What should I look for in a motherboard?

[Wizrdwarts]

I've heard x38/48 are good chipsets, but I don't really understand what they do.

Also, is there any point of getting more than one PCIe x16 slot if you're only going to have one graphics card? I can't think of anything else that would take up an x16 slot, except maybe soundcards, but there's 1x soundcards as well.

[Jacobgong]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

get your CPU,Videocards and momory decided first and then look for a motherboard that suports those parts.
no you need only one X16 if you're getting only one graphics card.

[=98=]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

Well, all (remotely good) motherboards will come with more than one 16x PCI-E slot. SLI support SLI, all others support Crossfire. So, just get a motherboard that suits your choice, don't get worked up about SLI or Crossfire support.

Look for one with an Intel Chipset. They are renowned for being fast, stable and have good features such as RAID support. Don't go for an Nvidia chipset unless you really want SLI (which is silly really)

Look for those boards which overclock well, ones which can reach a high FSB. These will obviously help overclock and support higher speed chips that come out in the future (E.g. 1066mhz, 1333mhz....)

If you want to OC, look for those with good northbridge and VRM cooling. So, enough copper on the board, but not so much it infringes upon the CPU cooler.

Finally, look at the board layout, go for one where plugs are placed sensibly on the board, not here, there and everywhere as it'll make cable management difficult.

[=)BiT(= Evant3k]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

All the good motherboard are ASUS Intel motherboards. Two PCI X16 2.0 are now pretty much standard on the new motherboards. X38 and X48 is the The Northbridge type (X48 being newer) just controls the communication between CPU RAM and VGA, but you really wont find much use for it unless your overclocking, it assures your system is staable with none standard frequency's. I would get at least two PCI-e slots simply because in the future you could just add another GPU of the same type, which will certinally be much cheaper then upgrading to a newer graphics card.

The answer your main concern "what to look for in a MB?" Well most certainly at the FSB this determines the CPU type your MB will be able to operate. Then at the RAM that is compatible (DDR2 or DDR3 1333/1600 and so on). Then you should look at how many USB ports you are getting and how many on board SATA connectors, which you will use for Disc Drives and Hard Drives, nothing more really.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

So if I didn't want to overclock, would any chipset do?

Another question: If a mobo says it's compatible with DDR2 1200 memory, it would still be compatible with DDR2 800 right?

[=98=]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

If you want to overclock, a P35 or P45 would be best.

And yes, memory is backwards compatible.

[Eagle101]

Re: What should I look for in a motherboard?

It all depends on your budget too Wizard, there are ranges of affordable mobos from a great deal of manufacturers i.e. Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Intel.

I have a Abit P35-E mobo and it supports 1333MHZ and it did not cost me much 62 pounds only.