It serves as the base for all components in your PC. every component in your PC is connected to your motherboard. It is located at the base of the casing, and at first glance, all motherboards may look the same, but there is more to it than meets the eye. It could be difficult figuring out what kind of motherboard do you own, especially if you bought a Prebuilt PC that came with a motherboard already fitted inside. But there are several things that you can find about your motherboard.
Information You Can Find About Your Motherboard
You can easily identify your other computer parts just by looking at them; however, this is not the case with the motherboard. Every motherboard has different components and features, even though they look the same at first look.
They come in different sizes, mainly Micro ATX, Mini ITX, or Standard ATX; this can be easily figured out just by looking at your motherboard You can look at the ram slots in these motherboards as they vary by size. Micro ATX motherboards have 2 ram slots as they are targeted toward budget-friendly builds. Mini ITX and standard ATX both include 4 ram slots, but standard ATX has 2 PCI-e slots allowing you to pair 2 GPUs at once. Standard ATX motherboards are usually costlier than other motherboards, and they include a heatsink or fancy features like RGB, which makes them highly distinguished from other types of motherboards
How To Check What Motherboard I Have? (6+2 Ways)
It is necessary to know your PC, especially if you are planning to upgrade or expand your components inside. Every component is connected to your motherboard, so you have to be careful and select components that are compatible with your motherboard. Not many people have knowledge about their system, and that’s why I am here to list you some different ways how to check your motherboard.
#1- Open Up Your PC And Physically Look At The Motherboard
The easiest way to find what motherboard is in your casing is to physically look at it yourself. The first thing you need to do is to switch off your PC and pull all the cables. Make sure it is disconnected from the power outlet. Now lay it down, and carefully loosen the screws, these screws can be loosened by your hands, or you can make use of the Phillips screwdriver. Pull up the PC case. And you will see Your motherboard lying at the base of your casing. Now the thing you are looking for is the model number/serial number. It is usually printed on the motherboard, but you will have to look carefully throughout the numerous components and capacitors. It can be located between ram slots or PCI-e slots. Most modern motherboards have their logo imprinted in large fonts on the motherboard, so finding the brand name isn’t difficult, but you have to make sure what product of that brand you are using. If you can model numbers, all you have to do is visit the manufacturer’s site and type these numbers in the search bar. You will do the rest yourself, pretty much. The hard part was finding the correct model number.
#2- How To Check Your Motherboard With Command Prompt
This method requires searching for your motherboard by using windows built-in features. Boot your PC, and when you arrive at your desktop screen. Press win + r. This action will open a small dialog box in the bottom left corner of your screen. You can type the following inside the box “cmd.exe.” if you are a windows 10 user, you can simply type cmd in the search bar, and from there, you can access the command prompt. Soon after pressing enter, another screen will appear on your desktop. This screen is a command prompt. Here you will enter a specific command line that will provide you with all the details you need about your mother. You can copy and paste the following command and then press enter (without quotes) “wmic baseboard get product, manufacturer” Now, as you can see, every detail about your motherboard is available. The make, manufacturer, model number. type in system info, and you can further detail, including serial number.
#3- Find Out Your Motherboard Model With Windows System Information
Quite similar to the command prompt method mentioned above, you can access this system information utility by pressing win +r and typing msinfo32 in the dialog box. Alternatively, you can type in the search bar “sys info,” and you can access system information. Now, after you have opened this utility, search for the system summary section. This includes all the details about your PC hardware that is currently connected or in use. Clicking on this heading will open a long list of detailed hardware on the right side. In this list, look for baseboard manufacturer, system manufacturer, or motherboard manufacturer title. It doesn’t matter what you are looking for all of this refers to the motherboard make and model. There you can look at your motherboard manufacturer and the product you are using. It is a great tool for new PC users, and you can keep in check with your other hardware details too.
#4- How To Find What Motherboard I Have with Third-party tools
Some other options also offer great help in finding details about your PC components. This software is developed to keep in check with your hardware specs, and performance and it is easier to monitor your components with these tools. CPUZ Highly recommended by many users, it is free-to-use software that is fairly easy to install from its official website. After you have installed it on your PC, run it and look for the tab named mainboard in the column above. This tab refers to your motherboard, and it will provide you with all details you are looking for about your motherboard. SPECCY Another handy software that is used by many users. This software can be downloaded free of charge from its official website. After you have completed the downloading process, launch the application, and a new window will pop up with a summary section that includes all the details about your PC hardware. If you want more details about your motherboard, there is a motherboard section on the left side that will take you to the motherboard screen. You can find relevant info about your motherboard like manufacture, make, model number, or serial number. You can keep check of your hardware temperatures in this software too. It is a neat and handy feature.
#5- Find Motherboard Model In Windows 10 With Powershell
At first, you might get confused with the command prompt, but I assure you PowerShell is a different and more advanced version of CMD despite looking the same. It was introduced for Windows 7 and above users, and this is different in many ways. But the method is exactly is the same that we tried in Comand prompt. You can access PowerShell by right-clicking on the start button icon at the bottom left or by searching in the search bar. You will select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the list. A new screen will pop up with the blue background; after that, paste the same command we did in the command prompt screen “wmic baseboard get the product, manufacturer, version,” And you will be greeted with your motherboard info.
#6- How Can I Know My Motherboard Model In BIOS?
This one is a little tricky and not much reliable as the other methods mentioned above. There are some steps that should be taken so you can enter BIOS. Restart your PC and then wait for the display to boot up. Once you are greeted with starting windows logo, press f1, ESC, f10, or f12, it varies between different computers. You will gain access to the BIOS main menu. From there, you have to navigate yourself to the system configuration menu by pressing the keys that are being displayed on the BIOS screen. For example, Press the “key” to access the system configuration. Once you are at the system configuration page, you can see the information you were looking for about your motherboard.
How To Tell What Motherboard I Have On macOS
macOS is a completely different thing from windows. There is no direct way inside macOS that can indicate anything regarding the motherboard’s identity. Apple is very restricted about providing their information. But there is a way by which we can check out what motherboard is in your apple device. On the desktop, click the apple icon on the top left corner of your screen. A dropdown list will appear; you are looking for about this mac option. Click on it, and a dialog box will appear on the screen. There you can see the information about your device specs. Your CPU, the amount of ram, and everything. There you can see a serial number at the end of the screen. This is the serial number that belongs to your motherboard. Simple right-click on it and copy it from the window. The next step is you have to visit this website “http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html” where you can find info about your motherboard. On the front page, you will see a tiny search bar where you will paste your serial number. Once you are done, you can preview your MacBook data and everything about your motherboard. It is not a straightforward method like windows, but it works, so there is no worry
How To View What Motherboard You Have On Linux?
Unlike windows, there are no built-in tools in Linux OS that can help you find motherboard info. You can download and install some tools, but there is no need for that. You can get all the information you want about your motherboard with just one command line. It is straightforward and simple. Hold down the combination of ctrl+alt+t on your keyboard at the same time. This action will open a terminal window on your screen. Now write dmidecode -t 2 in the terminal box, and you will see brief information about your motherboard. For a more detailed list of info, you can type dmidecode -t baseboard in the same command box. If you are planning to upgrade your ram, your hard drive, or your CPU, you should have basic knowledge about your motherboard so you can buy hardware that is supported on your motherboard. Compatibility is a big issue, and you don’t want to waste time or money buying random things that won’t even connect to your motherboard. There is a chance that you bought a prebuilt system, and it has a motherboard pre-installed. You don’t know anything about the motherboard inside, and this is totally okay. That’s why I have written this guide for new PC users so that they don’t have any issues before making decisions regarding upgrading or buying new components. Always research first and then choose your hardware according to compatibility so that you save your time, money and enjoy building your PC without any issues or faults.
#1 – How do I find out what motherboard I have Windows 10?
There are several ways that can help a newcomer to find relevant information they are looking for. You can use built-in tools in windows like system information utility to find accurate info on your motherboard. There is also an option for free to use third-party software to download that is completely safe to use and is recommended by many users.
#2 – How can you tell if the motherboard is bad?
Several symptoms can indicate that your motherboard is failing. During use, a user might face a blue screen of death, freezes, lag, or glitches. Frequent shutdowns will occur, and at some point, your system will refuse to boot up. These are huge red flags that can indicate that your motherboard is in bad condition.
#3 – How do I know what HP motherboard I have?
If you own an HP computer and you want to know about your motherboard, you can visit the HP customer case website, type the model of your computer in the search box, and press next. Next, you will select the product information section and look in the section for a document that includes info on your PC system
#4 – How do I find my motherboard serial number?
The quickest way to find out your motherboard model is to run a command in the command prompt. Press win + r to open a dialog box. Write cmd to open a command prompt screen. Type in wmic baseboard, get the product, Manufacturer serial, and on pressing enter, you will see the serial number of your motherboard on screen.
#5 – How do I find my BIOS ID?
You can find your BIOS ID in the system information window. Press win + r and type in msinfo.32. This action will take you to the system information utility screen. The BIOS version is written on the system summary page in the BIOS Version/Date item.
#6 – What are the types of motherboards?
Motherboards are designed by manufacturers in three sizes. From smallest to largest, they are Mini ITX, Micro ATX, and ATX or standard ATX. Mini ITX motherboards are compact and are easily fitted into smaller casings but at the cost of fewer ram slots and features. Micro ATX and ATX motherboards include 4 ram slots, with ATX motherboards offering 2 PCI-e slots.
#7 – What brand of motherboard does HP use?
HP manufacture and design their own motherboards. They come in different sizes for PC builds but for laptops, they use proprietary motherboards made especially for compact laptops. They have a unique size, and they are irreplaceable by any other brand. In HP desktop PCs, there are fewer limitations for upgrading hardware. You can change your motherboard with compatible-sized, especially in the latest HP pavilion gaming series.
