What type of motherboard should i buy

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. Motherboards also offer standard PCI slots and smaller PCI express slots for other cards, like sound cards, Wi-Fi adaptors and other connectivity expansions.

A more common feature which is usual included on the majority of motherboards is on-board audio. However this is usually only suitable for mid-range speakers. Nevertheless they will reduce the need for expansion cards. Furthermore, you might need to consider peripheral connections, for example a USB 3.

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They also let you share pages with social media sites. 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? Let us know what you think in the Tom's Hardware Forums. Matt Safford. Topics Buyer's Guides. See all comments 2. It use be I'd count all the features a motherboard has when I'd shop for a motherboard. A motherboard is a printed circuit board PCB that creates a kind of backbone allowing a variety of components to communicate, and that provides different connectors for components such as the central processing unit CPU , graphics processing unit GPU , memory, and storage.

Both companies are constantly upgrading their products, and so this information can become stale very quickly. Basically, a processor socket is the mechanism through which a CPU is firmly attached to a motherboard. A chipset is the motherboard software and hardware that combines to allow all the various components to communicate.

As you do your research and compare motherboards, you will want to make sure that everything you want to accomplish is supported. 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. The more complex your new PC, the more you will need to dig into your motherboard choice. Nowhere is this more true than regarding the kinds of connections that are present on a motherboard as compared to the various components that you will need to add.

The following are some of the common connections on modern motherboards. The important thing is to make sure that your choice of motherboard has all the connections that you need.