• Question: What is a motherboard made of and how does it work?

    Asked by take520ocas to Viviene DC, taylorannesingletary, Paul S, Neil B, Kirsty R, Izzy, Edward, charlottemcneill, aureliabrzezowska, Alastair HH on 30 Apr 2025.
    • Photo: Paul Stallard

      Paul Stallard answered on 30 Apr 2025:

      Motherboard is the term we use for the main PCB (printed circuit board) of a computer. The computer processor, its memory, devices to interface to the monitor, WiFi, disks etc are all soldered to the motherboard. Each of those components has a lots of connections (pins) that need to be wired together to make the computer work. The PCB is normally made of fibreglass (an insulator) with very thin metal tracks to form the connections between the devices. These days there are so many connections required that PCBs are actually lots of layers sandwiched together.

    • Photo: Aurelia Brzezowska

      Aurelia Brzezowska answered on 5 May 2025:

      A motherboard is like a big board inside a computer that connects everything together. It’s made of plastic, fiberglass and soldered (metal stuck to using high heat) metal lines that work like roads for both electricity and messages. It holds the brain of the computer (called the CPU), memory (RAM), and places to plug in power a screen, keyboard and so much more. The motherboard helps all the parts talk to each other so the computer can work properly. It sort of acts like the big boss in the PC. You take everything, you plug it into the motherboard and it makes sure everything can communicate.

    • Photo: Neil Barnby

      Neil Barnby answered on 18 Jun 2025:

      A motherboard is the main board in a computer and usually contains the main components such as the central processing unit (CPU), basic memory, clock components, BIOS chip and interface components. It usually also has several connectors that allow other parts to connect to such as extended memory, storage units (like disc drives), video driver boards. Theses ‘extra’ boards are called daughter boards and can often be changed to upgrade a computer.
      The motherboard itself is made of usually fibreglass and has metal strips, sometimes called rails, which connect the components (chips, diodes, resistors etc.) together. These components are usually soldered onto the boards metal strips (which it the ‘printed’ part in the term printed circuit board or PCB). Many modern boards have several of these printed boards sandwiched together to create a multilayered board, so that many more connections can be made without the rails having to cross each other. In some PCBs some components like resistors and transistors are also etched onto the PCB itself instead of soldered in place. This makes it much more compact.

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