Otherwise, buy the OEM version. There may be variations in the actual product between OEM and retail-boxed motherboards. For example, Intel often manufactures three to six variants of a motherboard, which may differ in minor ways such as board color and in more significant ways, such as the speed of the embedded network adapter, whether FireWire support is included, and so on.
Some of these variants are available in both OEM and retail-boxed forms, and others in only one form or the other. Some variants aren't available to individual buyers. They're sold only in what Intel calls "bulk packaging," which means that the minimum order is a pallet load. Only large system makers buy bulk Intel motherboards.
It may seem strange to minimize the importance of warranty, but the truth is that warranty should not usually be a major consideration. Motherboards generally work or they don't. If a motherboard is going to fail, it will likely do so right out of the box or within a few days of use. In practical terms, the vendor's return policy is likely to be more important than the manufacturer's warranty policy.
Look for a vendor who replaces DOA motherboards quickly, preferably by cross-shipping the replacement. At a minimum, the motherboard should provide four or more USB 2. Ideally the motherboard should also provide at least two Serial ATA connectors, and four is better.
In the past, such motherboards were often designed for low-end systems, and used inexpensive and relatively incapable audio and video components. But nowadays many motherboards include very capable audio, video, and LAN adapters, and cost little or no more than similar motherboards without the embedded peripherals. If you buy such a motherboard, make sure that the embedded devices can be disabled if you later want to replace the embedded adapters with better components.
Embedded adapters often use the main CPU, which can reduce performance by a few percent. The speed of current processors means this is seldom an issue.
However, if processor performance is critical, you might wish to use a motherboard that has few or no embedded functions. Embedded Gigabit Ethernet is a particular concern. That's a problem because Gigabit Ethernet is fast enough to saturate the PCI bus and noticeably degrade system performance. This is a really excellent read for me.
You have listed good points to consider while choosing mother board. Choose the right manufacturer is really important for long term usage. A motherboard is the main printed circuit board PCB in a computer. The motherboard is a computer's central communications backbone connectivity point, through which all components and external peripherals connect.
When you're selecting your motherboard, be sure it has enough slots, can support all the RAM that you ever plan to configure, and that it can support the fastest RAM that you'll want to buy. At the same time, you'll want to think about how to buy your RAM. Fix Your Stuff Community Store. Choosing a Motherboard. Edit Options History. Choosing a Motherboard Learn how to choose a PC motherboard.
Author: Sam Goldheart and 2 other contributors. Form factor. Processor socket type. Figure A typical processor socket. Table Processor socket types. Choosing a motherboard. Choose the right chipset. Table Recommended chipsets by socket type. But that looks to be changing with upcoming Intel series boards. Stay tuned to our motherboard reviews for more info there as we get to test a new round of mainstream Intel boards.
If you need more ports and drives, stepping up to an X board is worth the money, especially considering that many higher-priced B boars are just as if not more expensive than many X offerings. It looks like lesser Intel series boards will also make overclocking possible, though you'll still need an unlocked "K" processor.
On the AMD side, things are a lot simpler, with nearly all current-generation Ryzen chips supporting overclocking, and all but the lowest-end chipsets A and A supporting overclocking as well.
As we said in our CPU Buying Guide , in order to make your CPU achieve higher clock speeds than it's rated for out of the box, you'll likely spend extra on an enhanced cooling system and a high-end motherboard.
Now, if you already have a top-of-the-line chip and want to push it even further, or you just enjoy the challenge, by all means, spend the extra money and time to squeeze out that extra speed.
Motherboard audio quality is primarily defined by the audio codec aka the audio processing chip a given board uses. But here are a few to keep an eye on:.
However, if your case has a window, you should get a board that you like looking at--with lights if you like them. Also, if you are building a system that you want to look as clean as possible that is, with few visible wires snaking around the motherboard , look for a board with its fan and USB headers placed around the edges, and SATA and USB 3 header ports that point to the side, rather than sticking up vertically. This will make accomplishing a clean build much easier.
Want to comment on this story? The article explains each and every aspect of a motherboard that one should consider before going to get a motherboard. Great article to read if you are going to buy a motherboard, All the important aspects of a motherboard are explained in the article.
Thanks a lot for this well-explained article. Such a informative article! Motherboard Hope you people like it as well! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
All rights reserved. Close Search. Form factor Motherboards come in different sizes, meaning that you have some flexibility in building your PC to fit into your environment. Motherboard Expansion Options Motherboards can connect a variety of components in addition to the CPU, including graphics cards, sound cards, networking cards, storage devices and connections, and a host of others.
A small SSD and large HDD Like with many of the components in this how-to, there are many factors involved in choosing the right storage.
On modern motherboards, this is usually an eight-pin connector. X, and USB-C 3. Varies Firewire Internal or external An older connection, it allows hooking up a Firewire device. Varies Audio jacks External If your motherboard has built-in audio, and most do today, then it will have audio jacks to connect speakers and microphones. How many jacks and what kind of speaker setups they support from stereo up to 7.
Tags: category20 components how to choose Motherboard motherboards pc build resources Shopping Tools. Join the discussion 17 Comments. AC says:. April 23, at am. Sheldon Rabin says:. February 28, at pm. May 5, at am. Barb says:.
May 6, at pm. Gerson Henrique Sternadt says:. Trade in your old device. Discount Schemes Student Discount. Clearance Used Stock Damaged Box. Verity Author. Cookies on BT Shop We use cookies to do things like remember what you've added to your shopping basket and show you content we think you'll be interested in.
About cookies. About cookies Some cookies are essential - we can't provide our services without them. Edit settings. Functional cookies These cookies let us do things like remember your login details and settings and provide support using live chat.
Allow functional cookies? Allow all cookies.
0コメント