WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.040 It used to be that choosing a motherboard was a very stressful process because choosing the 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 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 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. 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. 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 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 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 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 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:54.720 installing it into your case or performing upgrades, which could damage the sensitive components housed 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 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:06.320 to embed the electrical traces that connect all the different components, meaning not only can a 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:11.440 thicker motherboard contain thicker traces to carry more power, it can have more layers which 00:01:11.440 --> 00:01:17.520 can allow manufacturers to implement faster technologies that require more complex trace designs. 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, 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:28.320 physically built, more stringently. Think about how moving data at 10 gigabits per second over 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:35.120 Ethernet requires a more complex cable built to tighter tolerances than moving just 1 gigabit per 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:40.800 second. And motherboards can be similar. For example, AMD announced in 2019 that the new 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, 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:51.840 but rather because many of the motherboards featuring those chipsets weren't designed 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 00:01:59.360 --> 00:02:04.000 robustly enough to handle those higher speeds, but other cheaper options were barely good enough to 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 00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:15.920 circuits more effectively to cut down on interference. This is especially true for integrated audio, 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:20.320 where putting more physical space between the audio components and the rest of the motherboard 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:24.560 could often give you a cleaner sounding final product. More expensive motherboards, 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:30.240 very generally speaking, are also constructed with features designed to increase their lifespan 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:35.200 and can be subjected to more rigorous quality assurance testing. Not only will electrical 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:40.240 components like chokes and capacitors be made of higher quality materials, but they'll also 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.720 typically have better cooling solutions for hot components like voltage regulator modules. 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. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:55.200 Speaking of chokes, price your motherboards typically have more of them, which usually 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 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. 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 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 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, 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:27.520 but not only because of the hardware. Luxury motherboards often offer more features that you 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.680 can't see. Overclock or centric boards will get extra attention to those features from the 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, 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:44.080 the ability to flash firmware without a CPU installed, diagnostic readouts, and more user 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:49.760 configurable options, and a more powerful audio amplifier, reinforced expansion slots, and more 00:03:49.760 --> 00:03:55.600 ports and headers, RGB lighting, etc. Back to the original question though, is all this stuff 00:03:56.320 --> 00:04:03.040 worth it? Well, while a pricey motherboard might be built well enough to support additional features 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 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 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 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, 00:04:24.880 --> 00:04:29.760 above all, you're choosing something reliable. Then, if you have a special need for something 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, 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 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 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, 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 00:04:54.400 --> 00:04:56.640 topics that we should cover in the future.