Motherboard basics

Megazord552 · June 1, 2015

Hello!

I'm looking to get into building, but I just wanted to clear things about motherboards.

1) What components come with a motherboard out of the box? (like, CPU's, sound cards, RAM, network cards etc.) What are permanent fixtures on the board (components that cannot be swapped out)

2) Are there compatibility issues between motherboards and components I should be wary about? (components of different generations, minimum requirements/maximum capacities)?

3) Do motherboards/CPU's have fans/heatsinks attached (like GPU's) or will that be covered by the case or should that be tackled separately?

4) Difference between SDRAM and VRAM?

Thanks for the help. Some of these questions might be really trivial. I'm new to this and answers really help out.

Thanks in advance!.

C0LL0SS0S · June 1, 2015

Mostly you get some SATA cables in your MoBo box, if the board supports it also SLI bridges
YOu need to look for the correct socket, for the haswell refresh you can use Z/H97 boards.

If you buy a boxed intel CPU, it will come with a stock cooler, as long as the socket is 1150, not the extrem one, the Motherboard also has heatspreaders, but they are not that big or acitve cooled.

SDRAM is for laptops mostly, for a ATX motherboard you need DDR3 RAM

MrChavelo · June 1, 2015

Hello!

I'm looking to get into building, but I just wanted to clear things about motherboards.

1) What components come with a motherboard out of the box? (like, CPU's, sound cards, RAM, network cards etc.) What are permanent fixtures on the board (components that cannot be swapped out)

2) Are there compatibility issues between motherboards and components I should be wary about? (components of different generations, minimum requirements/maximum capacities)?

3) Do motherboards/CPU's have fans/heatsinks attached (like GPU's) or will that be covered by the case or should that be tackled separately?

4) Difference between SDRAM and VRAM?

Thanks for the help. Some of these questions might be really trivial. I'm new to this and answers really help out.

Thanks in advance!.

1. Usually it is only the motherboard itself, with a manual, SATA cables, and an SLI bridge if the mobo supports SLI. You can swap out anything, really

2. You have to make sure that the motherboard uses the same socket as your CPU, and what kind of RAM it supports (DDR2/DDR3/DDR4). Also, if you want to CrossFire or SLI two or more cards you should make sure that the motherboard supports that. Furthermore you have to make sure that the motherboard has all the features you need.

3. You have to install the stock cooler/a aftermarket cooler yourself

4. SDRAM = RAM for laptops and VRAM=the RAM of a GPU