It is perhaps the most important component of a PC, the one that connects everything, the most complex in terms of total design and one of the most expensive. But while motherboards are an example of engineering that hits all sorts of sticks, it’s really one of the least user customizable. But can it be personalized, modified or change parts of a motherboard to our liking? Why is there so little headroom with them?
Even processors can be customized by changing their IHS For better, even graphics cards can see their cooling system changed, but why is no company investing in products to change or improve motherboards? The question would not really be that, but is it really possible?
Modify or customize a motherboard
Motherboard manufacturers have a very well-established, very well-structured business and, above all, with well-defined profits on what they expect and what they actually get on sale. The same can be said of processors and graphics cards, same argument, same reflection, the difference is in the number of products attached to these that exist for each other.
Motherboards today do not have any accessories or parts that can be installed as they did in the past and this is something important to point out. Over a decade ago there were heatsinks for chipsets even by water there were heatsinks attached for VRMheatsinks for RAM memory slots and today it is so strange that there are more accessories or accessories for other components such as SSDs or memories than for motherboards.
Therefore, customizing them is something really complex because of all that has been said and modifying them is even more difficult because there really is no market, and that said, can we change parts of them?
The dilemma of changing some things on motherboards
If the above was already complicated, changing the key elements of motherboards is relegated to a very specific sector such as electronics. It’s not that a motherboard doesn’t get better by changing certain components, it’s that it’s difficult because of the welds they incorporate, it’s complex because of the circuits they have and also of chips, resistors, SMD or voltage controllers
Among the little that can be changed are retention systems to install socket fixers, thermal pads that improve heat transfer in VRMs and SSDs, but nothing more. The rest is irreplaceable because no brand is ready to invest in R&D to change key elements such as cooling systems, connectors or slots.
In the first case, there are already brands that manufacture liquid cooling blocks and even LN2, in the second the plates already incorporate what is best on the market in the high-end models and in the last, the slots, the level of solder that is required is more typical of “reballing” into them than taking a soldering iron or soldering station and enhancing what is present.
This is only done in the event of a breakdown and is usually done by the technical department which has the spare parts and has precise welders for each component. Technicians embarking on this odyssey do not have an easy task, because the number of hours is high, the precision must be perfect and the risk of damaging a track is high. In short, it is not impossible to change a part, but it is a problem to do so.