It used to be that picking a motherboard was a major decision that could have a
real impact on your computer's performance with bus speeds and built-in
graphics varying significantly between models. But these days with more
and more things being standardized or integrated into CPUs, your choice of
motherboard will have virtually zero impact on raw performance.
So what's the point of this video then? Isn't the solution just to pick the
cheapest compatible motherboard and put more money into the rest of the build?
Well, not necessarily. Even though the days of fretting over a motherboard's
speed are all but gone, motherboards
still vary wildly in their feature sets
and build quality. So what kinds of things should you look out for and are
they worth the premium? Well, since one of the main functions of
a motherboard is to connect everything in your system together, we'll start by
talking about connectivity. These days it's absurdly easy to find
things like DDR4 and USB 3 support on
even budget boards, but moving up to a higher tier can get you M.2 support for
much faster SSDs than what you could get with SATA, USB 3.1 10 gigabit, USB
Type-C, and even Thunderbolt for connecting monitors, ultra-fast external
storage, or even an external video card.
It's also becoming more common to see Wi-Fi on mid to high-end boards to give
you additional flexibility if there's no Ethernet port nearby.
None of these bells and whistles are necessities, but they can be very
useful, especially if you're working with large files that could benefit from
the higher speeds. But what is necessary
is the right chipset, assuming you're overclocking. On the Intel side, only Z
and X series chipsets support overclocking natively, so you'll want to
pick up a board with one of these at the minimum. Higher-end boards also tend to
have better power delivery that can deliver more power to your CPU without
becoming unstable, which can be important for overclocking, but has
become less of a priority due to how efficient modern CPUs can be. And if you
want to have an A+ power delivery, a quick and dirty way to check is to count
the number of power phases on the motherboard, with more premium boards
having eight or even more. And some models will go the extra mile to make
the experience as enthusiast-friendly as possible when it comes to thermal
management. With extra water pump headers and even support for custom
water loops thanks to hybrid heat sinks that also function as water blocks for
hot components like the chipset and voltage regulator modules. Pretty cool,
but not crucial unless you're really trying to push your system as far as it
can go. Another nice thing is the vastly
improved sound on better motherboards.
Not too long ago, integrated audio was terrible pretty much across the board.
But these days, you won't see too many enthusiasts recommending separate sound
cards anymore. Many nicer motherboards,
and even most mid-range ones, have superior onboard audio or even
electrical separation of sound chips and
traces from the rest of the board to cut down on interference. And then toward
the top end, you'll start seeing things like headphone amps for high impedance
headphones. And although many folks who are serious about audio just get an
external DAC and amp, this can still be an interesting solution if you really
want to keep everything in one box. Of course, this is yet another nice to
have, not a need to have, and at the end
of the day, you need your motherboard to be reliable and last longer than your
Pokémon Go obsession did. So beyond the
usual advice of picking a reputable manufacturer and looking for a nice long
warranty, keep an eye out for features like solid capacitors, which tend to
last much longer than cheaper electrolytic ones which can leak.
Reinforced PCI Express slots might be a decent idea if you're using a heavy
graphics card, and there are even boards with special backplates that reduce the
amount of torque on them when you're installing them or mounting a cooler and
protect the traces from incidental scratches.
Finally, I'd be remiss in 2017 if I
didn't say anything about aesthetics. Gone are the days of plain green PCBs,
and now arctic camouflage, dragon heat
sinks, and RGB lighting are the norm.
Some boards, notably ASUS models, even have an RGB sync header so that any LED
strips you put in your case will sync up with your motherboard's lighting
effects. It's like, you just blew my mind, man.
But coming back to the main point of the video, obviously, if you're not
overclocking or water cooling or using bleeding-edge storage or you're
colorblind or whatever, you can pretty much ignore everything that I just said.
Buy a $40 motherboard that just has the basics and you won't really see a dip in
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