Which motherboard

Motherboards come in different sizes, meaning that you have some flexibility in building your PC to fit into your environment. These are general guidelines for some of the most common motherboard form factors. There are more, and they vary in their capabilities. The most important thing is to decide what size PC you want to build or buy, how many components you will want to configure now and into the future, and then pick the motherboard form factor that best fits your needs.

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.

There have been many kinds of expansion ports over the years, but fortunately things have gotten much simpler. The four slots sizes are x1, x4, x8, and x16, with x4 and x16 being the most common. Motherboards vary widely on how many slots they include, and also on their placement.

All PCs need a way to output information in a visual format that we humans can utilize. In its simplest terms, that means displaying images on a monitor. These are relatively low-powered GPUs that are great for the usual productivity tasks, but only support less graphically demanding games like e-sports titles. Note that some GPUs can use just the 75 watts of power provided by the PCIe slot, but that most GPUs require more power via six-pin or eight-pin connectors from a large enough power supply.

How much RAM you need for your own PC depends on how you plan to use it, and 8GB is typically a safe recommendation for most lighter users with 16 or more GB being a good bet for heavier users. Today, that means choosing between a hard disk drive HDD with spinning platters that store data and solid-state drives SSD that store data in much faster flash memory.

HDDs are typically less expensive for more storage space, while SSDs are more expensive but offer extra speed, and are great for holding the operating system and applications. Some of these connections are internal, and some are external. There are variations of SATA 3.

X that provide faster speeds and slightly different connections, including SATA revision 3. This is a newer protocol that offers increased bandwidth, lower power, lower latency, and other advantages. Like with many of the components in this how-to, there are many factors involved in choosing the right storage.

One common tactic is to buy a relatively small SSD for the operating system and applications, which makes for significantly better performance, and then larger HDDs for storing massive amounts of data like photos and video. These connections include a variety of on-board headers that are used to support things like fans, external USB ports, RGB lighting systems, and a variety of manufacturer-specific proprietary products.

This is something that you will want to check carefully as you are selecting components for your new PC. And, some water-cooling systems require specific headers for connecting to software that controls lighting and thermal sensors. You will need to make sure that a motherboard includes all of the necessary headers to support all of these kinds add-on components and case features.

Basically, think of it this way. Here is what you need to consider before you buy. ATX motherboards are common, as is micro ATX although these are smaller in size and reduce the number of expansions slots. The ATX board is popular, as it has the addition of more expansion slots, which can be useful. There has been different types of sockets used in the past however three are only applicable today.

Depending what type of socket you have on your motherboard, it will determine what processor you can buy. So this you will probably need to consider what CPU you want first, then buy your motherboard.

Fundamentally the motherboard you buy will determine the amount and type of RAM you can have. In addition, look for a board that offers 4 or more memory slots. This means you can install 2 RAM modules to begin and you will have spare room for memory upgrades in future.

A PCI slot is a connection or port that is located on the motherboard. They have been the standard type of expansions slot for years and they allow expansion cards to be connected. 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. Make sure the motherboard supports the exact processor you plan to use. Choose a board with flexible host bus speeds. Make sure the board supports the type and amount of memory you need. Make sure the motherboard supports the type of video you need. Check documentation, support, and updates. Choose the right manufacturer. Number and type of expansion slots. PCI slots.

Video slot. PCI Express slots. OEM versus retail-boxed packaging. Ports and connectors. Embedded sound, video, and LAN. Add Comment. This must have been written before USB3 came out. I suggest Be wary of dated references. Thanks, Merient Team. Add Comment Cancel. AMD's budget Ryzen motherboard chipset, the A, has largely slipped under the radar. While B and B motherboards were mostly regarded as entry-level, A was strictly seen as the resolutely low end. Enter A It benefits from the strengths of the Ryzen platform and adds some future-proofing into the mix.

About the only thing it really lacks is Wi-Fi, but then do you really expect to have Wi-Fi at this price? Gigabyte deserves credit for including audio built around the ALC codec. Usually, this is reserved for use with more expensive motherboards. It leaves Intel's budget B boards looking weak in comparison, plus you get the benefit of next-generation Ryzen compatibility. Is it for everyone? No, but the Gigabyte A Aorus Elite, unlike almost all preceding A boards, definitely does not mean cheap and nasty.

Read the full Gigabyte A Aorus Elite review. You need to know which processor you want to be building your new rig around. Are you firmly tying yourself to the mast of the good ship Intel as it plows on through the roughest waters it's known?

Or are you going to fly the flag of AMD proudly? Other than knowing which processor you're going to be fitting, size matters when picking up a motherboard. That doesn't necessarily mean sacrificing performance or key features anymore. The scale will impact pricing, however. We've picked our top two favorite gaming motherboards for each of the main Intel and AMD chipsets to give you the best options around.

There are absolutely restrictions in place to stop that, especially on the Intel side. It has opened up memory overclocking across its series chipsets, but still, the Z is your only chance of overclocking the latest Rocket Lake K-series CPUs. But don't worry, they don't overclock very well. Basically, if you make sure not to go for the cheapest Ryzen board, one with an 'A' at the front of its nomenclature, then you're good to tweak. Though again, there really are limited returns. A connector on the motherboard that allows you to run a cable to the case to add additional USB ports, typically on the front panel though some cases provide top or rear panel slots as well.

They allow you to adjust system-level settings, such as fan speed or RAM frequency. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express slots on the motherboard are designed to accommodate add-in cards like graphics cards, SSD cards, dedicated sound cards, etc.

PCIe slots are measured in both length x16, x8, x4, x1 as well as by the number of data transmission lanes they provide x16, x8, x4, x1. It's possible for an x16 slot to only provide 8 lanes of data, for instance, which means the maximum possible data transfer rate is halved though in many cases, because PCIe provides such a high ceiling for transfer speeds, a lower number of lanes doesn't make a tremendous difference.

The number of total slots contributes to the maximum amount of RAM your system can handle, paired with the chipset and OS. The logic allows the various parts of a motherboard to talk to each other. The chipset determines which processor generations a motherboard is compatible with and what add-in cards can be used. The number of physical ports on your board, combined with ports for NVMe storage, will determine the total number of storage drives you can have connected to your PC at any time.

He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck. Included in this guide: 1.

Socket: LGA Expansion slots: 1x PCIe 4. Video ports: 1x DisplayPort 1. Storage: 3x M. Gigabyte Z Aorus Tachyon. Size: E-ATX. Video ports: 1x HDMI 2.