Motherboard Buying Secrets

1. Choose your Chipset

As I say in my Chipset section:

So by choosing the chipset, you are choosing the type of motherboard you get.  The things you should remember about pure chipset shopping is that not all motherboards based on the same chipset are identical – sort of like how many laser printers and copiers might use the same "engine" to produce output.

2. Choose your shape and size

There are many sizes available, but you will most likely want a motherboard based on one of the most popular industry specifications.  The Baby-AT and ATX specs rule, while there are some NLX, LPX, and other sizes available for people interested in smaller boards and cases.  So you want me to recommend a size?  Okay, get an ATX.  They are much easier to install and the connectors are built-in.  But if you want an AT (the Baby-AT is a subset of the AT size), you won't be alone.  It's been around since 286 days, so >80% of all motherboards and cases in existence can use this size.

Do you want features like soft-power and ACPI?  Then ATX is probably better for you.  Just know that that old 486 (AT) case won't work.  You must request an ATX case and power supply to be able to use an ATX motherboard.

Which brings up the question, "Billy, what size of case do I already have?" Well, here's how I tell.  If the slots for expansion cards are parallel to the motherboard, then you have a "passive backplane" designed case and motherboard.  This is often true of GW2k, IBM, Dell, Compaq, Packard Bell, and many other OEM's who make up their own cases and boards for "slimline" systems.  These systems may be great for buying, but they're a pain to upgrade.  My suggestion: get a new case before you upgrade.  Not even the power supply is safe from the meddling of OEM's.

If the slots are perpendicular to the motherboard and there are 7 to 8 of them, chances are good that you have an AT case and motherboard and power supply.  Great.  I would re-use it if there's enough room.  If you have a fairly new Pentium, Pentium Pro, or Pentium II system, you may even have an ATX case and/or motherboard.

ATX cases can be recognized with their power supply, which has a single 20-pin rectangular piece of plastic with differently shaped (square, round) connectors to connect to the motherboard.  Beware that some AT motherboards have this connector, too.  To further check, you'll usually see room for only seven slots in the back, plus one huge rectangular cutout (about 6" by 2") for things like the keyboard, printer, COM ports, etc.  AT cases, on the other hand, usually have many separate cutouts for each connector, plus there will always be room for eight slots.  Most ATX cases are tower designs and have just seven slots.  One more ATX identifier: the ATX power supply fan usually blows across the motherboard toward the slots instead of blowing air out the back of the case.

3. Focus on Options

Now you can start narrowing down what you like and don't like to be included on the motherboard.  Many people unfamiliar with the motherboard game will initially look for an "all-in-one" solution.  I hope that you'll see that this idea isn't well-suited for motherboards that eventually will be replaced.

When I first looked for a Pentium-style motherboard in the summer of 1996, I wanted one that had video, sound, and SCSI built-in.  After finding such a small selection, I realized that I was unnecessarily narrowing my choices to motherboard manufacturers that were less well-known.  I instead decided to go more mainstream with my motherboard and buy components separately that could be re-used on a different system.  And now that I have a half-dozen boards either here or on their way, I'm glad my SCSI card can be swapped at will.

But yes, you can get built-in things with your motherboards.  Just realize that these all-in-ones are supposed to sell well with clone shops ("system integrators" or VAR's as they like to be called), not with people building their own system.  For you and I, we would just as well install the sound card, video card, and SCSI card and have all of the fun, plus get the benefit of selecting the components we want plus be able to reuse them in another PC.

4. CPU or did you say two?

Choose your CPU(s) and decide what speed you may want now and in the future.  It's important to be able to upgrade someday.  Getting the latest, greatest, fastest system has the drawback that your computer may not ever get any faster.  Try to find out what clock speeds the motherboards support.

Also, there's many pages that could be written about SMP, or symmetric multi-processing.  I bought a dual-P5 motherboard and used it with two P120's for quite some time.  It's a great way to upgrade a PC.  Just remember all you Win95 users that an OS upgrade is part of your upgrade to a second CPU.  Many people start with one CPU and get the second one later.  Just understand that you'll want to try and match the CPU's, since some older Pentiums had their SMP code disabled and ran at a higher voltage.  (This is just one paragraph!  If you have serious questions about SMP, I would turn to the Usenet or to your favorite search engine – Yahoo! might help, also.)

The nice thing about dual-processor Intel systems is that Microsoft NT Workstation 4.0 natively supports two CPU's.  You need the Server edition for four, and the Enterprise edition for eight CPU's.  Many other companies have multi-processing kernels for Intel microprocessors, including Sun, FreeBSD, Linux, SCO, and HP.

For those of considering a SMP system, you should know that most applications will not be any faster than a single-CPU system.  Sure, if you run AutoCAD or

Note: there is not a single motherboard that supports more than one non-Intel CPU, e.g. IBM, Cyrix, AMD.  Please see the appropriate CPU manufacturer for more details.

5. The real search begins

To narrow down to a specific brand and board, you'll really have to start your search.  There are nearly a hundred manufacturers listed on my pages.  It would take a few days to see each and every board design.  So you may want to start at the top and work down.  Look first at the major manufacturers.  No doubt you will thank me later.  Half of these manufacturers have Newsgroups for you to stay current, plus all of them have good websites.  Many provide some limited end-user support if you're nice.

But by all means don't stop at the ones I put in my Top Ten.  There are a good many other manufacturers that I would buy from under certain circumstances.  Each one has their forté, although it could be said that 75% of the ones out there have price as their major selling point.  Some specialize in embedded SCSI, high clock speeds, non-Intel chipsets, jumperless designs, Cyrix compatibility, quad CPU systems, long warranties, etc.

Use my Manufacturers Listings to find any special features you desire, whether it's embedded video or Pentium II (slot 1) designs.  While you're searching, remember that it takes a day or two to usually swap out a motherboard if it ever dies.  IMHO, the extra $50 you pay for a quality motherboard won't be missed!

6. Did someone say speed?

Yes, this is certainly a factor that deserves our attention.  The motherboard is the key to speed, since all of your data goes through the motherboard's memory, buses, chipset, hard disk controller, etc.  The problem is that it's not as easy to benchmark a motherboard because of the time involved in setting up a computer system.  It may take the better part of a weekend if I were to swap out the motherboard on my mammoth system with all of the components (read: junk) I have installed.

I have begun to review some motherboards.  I will attempt to do some speed testing on the boards that I review, however keep in mind that the quality is much more important.

So when you're looking for speed, pay attention to the components besides the motherboards that can make or break a speed daemon: the hard disk, the controller, the OS, the amount and type of memory, cache size, CPU type, video card, and many other things.

Either way, there are people who love to overclock and to talk about how fast a board is.  Sure, I do too, but it's not my life.  I would not overclock my boss' computer, so why should I even mention it?  It's just not something I would do in a business environment.  It's fun to "get away with it" at home, but it's another thing to recommend it to people who might calculate my credit card balance or build a bridge.  I am excited about reviewing motherboards.  My purpose is to demonstrate how important quality is in a market that typically compares speed.