1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,040 It used to be that choosing a motherboard was a very stressful process because choosing the 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:10,080 wrong one could mean a serious impact on your system's performance. But these days, it seems 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,280 like a common piece of advice is to buy the cheapest thing that has the CPU support and the 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:21,280 ports that you want. But hold on, there is still a huge amount of variation in motherboard pricing. 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:28,240 It's not uncommon to see a range from around 50 bucks to 500 dollars on major retail sites. 6 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:32,480 So what exactly are you getting for all that extra money? First off, you may have noticed that the 7 00:00:32,480 --> 00:00:38,240 more pricey motherboards tend to be girthier, heftier, and a huge reason for this is that oftentimes 8 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:44,080 the actual circuit board that all the components are soldered onto is thicker. A thick PCB has an 9 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:49,200 obvious advantage. It makes the board more durable and less likely to bend and flex when you're 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:54,720 installing it into your case or performing upgrades, which could damage the sensitive components housed 11 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,560 But there's also an advantage you cannot see. Greater PCB thickness means there's more room 12 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:06,320 to embed the electrical traces that connect all the different components, meaning not only can a 13 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:11,440 thicker motherboard contain thicker traces to carry more power, it can have more layers which 14 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:17,520 can allow manufacturers to implement faster technologies that require more complex trace designs. 15 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:22,960 As we get newer standards in the tech world that support higher speeds, they often have to be built, 16 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:28,320 physically built, more stringently. Think about how moving data at 10 gigabits per second over 17 00:01:28,320 --> 00:01:35,120 Ethernet requires a more complex cable built to tighter tolerances than moving just 1 gigabit per 18 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:40,800 second. And motherboards can be similar. For example, AMD announced in 2019 that the new 19 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:47,520 PCI Express 4.0 standard would not be supported by older chipsets. Not because it was impossible, 20 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:51,840 but rather because many of the motherboards featuring those chipsets weren't designed 21 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:59,360 with the PCIe Gen4 data rates in mind. The rates, people. The rates. Some boards might be constructed 22 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:04,000 robustly enough to handle those higher speeds, but other cheaper options were barely good enough to 23 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:10,320 carry a PCIe 3.0 signal. A thick motherboard also gives designers more room to separate different 24 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:15,920 circuits more effectively to cut down on interference. This is especially true for integrated audio, 25 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:20,320 where putting more physical space between the audio components and the rest of the motherboard 26 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:24,560 could often give you a cleaner sounding final product. More expensive motherboards, 27 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:30,240 very generally speaking, are also constructed with features designed to increase their lifespan 28 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:35,200 and can be subjected to more rigorous quality assurance testing. Not only will electrical 29 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:40,240 components like chokes and capacitors be made of higher quality materials, but they'll also 30 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:44,720 typically have better cooling solutions for hot components like voltage regulator modules. 31 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:50,960 Hence the beefy looking heat sinks you often see sitting right above the CPU socket on nicer models. 32 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaking of chokes, price your motherboards typically have more of them, which usually 33 00:02:55,200 --> 00:03:00,400 means that the power delivery to the CPU is spread out among more phases. This helps to 34 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:06,240 stabilize power delivery and provide more power to the processor than a cheap board is able to. 35 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:12,160 Now, this used to be very important in achieving high overclocks, but these days even lower cost 36 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:17,760 motherboards can deliver some very good overclocks. If you're really trying to push your CPU and squeeze 37 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,480 every last megahertz you can out of your silicon, a higher quality board can still be helpful, 38 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:27,520 but not only because of the hardware. Luxury motherboards often offer more features that you 39 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,680 can't see. Overclock or centric boards will get extra attention to those features from the 40 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:38,080 firmware engineers, and the list of little extras is actually quite long. Like having a backup BIOS, 41 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:44,080 the ability to flash firmware without a CPU installed, diagnostic readouts, and more user 42 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,760 configurable options, and a more powerful audio amplifier, reinforced expansion slots, and more 43 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:55,600 ports and headers, RGB lighting, etc. Back to the original question though, is all this stuff 44 00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:03,040 worth it? Well, while a pricey motherboard might be built well enough to support additional features 45 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:09,120 through the use of add-on chips and give you slightly more overclocking headroom, we'd say that 46 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:14,080 you really need a pretty specific reason for venturing into the upper price tiers. If you're 47 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:19,040 looking at a cheap motherboard, it most likely is going to give you virtually the same raw performance 48 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:24,880 as a more expensive one as long as it's built to spec. So check out reviews and make sure, 49 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:29,760 above all, you're choosing something reliable. Then, if you have a special need for something 50 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:35,280 like a ton of fan headers, or if you're planning to use the motherboard for a really long time, 51 00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:40,080 like more than five years, you can look at spending extra in those cases. And we'd never 52 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:45,280 judge you if you're paying more just because you're really serious about having a vaporwave-themed 53 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:50,640 build. Who's to say? So thanks for watching, guys. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up, 54 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,400 hit subscribe, and make sure to hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for 55 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:56,640 topics that we should cover in the future.