Motherboard

Contents

Description
What To Look for
Recommendations

Description:

• The best way to describe the motherboard goes along well with my human body analogy that I used for the CPU. The CPU is the brain, and the motherboard is the nervous system. Therefore, just as a person would want to have fast communication to the body parts, you want fast communication between the parts of your computer. Fast communication isn't as important as reliable communication though. If your brain wanted to move your arm, you want to be sure the nervous system can accurately and consistently carry the signals to do that! Thus, in my opinion, the motherboard is the second most important part of the computer.
• The motherboard is the circuit board to which all the other components of the computer connect in some way. The video card, sound card, IDE hard drive, etc. all plug into the motherboard's various slots and connectors. The CPU also plugs into the motherboard via a Socket or a Slot.

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What To Look For:

• There are many parts of the motherboard to consider. I'll start with the bus speed support. The fastest pentium IV CPUs run at 800 MHz bus speed, and the fastest Athlon XP CPUs run at 400 MHz bus speed (both of these are in actuality 200 MHz multiplied 2 or 4 times by being double or quad pumped).
• The type of Chipset is the most important thing to consider in your motherboard. The chipset contains all of the motherboard's basic instructions, and also determines many of the motherboard's features. Latest chipset info is available under Motherboard Recommendations.
• Hardware support is also quite important as you want your motherboard to support the hardware you are putting in it. Most of this will be determined by the chipset, but some will not, such as number of slots for memory expansion, number of PCI slots, number of USB and Firewire ports, and the presence of LAN, audio, and other possible onboard components. USB 2.0 and Firewire connectors come in handy for connecting peripherals.
• Onboard components used to be something to avoid, but they have improved lately. Getting an onboard network connector is usually helpful, and onboard audio is common now too. Onboard video is generally something to avoid though. Onboard audio generally isn't going to give you the best quality, but it's sufficient in most cases. With the nForce line of motherboards, the onboard audio is excellent.
• Another thing to consider is whether the motherboard comes with a cooling fan on the chipset. As speeds increase and chipsets become more complex, having good cooling becomes more important. While this isn't one of the most important things to consider, it is another sign of a good motherboard.

Buying Tips:

• There aren't many buying tips to be concerned with as most motherboards have fairly similar costs. The motherboard cost is often determined by the chipset being used. Obviously, you will want to get a motherboard that is going to last you awhile though. One key to doing this is to be sure your motherboard will support the newest CPUs. Of course, it's not always wise to buy the first motherboard based on a new chipset either. So, this decision can be a tough one... Often times it is best to wait a little while after a new chipset has come out to be sure the new products are good quality.

Recommendations:

Choosing between Intel and AMD is a personal preference. For more information on choosing between the two platforms, I suggest you read the CPU Recommendations page.

• AMD Athlon 64 FX Motherboards
• AMD Athlon 64 Motherboards
• AMD Athlon XP Motherboards
• Intel Pentium IV Motherboards
  
• Athlon 64 FX Motherboards:
  Thees motherboards are hard to come by and a little pricey. They also require Registered DDR400 memory instead of the typical unbuffered memory. Few are available at the time of this writing, but good ones to look for use the nVidia nForce 3-250Gb chipset. It's possible these boards may actually perform slower than the Via K8T800 chipset, but Via has had a history of problems compared to the nForce chipsets. Many have been very successful with that chipset however, and if you do want to give one a try, I'd suggest the Asus SK8V motherboard. If you want to play it safe, then find a motherboard with the nForce 3-250 Gb chipset, such as MSI's K8N Neo Platinum motherboard.
  
  Athlon 64 Motherboards:
  With little difference in performance between the nForce 3-150 and Via K8T800 chipsets, I would strongly recommend the nForce 3-150 chipset motherboards simply because of their reputation for stability and quality. A couple of good choices here are the Chaintech ZNF3-150, AOpen AK89 Max, and particularly the Gigabyte GA-K8N PRO. (or for a little extra money, get Gigabyte's GA-K8NNXP which adds all kinds of unique features including their DPS technology to improve stability, a "backup power" system, and more.
  
  Athlon XP motherboards:
  If you are going to use an Athlon XP CPU, I suggest using motherboards based on the nForce2 chipsets (particularly the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset). These motherboards are very fast and stable. nVidia is a relative newcomer to the motherboard market, but they have consistently produced high quality products from day one. All of the nForce2 motherboards have been high quality, but I do have some specific recommendations. Here are the specific nForce2 motherboards I recommend:
• Gigabyte GA-7NNXP or 7N400 Pro (the "K7 Triton" series): These two motherboards are very well-featured and stable boards, not to mention fast. The 7NNXP costs quite a bit more ($50 - $60) for the addition of a second LAN port and "DPS technology" which is supposed to improve stability and longer life of the components (this is debatable though). Both include features like dual BIOS (as a backup), FireWire, IDE RAID, and Serial ATA RAID.
  DFI NFII Ultra LanParty: If you're looking for a fancy motherboard that will look great through your case window, look no further! Add a black light and you get UV reactive slots on the motherboard and UV reactive rounded cables. Aside from just looking cool, the performance and stability is great too! Just like the Gigabyte board, it's loaded with features. It even features RAID 1.5 (a new RAID format that combines mirroring and striping with just two drives [that's reliability and speed for those unfamiliar with RAID configurations] - jury's still out on how well this works, but it's just an extra option if you don't plan to use it). The only negative on this board is the price.
  Soltek NV400-L64: The best feature of this motherboard is its price. It's a single channel DDR motherboard instead of dual channel (which is generally better). However, in testing, this motherboard performed on par with the dual channel motherboards in most tests and was the best in many gaming benchmarks. If you're looking for an inexpensive gaming motherboard, this one's a great choice!
  Other good manufactureres of nForce2 Ultra motherboards include Asus, Chaintech, AOpen, and perhaps Abit (they're great for overclocking, but Abit has had reliability problems in the past).
  
• Intel Pentium IV Motherboards:
  The two best chipsets for Intel's Pentium IV are the 865PE and the 875P. Which is better? Neither, really. They both perform about the same despite Intel's assertion that the 875P is faster due to its "PAT" memory access. Many manufacturers of the 865PE motherboards have activated PAT in their motherboards, so there's really no difference between the two chipsets! So which should you get? You might as well get the 865PE and save some money! Here are my specific recommendations on these chipsets:
  
  Gigabyte GA-8PENXP: I think this board is currently the best overall choice when considering performance, features, and stability. Like the Gigabyte boards I listed for the AMD CPUs, this one has DPS technology, a "backup power" system, and other features that set it apart from the rest. This comes at a price preimum though, so if you want a cheaper board, consider one of the others below. It uses the 865PE chipset. Features abound, including gigabit LAN, IDE RAID, Serial ATA RAID, 6 DIMM slots, and 2 FireWire ports.
  Asus P4P800-E Deluxe: Asus has always been a great motherboard manufacturer, but lately I've started to use Gigabyte's boards more. Nevertheless, this is still a great motherboard, and cheaper than the Gigabyte too. It uses the 865PE chipset.
  Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 PRO-G: If you want a great, inexpensive board, this one is a good choice. It has most of the features you'll need along with a low price tag and good performance. It uses the 865PE chipset.