The term "motherboard" is a common term, heard by just about anyone who's ever used a computer. The question is, what is a motherboard? Why is it important? And just what are the components of a motherboard?

The motherboard goes by many other names: main board, system board, "mobo", logic board, just to name a few. It's a necessary hardware which is central to the functioning of a home computer.
The motherboard is a computer's main PCB -- or, printed circuit board -- and is composed of a number of components, all which contribute to the functioning of your computer.

There are many populars brands for motherboards. These brands include Gigabye, ASUS, nVidia and Intel, among many others.

There are, as stated, many components of a motherboard, and each of them plays an important role in the functioning of a computer.

The basic input/output system, abbreviated as BIOS, is essentially the motherboard's software. It identifies hardware (such as your display or your hard disk), it configures them, and it checks to make sure they are always working. It is possible to acess the BIOS during start-up. By reconfiguring BIOS, you can change the way BIOS reads and processes the hardware in your computer. Nowadays, BIOS use a flash memory chip and are called flash BIOS.

The central processing unit, abbreviate as the commonly known term, CPU, is the computer's microprocessor. The motherboard uses the CPU in order for it to communicate with the rest of the PC. The CPU is made up of two important components: the arithmetic logic unit (ALC), which performs mathematical operations and other logical processes, and the control unit (CU), which takes part in regulating the activity of a PC. The most common types of CPUs are AMD and Intel. Most people know them simply as "processors".

The chipsets are the third main component of a motherboard. Chipsets have a north-bridge and a south-bridge. They assist in the basic functions of the different components with which they communicate. The north-bridge communicates with the CPU, the PCI bus, and AGP, etc. The south-bridge controls I/O functions like the IDE channels, audio, serial, et cetera. Nowadays, motherboard have two large chipsets. In the past, motherboards instead had a larger number of smaller chipsets.

The last major component of a motherboard is its interface. This lets the user connect things like their hard drives, optical drives, RAM, peripheral devices and other such hardware. On the left side, it has slots where you can insert the connections to your keyboard, mouse, monitor, USB, modem, etc.

As you can see, your motherboard has lots of different parts, all of which help your computer to function and maintain its hardware. Before purchasing or replacing a motherboard, it's important to know your motherboard's specifications. You can find this out by looking at your computer's manual or by contacting your manufacturer.

The problem with buying a motherboard before you know all of its specs is that you may buy hardware that is not compatible with your motherboard. For example, if your motherboard can only process 1GB of RAM, even buying 2GB will be a waste. If you're building a new computer, you want to know its form factor (shape, appearance, size).