Is the base of the computer. All other hardware connects directly to the motherboard. It allows communication from the CPU to storage devices, memory and even the printer. It essentially is a collection of ports all connected together through wires. The wires are printed on the board itself and are known as a bus. Each part of the motherboard is controlled through the CPU and the motherboards built in chips.

 

motherbaord

Motherboards come in many different shapes and sizes with many different features. As such it makes choosing a motherboard very difficult. The motherboard will limit what other hardware you can put in so it is important to choose wisely. Motherboards tend to be designed for a certain type of processor. So if I bought a motherboard for a AMD processor I would not be able to plug in a Intel processor.

Motherboards have special start up software installed in them. This software is what tells the motherboard how to communicate with devices, how to initialize them and even where to find the operating system.