I am curious, has anyone (be it here or just on the internet) attempted this

[ninjamonkey]

I was wondering, has anyone attempted to make their own computer motherboard? Like design a motherboard, populate it with the necessary components and get it to work?

[jacobia jacob]

it seems like the kind of thing that would require a lot of specialized machinery and i've never heard of any one person making their own motherboard

[RyanF]

i havent seen a homemade mobo but i have seen a homemade cpu.  it looked like a bunch of pegs with wires going everywhere.  lol it was spaghetti with nails! jkd

[Ennon]

This would be terribly hard. lol.

[ninjamonkey]

Yes, but it helps having an intro to digital systems course this semester. So I will learn some things that will helpful something of this magnitude.

[123sample]

I think 100 years later I definitely still soldering something on it =(

[techninjadude]

You can never make your own mother board because some parts need to be machine made. And whats the point recreating something already made?

[Hazer]

No one person has ever made a motherboard by themselves. Any particular design takes teams of engineers working on different aspects of a signle motherboard design. You have to be very careful on the Voltage circuit design, the clock generation circuit design, the layout of the different busways, the prticular specifications of each IC component used and thier individual requirements. It takes people years to learn how to layout the traces of high-speed digital traces in such a way not to create parasitic side-effects. Ontop of all of this, you have to adhere to inductry standards, the placement of every connector has to be perfect. Most designs are not done right the first time. You have to come up with first-drafts, have the PCB made and then populated and then troubleshoot what went wrong. Rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat.

Even if you were to attempt re-creating a 8486 motherboard, the same steps apply. I can tell you right now that if you do not have the (very expensive) equipement to hand-stuff and bake the components onto the motherboard, doing it the hard way would take you weeks. That after you have designed and manufactured the PCB.

I can tell you right now, it would be easier to make a car from scratch than it is to make a motherbaord.

[RyanF]

This is an interesting idea, but it would cost a lot more than it would to just buy one.  It would also be very hard to do this w/o the stuff you need.  To make a motherboard, you need a LOT of things to even be close to doing this. One of these things would be a very precise machine to place the components.  When they say homemade PCs are faster than OEM PCs, they don't mean it in this way.    Sorry for being a pessimist, but you most likely wouldn't be able to do this unless you have a large factory with the parts & tools needed to do this.

[FOOKz™]

Hazer doesn't want to shoot you down he just doesn't want to let you potentially go poor because you spent too much money on building your own motherboard.

You could find out how to build a computer motherboard for a much simpler system. Also there are companies who build multi-layer PCB boards for you all the way up to six layers... i guess if you find a pile of electronic schematic designs and draw it all out on AutoCAD its theoretically possible.

[ninjamonkey]

I got it. I actually talked to my professor about this and he told me the same thing. So yea, it would be a lot to do and a lot of time.

[Rodent]

There isn't nothing you cant do! Time ,money, and with the right group of people anything is possible. Its good to see people who want to take things to the next level. Yet like hazer said would take alot to do. It has crossed my mind to build my own motherboard, and I havent a clue the first place to start...lol

Guess the first place is would be a napkin and pencil somewhere in a resturant or diner or just some doodling on a piece of paper at school all great ideas come from somewhere.

Thats the great thing about this site, to share ideas, learn from others and make things happen that you dreamed about, called living the dream.

[BillyRivs27]

Making your own mobo can't be done without those machines used in factory.

[aZiZ1]

Please dont bump older topics for no reason.