Computer Breakdown
Part 1: The Motherboard

Index
0. What is 'Computer Breakdown'?
1. What is a 'motherboard'?
2. What does it do?
3. What are some non-standard motherboard features?
4. What happens if it is damaged?


0
What is 'Computer Breakdown'?

Hello, and welcome to the first part of Computer Breakdown!
This is a series I've decided to create to educate people who are curious about what makes their computer run, and how it does what it does.
Throughout the first few parts, I will be explaining the various pieces of hardware in your computer, in terms that just about anybody would be able to understand.

Any uncommon words, or technical terms will be highlighted in red, and defined at the bottom of this post.

Throughout the post, there may be extra links throughout the text, that aren't completely necessary, but may help in your understanding of the info being provided.
I highly suggest clicking them if you see them!


1
What is a motherboard?


The motherboard is the heart of any computer.
If you looked at a motherboard (heretofore referred to as a 'mobo'), you would see various pins, slots, and bright lines scattered pseudo-randomly across the surface.

Motherboards start out as a sheet of copper laminated onto a non-conductive material, and etched to create paths for electricity (supplied via a Power Supply Unit located in the computer) to reach various hardware components and fans.

From there, various transistors are added to amplify or modify the various electronic signals that the computer needs to function.

Also added onto the motherboard, are various slots to house other hardware components needed to run your computer, as well as a speaker, which is mainly used to produce a tone when something goes wrong.

Most modern motherboards are also armed with 'Non-volatile memory' chips, which is a fancy way of saying that it stores data, even when not powered.
On these chips, are the BIOS, or 'basic input/output system', which will be elaborated upon in a later portion of this series.


If you think about it, if your computer was made of Lego's, the motherboard would be large, flat piece that everything else builds upon.



2
What does it do?

In layman's terms, the motherboard is the highway of your computer, allowing data to travel back and forth between all parts.

The various bright lines shooting around the surface of motherboards are made of copper, and allow electricity to flow back and forth.

The slots on your computer's motherboard can house RAM, graphics cards, CPUs, and various other hardware components.



3
What are some non-standard motherboard features?

While most motherboards are fairly similar, some of them may feature 'integrated graphics', which means they can display on your monitor, without the need for a graphics card.



4
What happens if it's damaged?


Because of the nature of the motherboard, any number of things could happen.

Depending on where it gets damaged, the following could happen:
  • Audio could stop functioning
  • Could have no display output
  • USB ports could malfunction
  • The computer could fail to boot at all, or even power on.

The moral of the story is:
Don't damage your motherboard.




The next part will cover: The Central Processing Unit (CPU)