What advice would you give for picking the right motherboard?

[MartinTheHoff]

Ok so I'm making a youtube video on general points to follow so you pick a good motherboard. I'm not posting this to advertise my channel, just to ask you guys if you think my video would be good advice for someone new looking to pick the right motherboard. Feel free to criticize this script and to tell me if I should add something.

Script:

The first and most important part of picking your motherboard is making sure it is compatible with you CPU. Now this can be pretty simple but just make sure you double check because sometimes it can be a little tricky. For example a LGA 2011-3 motherboard will not work with a LGA 2011 CPU. So just double check and make sure your CPU will work with the CPU socket on your motherboard.

After that you will want to pick the size of your motherboard. This really only matters if you want to make a small sized PC. For most people who are using full sized or mid sized PC cases you will be able to use most sized motherboards. Similarly just check to make sure your PC case can fit your motherboard. For example if you have a ATX motherboard make sure your case says it supports ATX motherboards.

So now you know that your motherboard will work with your CPU and you know if you need a specific sized motherboard but there are still a lot of options. The last part comes down to how much you are willing to pay.

High cost motherboards will offer more features such as thunderbolt ports or USB type C ports. If you want to stay on a budget that’s fine, cheaper motherboards usually have the basics that you need such as audio ports, USB 3.0, and ethernet. However if you have the money and you are willing to spend more on a motherboard you might find that having more ports is nice. Also higher end motherboards will allow you to overclock your CPU better and be more reliable. So in conclusion if you are on a budget getting a cheap motherboard will be fine, but more expensive motherboards will give you nice features such as more advanced ports, better overclocking, better power usage, better reliability, and even crazier features such as RGB lighting.

Ok thanks to everyone who commented! I will now shoot and edit this.

Edited June 28, 2016 by MartinTheHoff

[Philcat101]

Find a price range that is suitable for you, and only get the features you need if your are low on a budget. Get a higher end one if you have more money and you wish to do more

[DarkBlade2117]

You can get a little more advance.

Mention power phase on different mobos and how it effects the ability to overclock, some people want bluetooth or wifi. Crossfire/SLI is another thing along with networking.

[Mira Yurizaki]

The biggest one: find what features you want and will use. Don't get a $400 board because it has some things you thought sounded nice and never end up using them.

[Guest]

What about future proofing... Mobo's can be bought to be future proof. Not as good as a case, but it still posible. Especially if you go for the red team. (no new sockets with every single new CPU, and even backwards compability)

[TriFlix Films]

Get one with a lot of ports, I use the MSI SLI Krait... so many usb 3.1 and 3.0 ports... given its an X99 an costs $230.

Find one in your price range with good ports.

[MartinTheHoff]

25 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

What about future proofing... Mobo's can be bought to be future proof. Not as good as a case, but it still posible. Especially if you go for the red team. (no new sockets with every single new CPU, and even backwards compability)

Ok I see what you mean but this is sort of done for you. Like if you get a skylake i3 it can be upgraded to a skylake i7 and you don't have to put any extra consideration into it when you buy the motherboard.

[Mira Yurizaki]

34 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

What about future proofing... Mobo's can be bought to be future proof. Not as good as a case, but it still posible. Especially if you go for the red team. (no new sockets with every single new CPU, and even backwards compability)

AMD hasn't supported a socket for more than two generations and are just as guilty as Intel of what they accuse Intel of doing, if not worse in some cases.

[Guest]

There are more things to consider. Will you be running 1 GPU for 2 years, and get a totaly new system, or will you upgrade your system in 2 years, with a second GPU... Does your mobo have enough slots? Is it a high-end mobo, which will get bios updates for several years, or is the mobo range already dated... How many SATA ports does your mobo have?

 

I try to consider future proofing some parts. So when I bought my mobo, it was fairly deluxe, as the name already tells you. Raid support, lots of sata ports, ability to connect external sata stuff (I think it was...) and many other connection options. (also lots of USB ports)

 

My motherboard is more then 7-8 years old. When I bought it, I did not intend to use that many SATA ports, and I still had some IDE HDD's in use. I liked the fact that it had many PCI slots to, and wel... It had a lot of USB ports.

 

I have had some upgrades, and some downgrades. I removed all of the IDE drives, and have had up to 5 SATA ports in use. I didn't intend to use that many when I bought the mobo, but I wanted to future proof, so that was a +++ thought in hindsight. I fryed the onboard sound card, because I dropped a screw on it while the PC was on. So I needed more USB connections, to connect a USB soundcard. (not a DAC as far as I understand things, it happened a long time ago) After that USB soundcard died, I installed a Creative soundblaster 5.1 Live PCI card, so moar PCI slots = ++. Have had Blue Tooth installed, had it removed again. Have had an PCI wireless NIC installed, have had it removed. USB TV stick, several web cams installed. Currently half of my USB ports are broken, due to wear/tear and age, but I still have enough. And oh, my mobo also supports PCI-Express, 16x and also SLI. Those options were brand new. Never got enough money to put all that to use, but still... Something to consider when future proofing your mobo.

 

Yes, my entire pc has to be replaced soon. But this is an example of (extreme?) future proof buying your motherboard.

[Guest]

@M.Yurizaki Never tested it, but it seems that I could put an AM3 CPU in my AM2+ mobo... Don't know about any stories where Intel has this option... But I am not going into a fanboy war. Just saying it is something to consider, and yes, I know those Zen CPU's are on a new AM4 socket to.

[Mira Yurizaki]

7 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

@M.Yurizaki Never tested it, but it seems that I could put an AM3 CPU in my AM2+ mobo... Don't know about any stories where Intel has this option... But I am not going into a fanboy war. Just saying it is something to consider, and yes, I know those Zen CPU's are on a new AM4 socket to.

I wanted to point out though can't really "futureproof" anything. The only time you can do that is if you buy the brand new socket the moment it comes out. Then you'll get two generations of processors, maybe three if you're lucky (and neither company has done three generations on one socket in over a decade)

 

I have a similar view on multi GPU setups. You get next gen performance with current gen features. They're only useful the moment the cards come out because the further out you go, the closer you get to the next generation that will perform 80% as good but cost 50% less.

 

Even if the processor you get now is forwards compatible with the new board, I figure what's the point? You're stuck with an obsolete board that you'll probably have a hard time getting rid of. If you have to touch the motherboard, you may as well get a new system.

 

(Sorry, just rambling on, but that's how I view things :3 )