COMPUTER MAINTENANCE & TROUBLESHOOTING

EXPERIMENT:- 4
AIM :- Observe the different types of motherboards, form factors And write the
difference between the desktop motherboard and laptop motherboard, all in one desktop
motherboard,server motherboard.

Motherboard form factors:-

 Determines general layout, size and feature placement on the motherboard.
 Form factors such as physical size, shape, component placement, power supply
connectors etc.

1) AT (Advanced Technology):
 Oldest and biggest form factor and popular until Baby AT.
 Capable of using 386 processor.
 12' inch size and was difficult to install, service and upgrade.

2) Baby AT:
 Standard in computer industries and still being used in Pentium class products.
 CPU socket is placed in such a way that it can interfere with longer bus cards.
 Limitation over peripheral card installation.
 I/O ports are connected to pin-outs near the floppy drive which results in jumbling
of ribbon cables.

3) ATX (Advanced Technology Extended):

 ATX stands for Advanced Technology eXtended. latest motherboards all are called
as ATX motherboards. designed by ATX form factor. In this motherboards, we find
MPGA Processor Sockets, DDR Ram slots, PCI slots, AGP slots, Primary and
secondary IDE interfaces, SATA connectors, 20pin and 24 pin ATX power
connector and Ports.
 Improvement done in easy to use, support for current and future I/O, and also to
current and future technology.
 New mounting configuration for power supply.
 Processor relocated away from expansion slots to allow full length add-in cards.

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 COMPUTER MAINTENANCE & TROUBLESHOOTING

4) Micro ATX:
 Supports current and new processor technologies.
 AGP (Accelerated graphics port) to have high performance graphics.
 Smaller in size and less power supply.

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 COMPUTER MAINTENANCE & TROUBLESHOOTING

5) LPX (Low Profile Extension) and Mini LPX:

 Based on design by western digital.
 Usually found in desktop pc's.
 Case are slim-line, low profile case with riser card arrangement for expansion cards.
 Riser card arrangement means expansion boards are parallel rather than
perpendicular.
 This make smaller case but limits number of expansion slots to two or three.
 High quality product at low cost but makes difficult to upgrade and repair.

6) NLX (New Low Profile Extended):

 Supports current and future processor technologies.
 Also supports new AGP and tall memory technology.
 Installing and upgrading the system is easy.

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 COMPUTER MAINTENANCE & TROUBLESHOOTING

7) BTX Balanced Technology extended:

BTX was developed to reduce or avoid some of the issues that came up while using latest
technologies. Newer technologies often demand more power and they also release more
heat when implemented on motherboards in accordance with the circa-
1996 ATX specification. The ATX standard and the BTX standard, both were proposed by
Intel. The further development of BTX retail products was canceled in September 2006 by
Intel after the acceptance of Intel’s decision to focus again on low-power CPUs after
suffering issues such as scaling and thermal with the Pentium 4.

The first company to use, or to be precise, implement BTX was Gateway Inc, followed
by Dell and MPC. Apple’s MacPro uses only some of the elements of the BTX design
system but it is not BTX compliant. This type of motherboard has some improvements over
previous technologies:

 Low-profile – With the larger demand for ever-smaller systems, a redesigned

backplane that shaves inches off the height requirements is a benefit to system
integrators and enterprises which use rack mounts or blade servers.
 Thermal design – The BTX design provides a straighter path of airflow with lesser
difficulties, which results in better overall cooling capabilities. Instead of a dedicated
cooling fan, a large 12 cm case-fan is mounted, that draws its air directly from
outside the computer and then cools the CPU through an air duct. Another feature of
BTX is the vertical mounting of the motherboard on the left-hand side. This kind of
feature results in the graphics card heat sink or fan facing upwards, rather than in the
direction of the adjacent expansion card.
 Structural design – The BTX standard specifies distinct locations for hardware
mounting points and hence reduces latency between key components. It also reduces
the physical strain imposed on the motherboard by heat sinks, capacitors and other
components which are dealing with electrical and thermal regulation.

Tapi Diploma Engg. College, Surat