Motherboard - Intel

The motherboard, also sometimes referred to as the main board, is a collection of devices (together on one large circuit board) that control the flow of data and operating electricity for all the primary components in a PC - for example, the CPU, memory, graphics adapter and sound card.

These motherboards are manufactured for Intel processors (CPUs) and are available in a number of socket types.

Intel Atom - These atom motherboards are super small boards for sytems such as the Asrock Ion. Most Atom motherboards come equipped with onboard Intel Atom low power processors.

Socket 478 - These motherboards support processors commonly found in much older desktop systems and typically support DDR1 with some capable of running DDR2. These boards usually have mostly IDE connection on the motherboard for connecting components.

Socket 775 - These motherboards are compatible with most dual and quad core processors prior to the Intel I range such as the core2duo or core2quad processors. Most 775 boards are compatible with DDR2 memory and support mostly SATA connection onboard for connecting components.

Socket 1155/1366 - The 1155 socket found on most of the previous generation of i3 and i5 "sandybridge" and "ivybridge" processors and the 1366 socket found on the high end i7 processors. These motherboards typically support high speed DDR3 memory as well as having mainly SATA connection onboard for connecting components.

Socket 1150 - These are the newest type of motherboard available for the Intel 4th Generation processors. These motherboards typically support high speed DDR3 memory as well as having mainly SATA connection onboard for connecting components.