Magoo's Wise Words
Guide to Buying a Computer

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Motherboard

The next component that I pick after the processor is the motherboard. Even though I pick it second, this is actually the most important part of the computer. This is what ties everything in the computer together and makes it all work. A good motherboard will give your computer power, flexibility, and stability. A cheap motherboard will cause quirky problems that will be difficult to diagnose and will limit the computer’s capability.

Processor Form Factor - Different generations of processors have different arrangements of pins on the bottom, and the motherboard will have to have the correct arrangement. This is usually denoted by Socket #, such as Socket 939

• Socket A- 32 bit processors (452 pins)
• Socket 754- 64 bit processors
• Socket 939- 64 bit processors that have the memory controller on-chip
• AM2 – The 1206 pin socket that will house AMD's upcoming line of chips

Chipset - The chipset is group of chips on the motherboard that allow it to control other parts of the computer. The main companies making chipsets include Intel, nVidia, ATI, and Via. Intel has a reputation for rock solid stability but only supports Intel processors. nVidia is the top of the line for raw performance without sacrificing stability. ATI makes a decent chipset but I have heard many complaints about driver conflicts with their chipsets and video cards. Via makes a bargain chipset. It is often the cheapest chipset around, but you get what you pay for.

Memory - The more memory the board will support, the better, although I’ve never maxed out the memory on any motherboard so you don’t need to put too much emphasis on this number.

What you do want to look at is the maximum speed of memory it can support. Things go in and out of your memory constantly during normal operation, so the speed of your memory can really impact the overall performance of your computer. Get a motherboard that supports the fastest memory that you can afford.You will pay dearly to have the bleeding edge best, so its better to get as close to the best as you can without straining your budget.

One feature I would deficiently look for is Dual Channel Memory. This feature allows your motherboard to use two sticks of memory as a pair, theoretically doubling the speed the computer can read and write to the memory. AMD processors have provisions to take special advantage of Dual Channel Memory on their dual core processors, leading to superior performance.

Video Support - An onboard video controller means that the video card is built into the motherboard, and you will be able to plug the monitor right into the motherboard. This saves you the additional trouble and expense of a separate video card, but tends to give you a lower quality picture.

Some low end motherboards just have a standard PCI expansion slot designated for a video card. A PCI video card will tend to give you a better picture that an on-board card, but not by much.

Most middle of the road motherboards will include and AGP slot, which stands for Advanced Graphics Port. This is a special port that you can plug and AGP video card into. AGP video cards are more expensive than an onboard video card, but provide far superior performance. AGP slots on a motherboard are rated as 4x and 8x. The higher the number, the faster the connection between the video card and the motherboard.

New motherboards have include an even more advanced graphics port called PCIexpress. PCIe allows for speeds nearly double AGP. If you can afford a PCI express video card, get a motherboard that will support it. Eventually, PCIe will completely replace AGP. Like AGP, PCIe has several speeds available, such as PCIe16. The higher the speed, the better.

Interfaces - Motherboards also need interfaces for attaching devices such as hard drives, and CD and DVD drives. There are three popular interfaces in the market today:

• IDE is an interface used to attach most CD and DVD drives, along with most of the current hard drives. IDE can support two devices per connection on the motherboard at operates at a maximum of 133 Mega Bytes per second (MB/s.)
• SATA is an interface used to attach new hard drives. This is a serial interface and is capable of faster transfer speeds that IDE. SATA II is twice as fast as SATA, operating at 300 MB/s.
• SCSI is an interface used to attach high end devices. Although faster than both IDE and SATA, SCSI devices are much more expensive that both. Unless you have some special needs, SCSI is usually more expensive that it is worth.

That's the most important stuff on the motherboard. A few miscelaneous things you may want to keep in mind are listed here.

Next =>[Magoo's Guide to Computer Shopping- Page 5, Hard Drives]