The Motherboard: The Thing that Keeps Everything Together... Yeah!

     This post will likely be shorter than the others. The reason for this is that motherboards themselves don't really have much of a history. Before the introduction of the motherboard, computers would use circuit boards called "backplanes".

Backplane

Motherboard

These boards were essentially just hubs for the rest of the components in the computer. Each individual component had its own circuit board, which would then be plugged into the backplane so that it could communicate with the other components. To get rid of the problems of inconvenience, space consumption, and high prices, the computer industry began to think that they should try to consolidate some of the parts of the computer onto one piece. The first company to take the challenge was IBM. With their 1981 IBM Personal Computer, they integrated a motherboard that had expansion slots for peripherals such as video cards and sound cards, as well as an already-integrated sound processor.
     Today, motherboards are almost exactly the same as in 1981. They serve as a means for the rest of the components in the system to communicate with each other. The only major differences are that motherboards today are much faster, they have many more ports on them (such as USB ports, SATA ports for hard drives, etc., etc.) and that some come stock with all the components you need for a functioning computer.

Foxconn H61S

For example, the motherboard you see on the left has 8 USB ports, 8 SATA ports, 4 slots for RAM, a CPU socket, 7 expansion slots, and numerous different electrical headers that connect to less important parts of a computer. Now, keeping in mind that the computer I plan to build must be kept on a very low budget, I have selected a motherboard that I think will provide a great bang for the buck. The motherboard I chose to include in my system is the Foxconn H61S. This is a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard, as my build is based on the Mini-ITX size. I chose this board for three reasons. The first reason is that it is incredibly low-priced. It comes in as the least expensive ITX motherboard on the market at just $50. The second reason is that it has received high ratings, even though it is so inexpensive. Most of the time, in the computer world, "cheap" means "low-quality", and that is certainly not the case here. Reviewers are unanimous that this board handles high-end processors like the Intel Core i5 and i7 perfectly, and hasn't broken yet. The third, and most important reason I chose this motherboard is that it comes with so many great features. It has 2 RAM slots, capable of handling 8gb of RAM. It also has built-in video processing, with a VGA port right at the back, therefore eliminating the need to buy an expensive video card. It also has an extra fan header so that the fan in my case can be plugged in. Overall, I think that this board is fantastic for the price, and it should do everything I need it to for this project just fine. Once again, I am excited to see where this project goes in the future, and how the build will look at the end!

Works Cited:

• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-computer-motherboards.html
• http://www.ehow.com/info_12172410_invention-first-motherboard.html 

Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3I02