GIGABYTE PC DIY Guidebook March, 2015 | Page 7

Motherboard The motherboard, or mainboard, is the one component that really brings together all the others, and as such, is often considered one of the most important components of a PC, and one that should be chosen carefully. The motherboard connects together the CPU, the RAM, and all attached drives via the chipset, which can perhaps be best described as the central nervous system, or spine of the PC. The chipset is usually a differentiating feature of the motherboard, frequently a central element in the motherboard product name, i.e. the GA-Z87X-D3H motherboard is based on the Intel Z87 Express chipset. Today’s modern chipsets like the Intel Z87 Express chipset are more compact than in previous two-chip solutions which used a North and South Bridge configuration. With Intel 8 series chipsets, advanced features such as the memory controller, 2D/3D graphics and dedicated video decoding/encoding have been added to the CPU itself .This means that the chipset today is more commonly responsible for connectivity such as USB, SATA and PCI, PCI Express as well as audio and networking capabilities. The motherboard also supports a range of add-in-boards or cards that add additional functions such as dedicated graphics processing, which most commonly use PCI Express slots to interface with the board. Another important feature of the motherboard is the BIOS, or Basic Input Output System. This is the underlying software layer that connects individual hardware components together. It’s important that advanced users learn to configure the BIOS settings in order to manipulate boot priority, drive configurations and overclocking etc. This will be covered in more detail later in this guide. When selecting a motherboard, one very important consideration is the motherboard’s form factor. Generally speaking there are four common form factors available today, each characterized with a different overall size. In order of size (largest first) these form factors are E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX. The form factor of the motherboard will ultimately dictate the eventual size of the PC, and of course the kind of chassis used. Standard ATX motherboards require a full sized towe ȁ