Desktops: Question about motherboards...

Darn,

I was afraid of that. I figured it would still be popular with people that want to make small sized/power saving computers. I'm still trying to search around to see if theirs some small company that would make them but I don't really know what else to search for other then "basic motherboard", and that don't come up with many results.

True, but...

The reasons I wanted such a motherboard is because of the upgrading capabilities, and the ability to have only what you need. You could have a simple motherboard with just the CPU, RAM, and various PCI/PCI-E slots and then have your video card, a USB card, sound card, and Ethernet card. That's about the basics needed for any computer weather it be a internet computer or a gaming computer.
Now this way lets say this Ethernet card you have is only a 10/100 card, you can just pull it out and put in a new 10/100/1000 Ethernet card if you upgrade to such a network. Then lets say you have a USB 2.0 card and USB 3.0 has come out, you can just take the old card out and put your new USB 3.0 card in. And so on and so on. So this way your motherboard won't end up being filled with useless stuff as fast.

Many of us are doing what you're suggesting

now but my sense is the cost would be greater with the bare MB and all the peripheral cards. And when there were MBs like that, users had to realize that had to buy those cards and to manually set the jumpers for interrupts and addresses.

Today we start with a MB with virtually everything sometime including graphics/video and add on whatever you may need later as long as there are slots to support them.

Users who had USB 1.0 installed USB 2.0 cards when we started getting USB 2.0 peripherals. Users added SATA cards when they needed the SATA interface and they added extra LAN cards where the built-ins died or they wanted GIGABIT cards. And they added video cards when the onboard capability went kaput or they just wanted faster video.

15-20 years ago...I thought like you. But over the years I've become accustomed to accepting and taken for granted the basic built-ins. They're just standard equipment on any and every MB and they work.

VAPCMD

USB beeps ? Maybe you can turn them on or off

thru Control Panel under 'Sounds and Multimedia'.

VAPCMD

(NT) And you can't turn off the 'beeps' in the BIOS ?

If you think about it...

I think you'd find that the basic board you're looking for is actually the exact opposite of what you really want. The typical board with everything built in is actually smaller, more power-efficient, more resource-efficient, faster performing, and cheaper than the modular design you're proposing. This basic motherboard would still consist of a CPU socket, a northbridge IC, and a southbridge IC. What you may not be considering is that all the extra stuff on the modern motherboard is built directly into the chipset. You don't need a video card because it's already in the northbridge. Don't need a USB, LAN, PS/2, etc., card, because they're all built into the southbridge. Now, I'm oversimplifying a bit, but the modern motherboard with everything built-in is essentially just two ICs and a bunch of connectors, at least from a system overview. It's the SAME two ICs that would be on your basic motherboard. If even just a few of the built-in features were on PCI cards, you'll probably double the size, cost and power requirements of your system. Also, these features would be accessed through a single, slower, external bus which would negatively impact performance.

This probably isn't what you're looking for but if you want a smaller, simpler motherboard, look at embedded PCs or single-board-computers, from companies like Advantech and Aaeon. They'll be smaller with fewer features, but more integrated, not less.

Small form...

Modern systems tend to have all the goodies and of course users have gotten used to that. Basic systems just aren't that appealing. What you may find interesting are so-called small form systems, like a Shuttle type. These were very popular for media or small desktop footprint. Earlier versions of so-called "bricks" that were a basic system in many ways that provided all the simplest ports yet not go lacking for anything, but these could be out-grown by a home user, thus you found these in business that required simple needs or tasks. Google for such and see what you find, I know Shuttle will pop-up.

tada -----Willy