How to Find the Right Motherboard

Motherboards come in many different shapes and sizes. Motherboards the size of your hand use tiny processors and are used in tablet PCs. Motherboards that are larger than a square foot can run four processors. Motherboards are have many different functions: Some are made for servers to host websites, some are made for gamers, and some are specifically made for mobile computing. Picking out the right motherboard is a daunting task.

Instructions

1. Determine what kind of processor you will be using. You have to buy a motherboard that is compatible with the processor. For example, a motherboard that has an LGA775 socket has to be paired with an LGA775 processor.

2. Buy a motherboard that supports SLI or Crossfire if you are going to use the computer for graphics-intensive applications, such as high-end multimedia editing, intense gaming or watching Blu-Ray movies.

3. Buy a motherboard that supports RAID 5 or 1 if you plan on building a server with the motherboard. Make sure that the motherboard has at least 6 SATA hard drive ports. Dual CPU motherboards are made almost exclusively for servers and are very reliable; consider buying one if you are building a server.

4. Buy a simple and inexpensive motherboard if you plan on using the computer just for simple tasks, such as web browsing and listening to music.

References

• Karol Harmata MD, Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)