Explain Non-integrated Motherboard

Explain Non-integrated Motherboard

An integrated motherboard has multiple components integrated or built-in to the board itself. These components may include the video card, sound card, CPU, and different controller cards. A non-integrated motherboard, on the other hand, uses installable components and expansion cards. It normally has several PCI expansion slots.

For example, in a non-integrated motherboard, you can upgrade the video card or sound card by removing the old one and installing the new one. Non-integrated motherboards are common back in the early days during the time of the 386 and 486 computers. Motherboards during those times are just plain boards. They don’t have anything like the video card, sound card, network card not even the drive ports are included.

Before, for you to connect a floppy drive and a hard drive, you need to purchase a Super I/O card separately. It is an expansion card similar to a SATA adapter where you connect the cables for your floppy drive, hard drive, and CD-ROM drive. But since non-integrated motherboards have built-in components, it is hard to define the exact difference between the two types.

But when it comes to technical specifications, there are helpful differences between the two. Most of the time, their difference comes down to the video card. If the motherboard has a built-in video card, it can generally be considered an integrated motherboard. If the GPU is contained in a separate removable card then it can be considered a non-integrated motherboard.

So, the easiest way to determine if a motherboard is integrated or non-integrated, check the video card. But nowadays, I don’t think you can still find a non-integrated system board because all motherboards being sold in the market have built-in video cards.