Crash Course In MotherBoards Please?

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Heroesneverquit

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So I have become very interested in computer building and the such. So I am just trying to gain more knowledge on Motherboards. What I mean by that is what makes one motherboard better then another. Im just not sure what to be looking at...

For processersand gpus and pretty much everything else I feel its pretty straight forward. Motherboards though just astound me. I have no idea what im looking at. I mean I understand amount of RAM Slots, PCI slots, USB port wiring, and general stuff. What I am really referring to though is like the chip set and such. Like what makes one chip set better over another. I mean there is not like a clock speed or procceses per minute for me to look up.

I do understand buying a better motherboard like with more RAM/PCI slots and such but I just dont know anything about the chip sets. any help would be greatly appreciated. I want general info so feel free to pick 2 similar motherboards and compare them for me if that helps you.
 
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Outlander_04

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The chipsets add features and provide data pathways to various other devices

Any two motherboards with say a Z87 chipset perform [ near enough] identically at stock speed . Top end boards usually have better heat sinks , added features . Often ones that no one uses , or gets the benefit from . But other times the features are desirable . Z87 is capable of SLI or crossfire , but the motherboard it is installed in does not have to be set up for that .

The chipsets are all associated with a particular socket for the processor . Z87, H87 are all on socket 1150 intel boards . AMD AM3+ boards are intended to have 970, 990X and 990FX
 
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Alec Mowat

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There 3 basic standards of size.
ATX
Micro-ATX
Mini-ATX

There's a few others, but you won't see them often, like extended ATX

ATX is generally larger and better overall.
Each motherboard has a different slot and chipset, which supports different processors. Mine is a 990FX with an AM3+ slot, for AM3+ chips (AMD FX-8350)

The DIMM slots are for RAM. Most boards are DDR3. Faster RAM uses a higher frequency, normally 1066,1333,1600,1866,2133 are common speeds.
The higher the frequency, the faster the RAM that motherboard will support.

For videocards, PCI-e x16 slots hold video cards. Not all motherboards have more than one. Some Motherboards that support SLI can only run in PCI-e 8x. For Tripple SLI/CrossFire, you will most likely require a standard ATX board.
PCIe is the name of most every slot on motherboards these days. There are smaller slots that won't hold a videocard, but will hold a network card. Those small ends on the network card still fit in the long PCIex16 slots though.

SATA is the Harddrive connector.
SATA6 is the current generation, and it is quicker than SATA3.
RAID controller is a chip that allows multiple harddrives to be used in sync. This means you can read/write to 2, 3 or 4 disks are once, which in theory, doubles the speed.

USB are used for connecting most things, like mice, keyboards, external harddrives, controllers.
USB2.1 is the norm
USB3 is much faster, and it's becoming more common now.
 
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Heroesneverquit

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So the chipset itself would not really matter at stock speeds across every board with the same chipset. The features of the board with said chipset are the reason to buy one over another.

So when talking about cpus the chipset itself matters the most correct? If so for instance what makes this mother board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3KX16D3509&clickid=3z92VKSEc21t1lmx9YUuGRqRUkT3GZ1dsX8-TA0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na

Worth 60 dollars more then this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138386&clickid=3z92VKSEc21t1lmx9YUuGRqRUkT3GZ1dsX8-TA0&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na

Also what else would you put in a PCI slot other then a video card/sound card? As i see one of them has 2 PCI slots but does not support crossfire/sli...
 
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Alec Mowat

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Older chip sets, in some cases, support newer processors.

You can run a bios update on a 970FX Motherboard and use an FX-8350. I recommend using the latest chip set. It can cause performance issues, you may not get 100% of the chips performance on older hardware.

Believe it or not, the BIOSTAR H61MLB LGA 1155 is not as good as the other board.

The BIOSTAR H61MLB LGA 1155 only supports 1333 DDR3, where as the BIOSTAR H61MGV3 LGA 1155 supports 1600.

The H61MLB has PCI-e 2.0, the MGV has PCI-e 3.0

They both only support SATA3, so you will not be able to take advantage of SATA6 drive speeds.

Neither have USB3, they only support USB2

Both are bad choices IMHO. The first is overpriced.
 
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Alec Mowat

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The first board, the more expensive one, has a few extra connections, like printer ports and DVI.

However, the second board supports 10/100/1000 Gigabit ethernet, and the first one is only 10/100

The first motherboard is a complete rip off. There is no logical reason for the price different except supply/demand. The 90$ motherboard was most likely good for it's time, and the second board is probably newer and cheaper.
 
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Alec Mowat

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Let's use a better example
ASUS A88X-PRO FM2+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132056


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128659
GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XM-D3H FM2+

They are both A88 chipsets, the FM2+ board is specific for AMD APU's, the A series.

They both support up to 2133ghz DDR3 RAM. They both have 4 DIMM slots and support up to 64GB of RAM.
However; the ASUS Board can overclock the RAM up to 2400, which is good for an APU.

The Asus board has 2 PCIe 3.0 for Videocards and 1 PCIe 2.0, which can also run a videocard.
It supports a single card at x16,or two cards only at x8 and three at x4 speeds. I don't see any mention of SLI or Crossfire support, but that is normally what you would use all three slots for.

The GIGABIT board is only 1 PCIe 3.0 and 1 2.0.

The Asus has 6 SATA6 ports, the GIGABIT has 8. Both support RAID.

Both have onboard audio and gigabit ethernet.

The ASUS supports eSATA for plugging a powered drive into the board externally, and has 4 USB3, as opposed to only 2 on the GIGABIT.
The ASUS board also has 8 internal USB2 and 2 USB3 compared to 1USB3 on the Gigatbit and only 2 USB2 internally.


The ASUS also comes with a bunch of extra features, mostly protection in case an overclock goes bad and monitoring software.


Personally, I'd take the Asus in this comparison.
 
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mamasan2000

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It boils down to what features do you need and how much are you willing to pay?
I could buy a 200 dollar mobo but I would probably not use even half the features. I have a soundcard, a NIC, a GPU. I need none of those on a mobo. But what I would need is 2 old PCI slots. I also wouldn't recommend for instance the 970 chipset for FX-processors. Especially not if you plan to overclock, just not built to withstand it. And you can't overclock much.

In terms of USB slots, you could always buy a powered USB-hub for 30 dollars if you run out of USB slots. I don't know how it is on all mobos but on my old mobo I could not use more than 2-3 devices before I ran out of USB-power. Mobo just didn't deliver enough power. I needed 6 ports at least. So I bought a powered (connects to AC) 10-port USB-hub.

Also, onboard sound is usually crap. At least it has always been on my mobos, this new one is no exception, a Gigabyte ga-970a-ds3p. Yes, 970-chipset and it sucks. But it was cheap and it supports USB3, SATA3. 750Mb/s or 6Gbps, I don't see that being a bottleneck in the near future when it comes to HDDs or SSDs for that matter. When it is, I have probably already upgraded anyway.

And onboard means it uses CPU-time. I don't like that. I want dedicated hardware for everything.
 
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Alec Mowat

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The latest chipset is usually the best. You don't want an old chipset.

Just find out what processor you want, and search online. For the new Haswell Intels (i7 4770K), use the Z87.
For AMD FX chips, use 990FX.

The rest is just how many USB ports, how many SATA ports, does it have RAID...
The asus board in the above example has a lot of extra features, like a button to reset the BIOS, that you ~probably~ won't need to use if you're not overclocking.
However; I find Asus boards are built well and the features do come in handy when you need them.
 
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Alec Mowat

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Yah, but it was slow and weak.
 
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