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Don’t Skimp on the Motherboard

By mukul on Nov 24, 2008 in BITS & BYTES

Casey's video cards

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Having a high-quality motherboard is essential for a reliable computer as it is this circuit board that will give your system longevity. The motherboard can be compared to the central nervous system of your body where the CPU (central processing unit) is the heart.

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All your hard drives — DVD/CD drives, your PCI cards and memory — run off the motherboard. It also tells your CPU how it should behave. All the calculations take place in the CPU on the basis of the instructions given to the PC. The CPU is connected to the motherboard.

Often, the importance of a good motherboard is overlooked. People inevitably pay for this omission when they try to upgrade their PC and find that there is no support for some component they want to update. Faster processors, more memory and 3D video cards get all the laurels.

Remember that simply updating the motherboard will offer a slight performance increase. It’s only worth doing so if you also plan to upgrade some or all of the components that hinder the performance of your system, such as the CPU, memory, graphics card, and hard drive.

Never, I repeat, never buy a cheap motherboard. It will come back to haunt you when you want to upgrade your PC. Upgrading to a faster CPU is a good reason for buying a new motherboard. Even if your old board has the chip socket your new CPU requires, an older board may not work with the newest chips owing to differences in voltage, BIOS support, and chipset features.

Intel standardised on the LGA775 socket three years ago. So virtually all modern motherboards for Intel desktop CPUs use that socket. On the AMD front, the new AM2+ board is what I suggest you go for.

Choosing a motherboard with the right chipset is the biggest decision to be taken. Wonder what chipsets are? Simply put, chipset is a term used to describe the way an integrated circuit is built. The chipset of a graphic card is different from that of the CPU.

The chipset determines memory speeds, expansion-slot capabilities and speed of the bus (a collection of wires through which data are transmitted from one part of a PC to another). Intel, AMD, and nVidia are among the best chipset manufacturers. The easiest way to determine the features of a chipset is to look at the motherboard’s feature list: how many graphics-card slots are offered, whether Serial ATA (SATA) drives are supported, how many networking ports are available, and so on. If you want to use the newest technologies, such as processors with a fast front-side bus (FSB) or multiple graphics cards, you’ll need a board with a chipset that supports them. The latest chipset revisions, such as Intel’s G, P, and X series; nVidia’s 630i and 750/780i; and AMD’s 7-series, are the best. Choosing motherboards based on these newer chipsets will give you the latest features and spare you the trouble of having to replace your motherboard in three years when you’re ready to upgrade again.

Throw out your ancient DDR RAM from your previous PC. High-end Intel-chipset boards are available in both DDR2 and DDR3 memory-slot varieties. DDR2 memory is cheaper than DDR3, but DDR3 gives you fantastic speeds and the potential for future upgrades.

Currently, Intel-based boards are the only ones that can make use of DDR3 memory, though AMD plans to introduce support for the new memory in 2009.

Video Card
Make sure your motherboard has at least one PCI Express x 16 slot for your graphics card. Forget about motherboards that have PCI slots because they are a standard that is fading fast. If you are planning to build a home theatre system around your PC, however, you will need at least 3 PCI slots: two for your TV tuner card and one for the sound card.

The other things to look for in a motherboard are the number of USB slots, Ethernet ports and see if there are VGA and DVI video outputs included. DVI or Digital Video Interface is used to give you high quality video display when connected to a LCD display or a digital projector. If you are into movie editing you might need Firewire ports to transfer shots from your camcorder. These ports allow you to transfer movies very fast.

Setup Tips
When you are attaching the tiny headers for power switches, drive LEDs and so on, check the manual carefully to ensure you’re placing them properly. The black wire is typically the negative (-) wire. A reversed LED won’t light up properly, and a misplaced power-switch connector can prevent your system from turning off.

When you first boot up your system, access the BIOS and check the hardware monitor. If your processor temperature isn’t well under 50 degrees Celsius, make sure that all the contacts are secure.

While in the BIOS, disable any peripherals you won’t be using (such as serial ports) and ensure that the hard drive boot order and CPU speeds are set properly.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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