

The more data this bus can transfer at any one time, the faster its speed. This speed is measured in MHz.

Now, when we speak of bus speed, we typically refer to the speed of the front side bus (FSB). This FSB connects the CPU to the northbridge (as we saw above). The FSB speed usually goes from 66 MHz to over 800 MHz.
 

6. The System Bus

Next up ... memory. Motherboards also decide how much memory a computer can hold. Most motherboards today support the latest type of memory, called dual data rate (DDR) memory. You always need to look at a motherboard's specifications properly to see what kind and how much memory is supported.
 

7. Slots And Ports

You should also understand the types of slots and ports found on a motherboard. These include:

• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)- connections for video, sound and video capture cards, as well as network cards

• Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) - a dedicated port for video cards

• Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) - interfaces for hard drives

• Universal Serial Bus (USB) or Firewire - external peripherals

• Memory slots
   

8. Other Features

There are some new technologies which have been lately introduced into the world of motherboards:

• Redundant Array of Independent Discs (RAID) controllers on the motherboard allow the computer to run many hard drives in parallel.

• PCI Express is the latest interface to appear on motherboards. Expect that PCI Express video cards will take over the market soon.
   

Conclusion

Whew! That's a lot of information about how a motherboard works. Do keep the above points in mind the next time you're trying to understand a new motherboard's specifications.