How to Buy a New Motherboard (and other tales of horror) Dec 29 '00    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The motherboard is one of the most important – and most often overlooked – components of modern PCs. To a novice user, motherboard specifications can be daunting. Do I need slot or socket? What are PCI slots and how many do I need? Are there any brands better than another? This will (hopefully) lead you on the right track in choosing your new motherboard. I’ll try to be as non-technical as possible, but there are some parts that really can’t be simplified all that easily. If you have trouble, let me know in the comments or e-mail me so I can clarify. Socket vs. Slot and other critical considerations For somewhat obvious reasons, it’s a good idea to have a motherboard that is compatible with your processor. Many CPU (processor) makers use different interfaces to connect to the motherboard. I’ll talk briefly about CPUs shortly. Another important consideration is the chipset. The chipset coordinates communication between the processor and the rest of the system. The chipset has a direct effect on speed, stability, and features, so choose carefully. I’ve included what I feel is the best motherboard for mid-range users in each category in terms of stability, expandability, and value. Here are the most popular: * Socket 370: Intel Celeron; Intel Pentium III FC-PGA; VIA Cyrix III This socket is the connector of choice for all new Pentium IIIs and Celerons. The Intel 810 chipset is used frequently by computer manufacturers, but it is a poor choice due to the lackluster built-in video. The Intel 815 also has built-in video, but it can be disabled in favor of more modern offerings. It is currently the state of the art in the Socket370 market, supporting pretty much all of the Pentium III and Celeron line. The Intel 820 has no integrated video; however it uses Rambus memory, discussed later, which is quite expensive. Unfortunately, Intel’s Pentium III cannot adequately take advantage of Rambus memory, so performance gains are pretty much nil. Avoid the 810 and 820, if possible. VIA’s Apollo Pro 133 series is another contender. During the time between the 820 and 815 release, the AP133 was a popular choice; however it has since been eclipsed by the 815. Motherboard recommendation: Asus CUSL2 (Intel 815 chipset) * Socket 462: AMD Duron; AMD Athlon (PGA) This is the one and only interface for AMD’s Duron and newer Athlons. If you’ve got a Duron or a socket Athlon, this is the form factor you have. The most common chipset available is the VIA KT133 chipset. Contrary to its name, it does not support newer 133/266MHz-bus Athlons. However, it is perfect for Duron and existing Athlon users, supporting most modern features. Four newcomers in the AMD chipset market add features and speed to the lineup. The AMD-760 and the ALI MAGiK chipsets support a new type of memory called DDR, also discussed later, which doubles the bandwidth of normal memory. However, both the motherboards and the memory have been slow to market, leaving room for VIA’s KT133A chipset to emerge, which supports the new 133/266MHz bus Athlons while retaining support for cheaper SDRAM. In fact, the KT133A is nearly as fast as DDR systems, so it’s a great buy. For value users, the KM133 chipset by VIA features some of the best built-in video available in a chipset at a low cost, so you don’t need to buy a video card. Unfortunately, the KM133 is not a good choice for gamers, since the video isn’t [I]that[/I] good. Motherboard recommendation: MSI K7T Pro2 (KT133); MSI K7T Turbo (KT133A) * Slot 1: Intel Pentium II, Intel Pentium III (Slot), Older Celerons This is the only interface for the Pentium II, and if your older Pentium III or Celeron is in a cartridge or circuit board form factor, this is the connector it uses. Socket 370 processors can be used in Slot 1 motherboards via the use of “Slocket” adapters, available from makers like Iwill. Slot 1 motherboards are becoming quite scarce nowadays, since Intel is phasing out Slot 1 processors. The 440BX was the mainstay of Intel’s Slot 1 line, even beyond when it entered obsolescence with Intel’s new Coppermine Pentium III processors. In fact, ABIT released a Socket 370 processor based on it. The 440BX is a stable and mature chipset, and if you do not have an ‘E’ series processor or one that is faster than 850MHz, it is a valuable contender. VIA’s Apollo Pro133A chipset is also a good choice for a Slot 1 machine as well, and ABIT even released a Slot 1 Intel 815 motherboard, too, which is an excellent choice. Motherboard recommendations: ASUS P3B-F (440BX); ASUS P3V4X (AP133A); ABIT SH6 (Intel 815). * Slot A: AMD Athlon (K7) If you have an older AMD Athlon in a cartridge format, this is the connector you have. Like Slot 1 processors, I’d steer away from Slot A Athlons if you’re buying a new processor. VIA’s KX133 and AMD’s 750 chipset are the only choices you have, and VIA’s is the most effective. Motherboard recommendation: ABIT KA7 (KX133) or Asus K7V * Socket 423: Intel Pentium 4 This is the socket used by Intel’s new Pentium 4 processor. Since I doubt you have one of these and are upgrading, I’ll stop you right now and say you won’t want one of these until the speeds get a little higher, around the 2GHz range. See the Pentium 4 opinions for more information. Motherboard recommendation: ASUS P4T If you’re buying a new processor to go with your motherboard, you’ll need to make an important decision: whether you want to go with an Intel or AMD system. Until recently, Intel was the de facto standard. AMD’s Athlon proved that there was more than one player in the processor market. If you’re building a new system, you owe it to yourself to give a good, hard look at the AMD platform. AMD chips are far less expensive at all market levels than their Intel counterparts and they are generally faster as well. If you’re building a value system, you’ll find that AMD’s Duron is a far better value. It’s faster and a heck of a lot cheaper. VIA’s upcoming KM133 chipset will have built-in graphics for you non-gamers out there as well. The high-end market is a toss-up. Each platform has strengths, but I personally prefer AMD. AMD’s chips top out at 1.2GHz (1200MHz), and Intel’s at 1GHz (1000MHz), and AMD’s 1.2GHz chip is cheaper than Intel’s 933MHz part. Intel motherboards are somewhat less expensive, however, but not by a whole lot. There is more support for the Intel platform, however, so you’ll find that an Intel-based system is much easier to set up than its AMD counterpart. The processor is more of a personal preference, but it will affect your motherboard decision. Memory Types Beyond processor and socket, memory type is another critical component of your motherboard buying decision. The current standard is SDRAM. It’s available in two flavors now, PC100 and PC133, which refer to its speed, 100 or 133MHz. It’s inexpensive and offers plenty of bandwidth for today’s processors. A PC133-capable motherboard is a perfect addition to any system. Two other memory types are coming into play, and they are Rambus (RDRAM) and DDR SDRAM (or just DDR). Rambus was introduced with the full support of Intel. It’s always been expensive, and it earned a bad reputation due to this and the fact that the match between it and the Pentium III isn’t a good one. It shines in the Pentium 4. Too bad that’s about all that shines in it. DDR is supported by AMD, and it offers twice the bandwidth of SDRAM, coming in in PC1600 and PC2100 flavors. Like Rambus, it doesn’t really shine all that much with the current crop of CPUs, managing a measly 10% performance increase on average. Expansion There are four main types of expansion slots. The amount of these may not affect you if you don’t have a lot of extra peripherals. * PCI slots. The more the merrier. These little beasts can take anything from sound cards to modems to DVD decoders to Firewire adapters to network cards to hard drive controllers…. You get the point. Regardless of if you think you’ll need them, they always come in handy. Don’t buy a motherboard with less than 5. * ISA slots: Rapidly becoming outdated, these slots, with their underpinnings in the early 80’s, still have a following with those who swear by their hardware modems or those that have that one last ISA device they can’t get rid of. One ISA slot is a nice touch, but it shouldn’t make or break your decision. * AMR/CNR slots: Designed primarily for computer manufacturers, these little brown slots can accommodate communications and multimedia adapters that rely on the processor for control. Generally steer away from these since they can hurt performance. * AGP slot: The de facto standard for video cards. Most, if not all, motherboards have no more than one. 810 motherboards don’t have any due to their integrated video. Video cards are pretty much their one and only use. AGP2x and AGP4x don’t make much of a performance difference, so don’t let it affect your buying decision. Size An often-overlooked aspect is the size of your motherboard. If you have a really, really tiny case you might be forced into a MicroATX motherboard with something like 2 PCI slots. Ugh. Make sure you have room in your case to work. Particularly large motherboards are the ASUS A7V and ABIT KT7. If you don’t plan on tweaking, this isn’t a concern, but you may even want to invest in a larger case if you have trouble moving around inside. Brands This question inevitably comes up: “Which brand should I buy?” For the utmost stability, ASUS is legendary. MSI boards are also rock-stable. I run an MSI board in my machine and I am duly impressed. If you really want to tweak, at the possible cost of stability, ABIT boards are great for you. Too bad they have a 12% return rate. If you don’t tweak at all, Gigabyte boards are also a good choice, especially for the more color-coordinated of computer enthusiasts, since they’re blue. An added bonus is a DualBIOS feature so if you screw up a firmware upgrade you don’t trash your motherboard. Conclusion My fingers are sore, so it’s best if I wrap things up. So much of building your computer is personal preference, so it’s hard to make recommendations. I realize that this opinion may have been a little too technical, and I’m going to try to tone it down a little in the future. If you have any questions, or have something you’d like to add, please leave a comment, and I’ll try and address it.

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