Best Motherboard Reviews 2018

The form factor and the amount of technology incorporated into the design are the main factors that influence the price of a motherboard. How much you’re willing to spend essentially determines the type of motherboard you’ll buy. Some people can afford to spend a lot of money building an entire computer from scratch, but others can’t. Finding a motherboard that’s within your budget, but still gives you many of the features you want, is ideal.

A high-end motherboard with all the bells and whistles will cost almost $1,000 while a modestly priced one will cost you about $300. If you can find cheap motherboards that offer all the features you need, great! But if you can’t, that’s okay because it’s likely that this ‘cheap’ price is pretty near to our estimated $300 cost.

Everything that makes your PC tick is directly or indirectly connected to the motherboard. Your computer’s motherboard determines what can run on your computer and has everything to do with how well they perform. Upgrading it is essentially upgrading your whole system. If you’re looking to do just that, here are the things you should consider before making up your mind:

• Compatibility
• Form Factor
• Expansion Slots
• Memory
• Connectors

These are some of the features that will make upgrading your motherboard worth the effort. As you read on, we’ll help you understand their importance and how they affect performance.

Changing your motherboard is essentially breathing a new life into your computer as the modification affects almost everything. Because of this, it’s essential that the motherboard you choose is compatible with the other components that will connect to it. The most important component is the central processing unit (CPU), which is the brain of your computer. Not every motherboard is compatible with all CPUs, even if they’re part of the same brand. Intel and AMD dominate the CPU market, so it’s that your CPU will come from either of them. Motherboards that have a ‘Socket T’ will only accept Intel processors and not AMD’s, as these only fit into motherboards with ‘Socket AM2’. Your best bet is to buy the motherboard and CPU at the same time to ensure compatibility.

Better still, you can purchase a motherboard that has a CPU already installed. If you’re trying to upgrade an older computer, you’ll want to ensure the compatibility of the PC’s power cable with your new motherboard. Older PCs use a 20-pin connector, while new motherboards use a 24-pin and a 4-pin connector for power.

The form factor of a motherboard is simply its size. The bigger it is, the more options it’ll have, and the one you choose will depend on the PC casing you already have, or the type of PC you’re trying to build. There are three main form factors, which are the standard ATX (the biggest of them all, which is recommended for users who want to build a monstrous gaming rig); the micro ATX (suitable for compact desktop PCs and has fewer slots); and the mini-ITX (features only one PCIe slot). Motherboard form factors are standardized so that the slots sare located at the same place, regardless of the size, for easier upgrades.

Another consideration for your upgrade will be memory. Your CPU and random access memory (RAM) work together to do your data crunching. There have been different types of RAM over time, but the latest one is the 4th generation double data rate (DDR4). You need to be sure that the motherboard you want to get supports the type of RAM you want, so that the board will fully utilize. Another thing you need to check is the RAM expansion slot on the motherboard, in case you require more memory in the future.

After you’ve gotten the compatibility and sizing covered, note how many peripherals you’d like to add to your PC. There’s a broad range of capabilities and additional functions you can add to your computer, but your motherboard first needs to have the expansion slots for those additions. Like we pointed out earlier, the larger your motherboard form factor, the more slots it can accommodate. For instance, an ATX board usually has around 5 PCI(e) slots, 4 for RAM, and 6+ SATA ports. These expansion slots open up your computer to a whole lot of new possibilities and future upgrades.

We are in the age of rapid data transfer, and for your computer to be able to transfer data, it needs to have the required connectors. These connectors are attached to the motherboard, so make sure your chosen board supports them. USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, eSATA, HDMI, PCIe and so on are some of the high-speed data and media connectors you might want your motherboard to support.