Can one customize a motherboard?

[CTlinxComputers]

Are there any motherboard manufacturers that allow you to customize your own motherboard? Kind of like Car makers allow you to add options and packages to a new car? I have seen a lot of motherboards, and none are perfect. I like a feature on one, but that feature is not on another but that one has another feature I like but is not on the first board. If I could pick and choose what is on the motherboard, that would be awesome.

 

[greens]

I have never heard of that, but it would be seriously sick.

ITX boards all have useless Wifi connections, but lack proper audio.

I really like the idea, and am really just posting here to see what may come up.

 

[CTlinxComputers]

I like a lot of the technology that goes onto laptop boards, but it is not so easy to customize a laptop (unless you don't mind cardboard cases lol) I like the idea of having internal SSD's but the laptops I've encountered would require sacrificing something to have it. I like the idea of adding an extra hard drive into an adapter that fits into the slot for the optical drive, but don't like having to switch between the 2. I have seen some laptops with 2 hard drive slots but not recently and then there are other issues with those.

Of course, I'm not just talking laptops either, having a custom desktop motherboard would rock as well. Adding a half card mini pci to a desktop motherboard and using a laptop style wifi/bluetooth card running the antennae to a nice spot in the front of the case (or the rear if your case doesn't act like a faraday cage) ... it is all really nifty stuff. Add to it all a 6 or 8 slot DDR4 and a dual (or quad) cpu set up and man you can rig up a desktop to run like a scalded dog.

Obviously this would get expensive ... the word "custom" always multiplies the price of any item... but I really love the idea. I'm sure there would be several limitations. Such as if you want quad cpu's you can't have 10 pci slots or what have you. But still....

 

[Martell1977]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-modular-motherboard,31532.html

It was meant to be a joke, but an interesting idea and from the article, Tom's realized the potential.

 

[CTlinxComputers]

Yes, that is an interesting idea.... I do foresee some issues with it but cool in any case. It is not exactly what I had in mind though.

One of the issues with it is that we just don't know what technology they will come up with next and so one may end up having to replace the entire board to upgrade the ram or the cpu or whatever in the future due to incompatibility... if the newest DDRX1 memory requires a thicker bus or some such, or the new Intel Flux capacitor CPU requires a FSB voltage that would melt older boards.

Modular design seems enticing on paper but in practice it never really lives up to the potential of something designed to be the way it is.

For example, let's look at the main arena of computer software. Apple and Microsoft. (by the way, I hate apple but I'll give them props when props are due) The way apple software is designed is geared towards a system that is very specific. The system itself is designed to only use apple software and so compatibility issues generally don't arise (barring bad programming) but when you look at Microsoft and Windows, it was designed to run any software you throw into it's gaping maw ... and while they have gotten much better with this, if anyone here has ever used 98se they will be first to tell you that incompatibility was the daily norm. I used to have contests to see who's 98se system would stay on without crashing the longest. I think the average was 4 or 5 days.

If you take a few limited options and allow customers to pick what options they want on a board, then design that board accordingly paying attention to making each option fit like a glove. I think you would have a better board overall.

Just my opinion.

 

[Martell1977]

The base of the board would probably only consist of interconnects. The modules would have the necessary hardware for the compatible components. There would immediately have to be a standard formed for all interconnects and they would have to be strict.

If done right, it is a very compelling thought. If say the expansion slots were modular as well, you could put a PCI-e 3.0 slot, 2x spacers or PCI-e x1 slots, then another 3.0 slot. This would let those doing SLI/Crossfire put as much space as they like between cards as that is often an issue.
Another potential option is the RAM slots, if you start with 2 slots that max at 16gb DDR4, then for whatever reason want more, you could buy a module with 4 slots and max it at 32gb, instead of buying a while new board. (just as example).

Imagine being able to go from a socket 1151 CPU to a 2011v3 CPU, just by buying a couple modules.

There would be limits though, like when RAM standards change. Since all CPU's have an IMC now, you would have to stick to RAM modules compatible with that IMC. So upgrading from DDR4 to DDR5, would still require more than a single module change.

 

[CTlinxComputers]

It does indeed have some interesting potential. So I guess the April fools joke is on them lol