Tech:Building your own PC/Motherboards

TSR Wiki > Life > Computing and Technology > Building your own PC > Motherboards

I just wrote this guide in the last 2 hours, regarding the motherboard. It doesn't really contain recommendations, but lets the reader know what to look for when making a purchase.

Introduction

This guide aims to provide you with the basic details needed for buying the right motherboard. It is written to cater for someone with no previous knowledge of system building. I will aim to cover the features which I believe are most important, and this guide is by no means comprehensive. Date written: Feb 2009.

What is a Motherboard?

The Motherboard is a rectangular circuit board found inside your case, through which every component and peripheral is connected to either directly or indirectly. Its specifications indicate what type of processor can be used, the maximum amount of RAM that can be fitted, number of USB ports, hard drives, sound features and so on.

Form-Factors

The form-factor of the motherboard determines its layout and physical size, and is useful to know in order to buy compatible products, such as which case to hold it, and a suitable PSU to provide power to it.

Dozens of form-factors have been developed over the years to accommodate different markets, but the main ones used today for a home PC are ATX for desktop and tower cases, and Micro-ATX for smaller cases. E-ATX (extended ATX) is a larger version of the ATX form factor, which may have more interfaces for people with higher requirements. It will usually require an E-ATX case and a power supply with a 24 pin connector (20+4). Some companies have chosen to adopt the smaller BTX form-factor, to save space and improve airflow, however this makes future upgrades very difficult. Motherboard form-factors are designed to industry standards, so one motherboard can easily be replaced with a different one provided they are of the same type. Note that a Micro-ATX motherboard can be used in an ATX case, but you will not manage to fit an ATX board in a Micro-ATX case.

Usually full ATX motherboards have a higher variety of features, and more capacity for upgrades, but this comes at a higher price compared with the Micro-ATX.

What is a FSB?

Each motherboard has something called an FSB (Front Side Bus) which connects the CPU, RAM, and a few other components. The speed of the FSB is an important consideration when purchasing a new board. Ensure that the motherboard’s FSB speed is as high as, or higher than, the CPU and RAM FSB speed for optimum performance.

• For new Core i7 and most AMD CPU's the term FSB is a misnomer as actually the memory controller is integrated onto the CPU itself.

CPU Sockets

Each motherboard has a socket which dictates what CPU can be fitted. As of today, Intel uses the LGA775 socket for its Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Core 2 Quad, and some Celeron processors, and the LGA1366 socket for the new Core i7 processors.

The AM2 is a socket used to fit AMD Phenom, single core Athlon, and most Athlon 64 X2 (dual core) processors. The AM2+ socket is used on the newer Phenom II processors, and a few other high end AMD processors. Although the AM2+ is a successor to the original AM2 socket, the two are mutually compatible.

Older Athlon processors may have used either the 939 or A socket. Older Intel Pentium and Celeron processors worked with the 478 socket. When choosing to upgrade or buy a new processor, you must check the specifications and make sure you have, or intend to purchase, a compatible motherboard.

DIMM Sockets(RAM)

Modern motherboards will accept either DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. DDR2 has been available since mid 2003, and is now the most popular RAM installed in home PCs. Recently though, DDR3 has made its debut, and while it allows higher bandwidth, the cost is many times more expensive. The two are not compatible with each other, so a DDR2 motherboard will only accept DDR2 RAM, and a DDR3 motherboard only runs off DDR3 RAM.

Most Micro-ATX Motherboards have the space to fit 2 DIMM slots, whereas most ATX boards can house 4 DIMM slots. You could potentially double your RAM with an ATX motherboard! For hardcore enthusiasts, or people with money to blow, DDR3 boards running the Intel Core i7 CPU also have the capacity to fit 6 DIMM slots, to run in triple channel.

PCI-E Slot

For the pictures to appear on your monitor, you need to connect your graphics card to the motherboard, using the PCI-E (Express) slot. Unless of course, the motherboard has integrated graphics (a graphics chip is built in to the motherboard). For anyone who plays games, or does any kind of video editing, using a separate graphics card is a must. A basic PC for internet, and writing word documents could get away with using integrated graphics. If you are a heavy gamer, or high detail is a priority, you may want to install 2 graphics cards together for smooth running. In this case you will need a motherboard which accommodates 2 PCI-E slots.

PCI Slots

Optional system components, such as USB interfaces, sound cards, and modems are connected through the PCI slots (coloured white). But in many cases this is not necessary, as with a good motherboard it will have decent onboard sound, and a number of USB slots and network adaptor which you can use perfectly well.

IDE/SATA

Hard drives, floppy drives, and optical drives are connected through either IDE or SATA ports. IDE is the old and cluttered interface. It is slow and uses a big wire/cable. SATA is the newer interface, which is faster and neater, and I recommend using SATA wherever possible.

Realistically you will want a motherboard with at least 2 SATA ports, but 4 is preferable and 6 is even better if you need a lot of hard drives.

This is the IDE interface:

This is the SATA interface (blue):

Other Features

Most, if not all, motherboards come with integrated sound ports, a built in LAN controller, ports for the keyboard and mouse and a number of USB slots.

As with any product, before making a purchase, I would highly recommend reading online reviews, making comparisons between products, or ask on the forums to make sure you are making a good decision.