What Does a Motherboard Do?Every computer has a motherboard, MOBO, or simply MB. MOBO is a term used in web forums or people who work in the internet environment. This is the system board or logic board where all the system’s vital hardware components connect to. A motherboard typically contains built in hardware such as the CPU(s) (Central Processing Unit), BIOS (Basic Input/output System), memory, video card, and sound card. Likewise, it contains multiple slots where RAM modules, floppy drives, hard drives, and network cards can be plugged into. If you look at the back side of your PC, you’ll see various types of plug-ins for a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone, USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices, and cat 5 cables, usually all on one silver panel. This is the backbone of your system or the motherboard.

Motherboards vary from one system to another. They are made by various manufacturers and use different types of CPUs and RAM. Each PC should come with a motherboard manual and you should read it to become familiar with what types or brands of hardware are compatible with it versus which ones aren’t. That is if you plan to do future upgrades to your system yourself.

Can a virus affect your motherboard?

The BIOS and the CPU, which are pans of the motherboard, can be affected, but not the motherboard as a whole. Usually when your computer picks up malware, the hard drive is the first component to receive it. Even though the motherboard is not a common issue with computer viruses, it is important to understand what it is and how it functions.

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