Which Motherboard Should You Buy?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,057 words · ~5 min read
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It used to be that picking a motherboard was a major decision that could have a
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real impact on your computer's performance with bus speeds and built-in
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graphics varying significantly between models. But these days with more
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and more things being standardized or integrated into CPUs, your choice of
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motherboard will have virtually zero impact on raw performance.
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So what's the point of this video then? Isn't the solution just to pick the
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cheapest compatible motherboard and put more money into the rest of the build?
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Well, not necessarily. Even though the days of fretting over a motherboard's
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speed are all but gone, motherboards
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still vary wildly in their feature sets
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and build quality. So what kinds of things should you look out for and are
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they worth the premium? Well, since one of the main functions of
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a motherboard is to connect everything in your system together, we'll start by
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talking about connectivity. These days it's absurdly easy to find
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things like DDR4 and USB 3 support on
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even budget boards, but moving up to a higher tier can get you M.2 support for
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much faster SSDs than what you could get with SATA, USB 3.1 10 gigabit, USB
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Type-C, and even Thunderbolt for connecting monitors, ultra-fast external
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storage, or even an external video card.
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It's also becoming more common to see Wi-Fi on mid to high-end boards to give
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you additional flexibility if there's no Ethernet port nearby.
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None of these bells and whistles are necessities, but they can be very
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useful, especially if you're working with large files that could benefit from
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the higher speeds. But what is necessary
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is the right chipset, assuming you're overclocking. On the Intel side, only Z
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and X series chipsets support overclocking natively, so you'll want to
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pick up a board with one of these at the minimum. Higher-end boards also tend to
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have better power delivery that can deliver more power to your CPU without
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becoming unstable, which can be important for overclocking, but has
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become less of a priority due to how efficient modern CPUs can be. And if you
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want to have an A+ power delivery, a quick and dirty way to check is to count
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the number of power phases on the motherboard, with more premium boards
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having eight or even more. And some models will go the extra mile to make
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the experience as enthusiast-friendly as possible when it comes to thermal
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management. With extra water pump headers and even support for custom
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water loops thanks to hybrid heat sinks that also function as water blocks for
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hot components like the chipset and voltage regulator modules. Pretty cool,
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but not crucial unless you're really trying to push your system as far as it
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can go. Another nice thing is the vastly
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improved sound on better motherboards.
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Not too long ago, integrated audio was terrible pretty much across the board.
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But these days, you won't see too many enthusiasts recommending separate sound
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cards anymore. Many nicer motherboards,
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and even most mid-range ones, have superior onboard audio or even
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electrical separation of sound chips and
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traces from the rest of the board to cut down on interference. And then toward
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the top end, you'll start seeing things like headphone amps for high impedance
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headphones. And although many folks who are serious about audio just get an
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external DAC and amp, this can still be an interesting solution if you really
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want to keep everything in one box. Of course, this is yet another nice to
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have, not a need to have, and at the end
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of the day, you need your motherboard to be reliable and last longer than your
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Pokémon Go obsession did. So beyond the
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usual advice of picking a reputable manufacturer and looking for a nice long
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warranty, keep an eye out for features like solid capacitors, which tend to
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last much longer than cheaper electrolytic ones which can leak.
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Reinforced PCI Express slots might be a decent idea if you're using a heavy
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graphics card, and there are even boards with special backplates that reduce the
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amount of torque on them when you're installing them or mounting a cooler and
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protect the traces from incidental scratches.
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Finally, I'd be remiss in 2017 if I
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didn't say anything about aesthetics. Gone are the days of plain green PCBs,
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and now arctic camouflage, dragon heat
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sinks, and RGB lighting are the norm.
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Some boards, notably ASUS models, even have an RGB sync header so that any LED
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strips you put in your case will sync up with your motherboard's lighting
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effects. It's like, you just blew my mind, man.
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But coming back to the main point of the video, obviously, if you're not
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overclocking or water cooling or using bleeding-edge storage or you're
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colorblind or whatever, you can pretty much ignore everything that I just said.
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Buy a $40 motherboard that just has the basics and you won't really see a dip in
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