Before we discuss this aspect, you need to know what a computer consists of. The most common type of a computer is called IBM-compatible. There are several components that make such a machine work and these are: the motherboard, microprocessor, RAM and other devices usually linked to the motherboard through cables or various other connectors.

The main topic of this article is motherboards. They represent the central piece of any desktop computer, because through them all the other devices communicate, synchronize and perform various functions for which they are designed.

Let’s talk about computers in their beginning. The first computer that used a motherboard as the central piece was presented on the market in 1981 by IBM – the IBM PC. You may have guessed this, since today’s computers are called IBM-compatible.

The features of this computer consisted of: 4.77MHz Intel microprocessor, 16K bytes of memory, 8-bit ISA connectors and ports for keyboard and tape. Other ports like serial, parallel and floppy drive connectors could be provided through plug-in boards. All of these features may seam ancient to us now, but at that time they were top of the line.

Before the presentation of the IBM PC, all the computers were built using a case and the components were linked using a backplane. This consisted of a set of slots linked together with wires. The difference between a backplanes and motherboards is the lack of on-board power of processing and the CPU is on a separate plug-in card.

The cost effectiveness of placing more components onto a single hardware piece became a well-known fact. Therefore, in the late 1980s, motherboards were improved with a set of chips that were capable to support some low-level peripherals like mouse and keyboard, serial and parallel ports, floppy disk drives and more.

Today’s motherboards are far more advanced. Since the beginning of the 21st century, it became common for a motherboard to support video, audio, networking and storage functions without needing other expansion cards. For people who wanted higher performances, for example, 3D gaming, a separate graphics card was the only thing they needed.

If you want to purchase a new computer, you should purchase it according to your needs. If you want to play advanced video games, than a high performance PC is required. On the other hand, for simple tasks like editing documents and reading email, you do not need to spend a fortune.

A little information never hurt anybody. Do your homework before you make any purchase and compare the performances of one system with the ones of another! You should also be careful regarding the compatibility of you motherboard with the other components.