Computer Motherboard

Selecting a Motherboard

When you build your own computer, choosing the motherboard is probably the most crucial decision you'll have to make. Almost every component you use for your computer hinges upon the motherboard that you choose. The first thing you need to consider is what the intended use will be for your new computer. Will it be for basics like e-mail, internet surfing, word processing, etc., will it be for more extreme use, like heavy duty game play or CAD drawing, or will it be used for something in between. Some of the different options on motherboards are discussed below.

Processor

One of the first things you'll need to decide on is the brand of processor you'll use. Which processor you use will determine the type of motherboard since the processors are not interchangeable between motherboards. There are only two processor brands that you'll use for building your own computer: AMD and Intel. There are many arguments on both sides of the fence as to which one is better. Personally, I prefer Intel processors, but that just comes from many years of building computers. Way back in the ancient times (in the early 90's), Intel always used more L2 cache (more on that on my processor page) which made an Intel processor faster than an AMD processor of the same type and speed. This doesn't mean that this is still true today; it's not. There's no doubt in my mind that AMD is just as good as Intel, but it's just my preference to use Intel processors when I build a computer.

You'll find a more in depth discussion about processors here.

On Board Devices

Motherboards usually come with several on-board devices. These can include: video, sound (up to 7.1 surround), network, and more. If you're building a budget computer, you'll probably find plenty of motherboards with everything you need built right into them. Even if the board you like has built-in devices, it doesn't mean that you can't use other expansion cards instead of the built-in device.

Drive Connections

Motherboards will come with various types of internal drive connectors. These include: PATA, PATA RAID, SATA, SATA II, SATA RAID, and SCSI. Whichever type is included on your motherboard will determine the type of hard drive to use. I highly recommend using SATA II type drives.

PATA (Parallel ATA - originally called just ATA) is synonymous with IDE and ATAPI interface types. It has a 40 pin interface which can connect to a hard drive, tape drive, high-capacity floppy (like a Zip or Jazz drive), CD drive, or DVD drive. These interface types have been common since the early to mid 1990's. Most motherboards include at least one, if not two of these interfaces to support internal drives. The maximum transfer rate for a PATA interface is 66 megabytes (1,024 bytes) per second.
PATA RAID is still available on some motherboards, but is losing ground in popularity to SATA RAID interfaces. There is a deeper discussion on RAID on my hard drive page.
SATA (Serial ATA) is a newer type interface that started gaining in popularity since it introduction around 2002. The biggest advantages of SATA over PATA are faster data transfer rates, hot swapping devices (unplugging and plugging in devices without powering the system down), and thinner cables that help improve air flow within the computer's case, and significantly more reliable operation and data integrity. SATA interfaces have a data transfer rate of 1.5 gigabytes per second.
SATA II is the newest drive interface available on today's motherboards. It is basically the same as the SATA interface except that it boasts transfer rates of up to 3 gigabytes per second.
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is not very common on motherboards other than for servers. The SCSI interface has been around for many years, but the cost of hard drives (versus the cost of IDE or SATA) make it more undesirable for PC use.

Slot Types

There are several different types of expansion slots on any motherboard. They include: AGP, PCI, and PCI-E x1.

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) was the preferred slot type for video cards beginning in about 1997. As of 2004, AGP started being phased out in favor of PCI-E slots. If you're building your computer by trying to use parts from an older computer, you may need to select a motherboard with an AGP slot (or just use the on-board video). As time goes on, motherboards with AGP slots will be phased out.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) slots, although still very prominent on today's motherboards, are slowly being phased out by the PCI-E standard. Just about any type of expansion card you can think of (including video cards) is available for a PCI slot.
PCI-E (PCI Express) was introduced in 2004 by Intel and was designed to provide a faster interface. The PCI-E (or PCIe) is a much faster type interface than the previous AGP or PCI busses. Rather than using a shared bus for communications, PCI-E uses individual bi-directional, point to point "lanes" to transfer data. All PCI-E slots carry either one, two, four, eight, sixteen or thirty-two lanes of data between the motherboard and the card. These different lane configurations are expresses as PCI-E xlane count, as in PCI-E x8 or PCI-E x16. Smaller "lane" width cards can be used in larger width slots (i.e. you can use a x8 card in a x16 slot), but not the other way around.

Memory Type and Slots

There are basically four different types of memory slots that you'll encounter on today's motherboards: DDR, DDR2, and DDR3. Whatever type of memory slots come on your motherboard will determine the type of memory that you'll need to purchase. For a deeper discussion on the different types, see my page on memory.