Hey there!

Let me show you how to choose a motherboard…and prepare to be honest with yourself!!

This is just an example motherboard, every motherboard will look slightly different, but will have the same general components

How to choose a motherboard is really not that difficult, all you need to do is adhere to a couple of guidelines, and you will be good to go.

I have tried to make this as simple as possible, and yes there are far more really advanced things you might want to know about how to choose a motherboards, but, if you are searching for that level of technical information, you probably know how to choose a motherboard already.  So, I am not going to be making any reference to bus speeds or how to over-clock your motherboard or any of that - I have other articles that will cover that.

Now, first things first – stop… think and be honest, this is where it all begins… WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR COMPUTER NOW, AND WHAT DO YOU PLAN ON DOING WITH IT AFTER 1 YEAR?  That is the most important question to ask yourself if you want to know how to choose a motherboard.  The one year part should give you an idea of how much upgradability you need to put in, and how much speed and features you need to build in right from the start.  There is no purpose in choosing a motherboard that has all the features in the world, and can handle the most amount of RAM etc, if all you are going to be doing is searching the net and typing a couple of eMails – those machines are normally reserved for gamers, graphic designers and servers and such.

Computers have become so powerful that even entry level machines have the capacity of high power machines of yester year.  So, be honest with yourself first, and the come up with how much you are willing to spend.

The motherboard is the most important part of your computer, so don’t look for the cheapest you can find.  Personally I stick to ASUS, Intel, Gigabyte and Abit, I have had the best performance, and least problems with them over a period of more than 15 years and many machines for myself and clients, workstations and servers.

Now, let’s continue with How to Choose a Motherboard…

Here are the next most important things you need to remember and have the answers for:

How to choose a motherboard point 1 - What processor do I want to use, Intel or AMD?  Everyone has their own preference; personally I like Intel more… I guess I also like Mercedes over BMW and blue more than purple, but hey.  There also some technical reasons for my preference, but I would rather not get into that much detail here.  I have other posts for that – check them out here…  But this is certainly the first step on how to choose a motherboard.  If you really don’t mind, then fine, let the rest of the points, and the outcome of the price help you make up your mind.

How to choose a motherboard point 2 - If you already have a case or chassis – you need to make sure what size the motherboard is, and whether it will fit in your case.  Your case or chassis will state what type it can handle, such as ATX, mini ATX etc – watch for this.  Also, look at the picture of the motherboard you are going to be considering, and look at the rear of the case to make sure all the holes will align properly.

How to choose a motherboard point 3 - How much RAM do I want to install now, and upgrade to?  RAM is very important, and personally, I would not start off with anything less than 2GB.  RAM is not that expensive, so just do it.  But, there is also no sense in choosing a motherboard that can handle up to 12GB RAM if you are choosing a motherboard for someone that is going to play Solitaire the whole day.  Also remember, right now, Windows Desktop operating systems can pretty much only recognize up to 4 GB of RAM – and only advanced server operating systems can recognize more – Linux on the other-hand is different, it can recognize more RAM, but also uses less… I am getting off topic now and will not be factor on how to choose a motherboard.  Don’t waste your money here, if this is going to be a Windows machine, for almost any application between 2 and 4GB RAM should be good enough for pretty much anything, so just throwing RAM at your computer will not always help you much once you pass certain level.  The latest motherboards should support the latest RAM – I have always opted to stay one step behind the latest RAM, it is normally much cheaper than the latest, and unless I am building a super computer for gaming, the fastest RAM is not going to help me diddly!

How to choose a motherboard point 4 - Select the Chipset – The memory or RAM you decided on in Step 2 will determine the chipset – and this will be provided in the motherboard details – it will state what memory or RAM it is compatible with.  At this stage, you might end up changing your mind slightly on the RAM based on what motherboards you are looking at, and the cost.  Many people might say that selecting the Chipset should be done before the RAM when choosing a motherboard; I do not agree with this – I think selecting you RAM should come first – the only reason why you should change your mind is price of the motherboard and RAM together.

How to choose a motherboard point 5 - Cool stuff and must haves – Here you need to decide if you want features like on-board sound, or onboard graphics, etc. or whether you would prefer to install additional cards for this.  Installing additional expansion cards for these would obviously greatly improve performance of that specific feature, such as sound or graphics, but again – do you need it?  Solitaire sounds no different on surround sound if that will be the only use of the machine – but playing games and watching movies certainly is far better with surround sound.   Perhaps you are considering features such as RAID – I will not get into the details of RAID too much in this article, but many motherboards will come with at least RAID 0 & 1 – out of these two, my personal choice would be RAID 1, as with RAID 0, if any one of your hard drives crash, you would lose all the data.

How to choose a motherboard point 6 - Consider the amount of expansion slots you may require.  Again, if the machine will just be for general purposes, the standard quantity of expansion slots (two) should be fine.  If you are going to use the machine for gaming, or graphic design, or something more intensive, then you may want more slots where you can install additional graphics cards, or additional network cards, etc.  Choosing a motherboard that has at least 1 PCI express port on is also very wise.  This is a fairly new format port, and many new cards are available for PCI Express… these ports are much faster.  Also make sure your new motherboard will have enough other ports such as USB ports and Firewire… only you will really know how many you might require.  Remember, don’t waste money on things you will not use now or in the future – no point in having 20 USB ports “just for in case”, if you need more in future, you could always buy a USB hub – I am just saying, be wise.

How to choose a motherboard point 7 - When choosing a motherboard, I have always taken a specific brand, and started at the middle priced motherboards, and gone up or down from there going down if I need to save money first.  Then, I would go up or down based on the features I wanted or needed.  Remember, there is a difference in components on the cheapest motherboard versus the most expensive, and this could be in the same manufacturer, or across manufacturers – I am NOT saying that those really cheap motherboards use only the cheapest components, but watch out – again I say, the motherboard is the most important part of your computer, and then comes the processor.

I hope this has helped you make a clear and wise decision on how to choose a motherboard; either way, please leave a comment, I may have an answer, or the comment might help someone else in choosing a motherboard.

Good luck with that new motherboard… and if you are still looking for a place to buy your new motherboard, check out these trusted sites.  They all have good deals, and are great people to do business with – I would only put them here if I trusted them.

Also - check out this post on on How to Choose a Motherboard

Do you need some extra help… here are some great eBooks:

Computer Secrets Unleashed!
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Fast PC Secrets - Eliminate Slow Computer Problems
How To Build A Gaming Computer For Under $1000.