Learn Motherboard Tips & Increase Performance

Read these motherboard tips before selecting the motherboard for your computer. Motherboard is the backbone of your PC. It holds the CPU, RAM and other ADD ON cards. Over time more number of devices have been integrated into the motherboard. However there are drawbacks. It's hard to upgrade specifications if an integrated component cannot be removed. Also highly integrated motherboard requires non standard cabinet. Replacing a single faulty component may mean buying a new motherboard. However for CPU, RAM and graphic card sockets and slots are provided, as the new versions are added quickly.

In the late 1990s, integrated chips were designed for audio and video and included them on the motherboard. Over a period of time SCSI, LAN and even RAID controller were added. This approach saves cost but biggest drawback is restriction of future upgrade options.

Branded PC manufacturers offer onboard integrated peripherals. A motherboard with onboard features is more popular in Branded PCs. If you buy a system from a big computer manufacturer you are likely to get a fairly recent motherboard. They try to give latest technology.

While selecting a motherboard , go for maximum number of ports. It is better to go for 2 serial, 1 parallel and 4 USB ports. More number of USB ports are preferable. As now a days, most of the devices have USB port.

Check the up gradation options like how much and what type of memory it can support. How many PCI slot it has. How many will be filled when you buy your system.

Because of fast paced technology new features such as serial ATA, USB 2.0 and RAID are added on the motherboard by the manufacturers to stay ahead of the competition. Some manufacturer has even added FM radio on the motherboard to make it a complete entertainment machine.

Motherboard tips

Motherboard tip 1) The best way to buy the ideal motherboard is to first read the reviews and then look for either same motherboard or it's nearest variant in the market.

Motherboard tip 2) Some of the motherboards are available some variants. Ex. MSI motherboard is available in 3 variants like Pure, FIR and FISR. Pure is basic model. However other variants have feature additions such as RAID and USB 2.0 with minimal increments. In such case don't buy the costliest motherboard if you are not going to use additional features. Always check cost to benefit ratio and make the selection.

Motherboard tip 3) If you are a serious gamer or fan of overclocking, check the space around CPU is spacious enough for you to install a larger heatsink-fan combination to keep things cool. Go for motherboard which has the facility to overclock FSB in steps of 1 MHz and core voltage adjustment.

Motherboard tip 4) Ensure that chipset on the board supports the speed of the processor and speed of FSB. This is very important otherwise it will lower the system performance.

Motherboard tip 5) Ensure that motherboard is quite feature rich for your application use. Make sure it has enough PCI and memory slots for future expansion.

Motherboard tip 6) If cost is no problem, go for the motherboard with onboard video chipset and an AGP slot. Also check whether AGP slot supports latest transfer rate.

Motherboard tip 7) Ensure that your motherboard has onboard sound and integrated Ethernet.

Motherboard tip 8) Check which type of memory the motherboard supports.

Important sections of motherboard

1) Processor socket - This is the socket on the motherboard where processor is mounted. There are basically 3 types of slots. Socket 370 ( for Via ), Socket A and Socket 478 ( For Pentium4 processor ).

2) Chipset - Chipset is commonly used to refer to the core logic of motherboard. Motherboard is built around a chipset that supports a specific class of processors and type of memory. Main system chipset is responsible for the communication between the processor , memory and other integrated components. Chipset acts a hub controlling the transfer of data between processor, it's cache, system buses and peripherals. The timely transfer of data without errors is the most important function of the chipset. This function of the chipset decides overall performance of the system. That is why the maximum speed a processor that the chipset supports is very important. For your future upgrades you will need to change only the processor. For example, if chipset supports upto 2.8GHz CPU's and you decide to buy 2 GHz, you could upgrade to a 2.8 GHz CPU with out having to invest in new motherboard.

Different chipsets are used to support functions that are offered by the board - the RAM and the Processor. For example, the Intel 845 chipset supports Pentium 4 and DDR SDRAM. AMD processors ( Duron and Athlon ) require VIA KT 333 or 400 chipset based motherboards.

3) Interface slots - Now a days, there are basically 2 types of slots are available for ADD on cards on the motherboard - PCI and AGP. PCI slots are used for adding Ethernet card, Sound card, Modem card etc. AGP slot is used to add graphic card.

4) RAM slots- DDR RAM is the most popular option today. Most motherboards have at least two slots. But expensive motherboards have 4 slots. The total amount RAM you can install is also dependent on the motherboard chipset.

5) BIOS - Every motherboard has special software in ROM ( Read only Memory ) known as BIOS ( Basic Input Output System). The jumperless motherboards that are norm today, allow for automatic parameter detection and configuration. For example - Processor core voltage and clock multiplier. Also the configuration and control of integrated peripherals are all autodetected.

Now you have understood the motherboard tips, let us take the final decision.

Decision maker

Basic necessity - Minimum 3 PCI slots with integrated sound and Video in Micro-ATX format.

Advanced - Minimum 5 PCI slots, 3 RAM slots and an AGP 4x slot in ATX format.

Have you read the Motherboard tips ? A quick scan will help you for proper selection and trouble free performance of the computer. As motherboard tips are over, let us start to build our own computer.

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