Motherboard replacement?

[rastergrafx]

This is my first time checking out these forums. I've known about Raspberry Pi for a few years, but I haven't really had much interest in trying it out. Now that Pi 2 is out and seeing all the neat features it has, I think I'm ready to try a project with it.

Can I use Raspberry Pi to replace a motherboard? If I opened a prebuilt desktop case and swiped out the motherboard for a Raspberry Pi, would it work?

[ghans]

The Pi 2 does not directly support SATA or IDE , ATX powersupplies, the ATX mounting holes and case form factor , will never support
any version of PCI , doesn't have direct VGA, DVI or IEEE-1284 ports , can't run a "proper" version of Windows
or WINE (say bye-bye to all your existing Windows games and Windows-only software like MS Office).

You can't replace or upgrade RAM , CPU or GPU of the Pi 2 at all.

All in all a poor replacement for an x86-centric PC motherboard without lots of adapters (which may cost as much as a single Pi , each).

ghans

[rurwin]

It's... possible.

As opposed to impossible.

The Raspberry Pi 2 is starting to get to be the sort of speed where it can match a desktop PC, although not a fully tricked-out gaming rig.

You would need to know about soldering and electronics, because although the ATX power supply can be used, it can't be easily used, and electricity can be dangerous stuff, both to you and the Raspberry Pi. You would need to get a drill out, because you'd need some way to mount the RaspPi in the case and none of the holes will match. You would need to pass the video, keyboard and mouse cables in through the back panel, because the RaspPi does not have a standard ATX motherboard case panel.

And you would have a massive steel box containing a board the size of a credit card, which seems like rather a lot of over-kill and a bit unwieldy.

And as ghans said, it will not run any version of Windows (not even Windows 10) or any of the software you have.

It is possible, you're not the first person to contemplate it, but to do the job cleanly you'd spend more than the price of a good motherboard on connectors, wiring and power switching, and you'd end up with a mediocre PC that was ten times the size and weight that it needed to be.

[rastergrafx]

And as ghans said, it will not run any version of Windows (not even Windows 10) or any of the software you have.

Then why does the blog highlight Windows 10 as a selling point of Pi 2?

[BMS Doug]

And as ghans said, it will not run any version of Windows (not even Windows 10) or any of the software you have.

Then why does the blog highlight Windows 10 as a selling point of Pi 2?

Windows 10 IoT (Internet of Things) is not the same as a desktop windows 10 installation.

"Athens" is a successor to the Windows 8 for Internet of Things versions currently available for the Galileo boards. It's pretty cut down, for example lacking the full Windows UI, designed for highly resource constrained devices. It's most likely that it's this "Athens" version that will run on the Raspberry Pi 2. Although the Pi 2's specs are relatively high—including a full 1GB of RAM—it's hard to imagine that Microsoft would want to offer a reasonably full version of Windows for a $35 device. Exactly what is and isn't going to be available on this version is currently unknown.