The motherboard is one of the most important things in your PC. And since it’s so important you don’t want to mess it up and that’s why I am going to go through how to buy a motherboard in this post.
Basics
Before getting into the post there are three main things that you should consider when getting motherboard. First of all, the CPU socket. The CPU socket is what connects the CPU to the motherboard so you have to make sure that the motherboard you are buying comes with a CPU socket that suits your CPU. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use your CPU.
Next is the chipset you are getting. If I were to explain it simply, chipsets give you an idea about the features that you should expect your motherboard to have. Things like overclocking support, the PCIe generation that the motherboard uses, the number of PCIe lanes and RAM slots are mostly decided by the chipset. When you are choosing a chipset choose one that is compatible with your CPU and has the features you are looking for.
Lastly the version that you like. Let’s say that you chose AMD’s X670 chipset that uses the AM5 CPU socket. The CPU socket and the chipset are made by AMD but the motherboard itself isn’t. So, you will find a lot of third party versions of motherboards that use the X670 chipset, made by big names like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. You will need to compare them in terms of the features they offer and their prices to decide what’s best for you.
Chipset Naming Scheme
Intel
Our example here will be the Z690 chipset.
This list doesn’t include Xeon, Threadripper or mobile chipsets, and it doesn’t apply to older chipsets.
- letter: Intel uses one of four letters at the beginning of the name: W, Z, Q, B, H.
- W: Almost the same as Z CPUs except that it is aimed at workstations and that all W-series chipsets before the W680 don’t support overclocking.
- Z: Overclocking support, more connectivity (lots of PCIe lanes, more and/or faster USB ports).
- Q: No overclocking, remote management, enhanced security (business).
- B and H: budget option for home users.
- Generation indicator: Tells you the genration of the chipset and the CPUs that it would work with. Newer chipsets work with newer CPUs.
Raptor Lake and Alder Lake (12th, 13th, 14th gens): 700
Alder Lake CPUs (12th gen): 600
Rocket Lake CPUs (11th gen): 500
Comet Lake CPUs (10th gen): 400
So in our example (Z690) it will be able to work with a 12th generation CPU.
- SKU: (2 numbers) Last number is always a zero
If the first number is
1: No RAM overclocking, 2 RAM slots, less USB and SATA, no raid or optane support.
High (6, 7 or 9 for ex): RAM overclocking, 4 RAM slots, more USB and SATA, raid and optane support.
AMD
Our example here will be the X670 chipset.
- letter: X, B or A
- X: overclocking support, the most and fastest USB and SATA ports, CrossFire and SLI support
- B: overclocking support, number and speed of USB and SATA ports is less than X-series chipsets, CrossFire support only
- A: no overclocking support, the least when it comes to number and speed of USB and SATA ports, no CrossFire or SLI support
- SKU: consists of 3 numbers, only the first one matters
- The first number is a generation indicator and it tells you which architecture supports the chipset, Zen 1 supports 300, 400 / Zen 2 supports 400, 500 / Zen 3 supports 500 / Zen 4 supports 600
- The other 2 numbers dont have a meaning, X ends in 70, B ends in 50, A ends in 20.
Motherboard Size
It’s important to know the size of your motherboard. If you buy a motherboard that is too big for your PC case you won’t be able to install it. On the other hand buying a motherboard that is too small means you are getting less features than people with bigger boards. Motherboards come in three main sizes:
ATX Motherboards
They are the biggest out of the three, which means more expansion slots, more storage drives, more add-in cards and the possibility to add more than one graphics card to the motherboard. In addition to that, they support the best and most advanced cooling options which becomes really beneficial if you want to overclock you RAM and CPU. In short, they are the full option size and your perfect choice if you are into overclocking, using dual graphics cards or you want to get the most out of your PC build.
There are some disadvantages to having an ATX motherboard though. Of course, if you are buying a big motherboard you are going to buy an ATX case which isn’t light nor small and might not fit everywhere. Moreover, if you don’t need all the extra space that comes with an ATX motherboard and you won’t need it, buying one will be a waste of money since smaller sizes like the Micro-ATX will save you more money and space.
Micro-ATX Motherboards
They are a smaller version of ATX motherboards. Giving you the benefits of reduced size and cost while still being able to get a decent PC build.
However, depending on how you think of it, reduced size might be a problem. Your cooling options will be limited since big coolers won’t fit in the motherboard. As a result, you won’t be able to overclock, you can still get high end CPUs and GPUs but you won’t be able to cool them properly compared to an ATX build with a better cooler. Also, less space means less expansion slots and less USB and SATA ports.
Mini-ITX Motherboards
Saves money, light, and doesn’t take much space. Those are the words that properly describe motherboards of this size. But as we mentioned above reduced size might be a problem which means that this size isn’t recommended especially if you are going to buy a high end CPU or GPU.
Learn More About Your Motherboard
PCIe
PCIe is a method the motherboard uses to connect high speed components on the motherboard like the CPU and GPU, etc. It has several generations with PCIe 5.0 being the latest and the best generation. With that said, you will need to know what generation your motherboard, CPU, RAM and other components support to know what you are getting.
Most, Components on the motherboard use expansion slots also known as PCIe slots to connect to the motherboard. These slots come in 5 sizes: x1, x2, x4, x8 and x16 with x4 and x16 being the most commonly used in motherboards.
Internal Ports
If it’s your first time building a PC you need to get yourself familiar with these ports and the role each of them has.
PCIe slots: The ones we mentioned earlier, also called expansion slots. Used to connect GPUs as well as other things.
DIMM/RAM slots: These slots are used to place the RAM on the motherboard.
SATA ports: Used to connect SATA storage drives like SSDs, HDDs and CDs.
M.2 ports: Used to connect different types of components, usually SSDs. It’s worth mentioning that each M.2 port has a different key which means you can only connect a component and a M.2 port if both of them have the same key.
ATX power connector: Provides the motherboard with power.
CPU power connector: provides the CPU with power.
Fan headers: They control fans and provide them with power, they come in 2 types: 3 pin headers and 4 pin headers (also called PWM headers). The main difference between them is that 4 pin headers have better control over fan speed which means less noise and longer life expectancy, compared to 3 pin headers.
USB headers: They are used to connect the USB ports found on your PC case.
Audio ports/headers: Allows you to connect audio jacks on your case where you connect your mic, headphones, etc., to the motherboard.
Front panel connectors: Used to connect things on your chassis like the power button, reset button, LED indicators and a beep code speaker (the speaker is mainly used to detect errors).
CMOS battery: It powers something called the CMOS chip which was mainly used for storing BIOS settings. However, some recent motherboards chose to store BIOS settings in a more effective way. This means CMOS is no longer responsible for storing BIOS settings on these boards but it’s still important since it keeps the PC’s date and time accurate.
Overclocking
Want to push your RAM and/or CPU past its limits? Well, you need to check if the motherboard that you will buy has overclocking support. And if you are wondering is having a K-series Intel CPU is enough for overclocking, the answer is no. You need a CPU that can be overclocked, K for example, and a motherboard that supports overclocking.
However, if you are only going to overclock your GPU then the motherboard won’t affect you, since GPU overclocking depends on your cooling and PSU.
If you are on a tight budget investing in a CPU that comes with high clock speeds saves more than overclocking a CPU that comes with less clock speeds.
Raid and Optane
We mentioned Raid and Optane when we discussed how Intel names its chipsets above. So, what are they and what do they do? Both of them are supposed to boost the performance of storage devices.
Raid, also called Intel Rapid Storage Technology, provides improved performance and lower power consumption for SATA devices.
Optane on the other hand isn’t only a technology like Raid. Intel produces its own storage devices under the name Intel® Optane™, these devices are notably faster than non-optane devices.
GPU
In order to use features like SLI, NVLink and CrossFire your motherboard must support it. For those who don’t know, these technologies are developed by AMD (CrossFire) and Nvidia (SLI and NVLink with the latter being the more recent one) to allow you to use more than one GPU. Knowing whether your motherboard supports these features or not is quite easy with AMD chipsets as we mentioned above in AMD chipsets naming scheme, remember you can always just google it too. As for NVLink, the only requirement on the motherboard side is just 2 PCIe x16 slots (found on most ATX and micro-ATX).
It’s worth mentioning that in 2017 AMD decided to put CrossFire to rest.
Should you invest in one of these technologies? We don’t recommend that, take gaming as an example, most games don’t really benefit from having more than one card. And even for the few ones that do benefit from them, is the small boost in performance – compared to a single high end GPU – worth the price of two GPUs? That is up to you to answer.
Extra
You can’t use every slot on the motherboard at the same time. This is due to the limited number of PCIe lanes and HSIO (High Speed input/output) lanes. Which means if you plan on installing lots of cards and drives consider buying a high end motherboard.
Also when it comes to audio, you will be just fine with the audio codec (aka the audio processing chip) that comes with the motherboard. You can, of course, still opt for a dedicated sound card, or USB speakers.
Motherboard Price Ranges
As for prices, motherboards can be as low as 80$ and as high as 1500$. Of course, you can opt for a budget motherboard and your PC will work just fine, but you will get less PCIe slots, slower USB and probably sacrifice some advanced technology. An exact price range won’t be very accurate since prices do change a lot and your needs might be different from what we think they are. But, for those who want to get a general idea, from 130$ to 180$ is the average for mid range motherboards. High end motherboards are found in the 200$ to 250$ range, some high end motherboards are even beyond 250$.
With all of these numbers it’s important to have a budget and a list of features you need in a motherboard, to prevent paying too much for a motherboard or ending up with one that doesn’t meet your expectations.
Steps For Buying a Motherboard
- Have the CPU you bought or going to buy in mind.
- Have a budget in mind, and remember that you will spend on other important things like the CPU, GPU, etc.
- Know what features you aim to have, (for example: overclocking, number of RAM slots, Raid and Optane support).
- Choose a compatible socket and narrow down your chipset options to only compatible ones, PCPartPicker will help you in knowing what is compatible and what is not.
- Choose a chipset (or narrow down your options to a range of chipsets) that fulfills your needs.
- Choose a motherboard that matches your chosen chipset and meets your needs and budget.
This might be really overwhelming especially if it is your first time buying a motherboard. But, don’t worry you can just pick a catergory like gaming, budget, workstation, etc., and search for sites reviewing top gaming motherboards, you will find some great recommendations!
