Integrated- this design of the motherboard is actually pretty neat and incorporates most of your components right on the board rather than add in cards. The bad side to integrated design is that if a component fails you cannot repair it and the board may have to be junked. This can be an expensive proposition in the future. I have had a few computers that came this way and a good example of integrated designs is your common laptop computer. What if the sound went out on it? Mine did and I found out it was easier to live without it rather than replace it.
-Be aware of a new computer that tends to have many integrated features. This can be handy but at the same time can cause a lot of headaches. Its easier to keep everything separate and in its own place.
Non-Integrated- This design is what most of us tend to have and is a lot easier to live with. Most of the components on this board are added in by expansion cards such as sound, modem, and so on. The good side to this design is being able to single out one bad component and replace it. But like the integrated there are a few things that are still integrated on a non-integrated board you cannot fix. So to be more realistic there is no totally non-integrated board out there at this time. If there were it would be much harder to build a PC.
-So when shopping what format should you be concerned with? Check out the next section on formats to get a better idea.
