Mother board Suggestions Thread

My friend asked me to build a PC for him, and i just wanted to know a good budget mother board (mid range) to start off with.I would prefer if it supported an Amd Cpu (quad core would be best).He will be mainly using it for Gaming, music producing and general internet usage.Thank you

You need to be more specific - what socket should it have?

I'd say look at the CPU you want first, then look for the MB. Set a price limit & go from there. Big big things to look for are:
*how much RAM
*onboard video/sound
*built in ports

Once you know what you want for those it's relatively easy to narrow it down.

Another big thing that TheHappyFriar forgot to mention is the FSB (front side bus) of the motherboard (mobo).
You don't want your motherboard to be a bottleneck for your system RAM for example (the FSB speed of your motherboard should match the speed of your system RAM).

-You want a mobo that has the same socket type as your CPU
-You want a mobo that fits in your chassis (there are many different kind of mobos (standard ATX, microATX and so on). This is called the "form factor".
-If it's not a work computer used for gaming or heavy 3D software, then an onboard graphics card is preferable over buying a stand-alone graphics card.
-If it's not a computer that will be used for music production, then an onboard sound card is preferable. (else you just buy a kickass sound card)
-You want an onboard 100-1000 network card on it
-You want it to have room for 4 sticks of RAM.
-You want the FSB of the motherboard to match BOTH the internal clock speed of the CPU (which is NOT in the gigahertz range*), AND the bus speed of your memory. This can be tricky to find out even for a veteran PC-builder because memory speeds are labeled like PC4400 and so on. You can google up a table that tells you what that PCXXXX is in bus speed.
-You want to have at least 1x PCI-E slot on your mobo - 2x if you are going to run a crossfire configuration (dual graphic cards). The speed of these PCI-E slots should be 16x.
-You want it to have several USB ports, at least 4 at the back, 2 at the front (or inside). You sometimes get a special USB-card with your mobo that holds additional USB ports. It will take up a slot though.
-You want it to have support for SATA. These should be SATA 3Gb/s if you want to use an SSD harddrive.

hmm what else? I think those are the essentials.

* - The internal clock speed of the CPU is multiplied with something that is called a "multiplier", and the result is the total speed of the CPU. If you have a CPU with an internal clock speed of 200MHz and a multiplier of 16x, you get 16 x 200MHz = a 3.2GHz processor. When overclocking you can both turn up the multiplier or the internal clock speed. The latter requires that your FSB can handle it though.

Edited by: Nightshade

Am3 socket type would be good thank you.

Well i decided to find the parts myself and i used both of your advice thank you for that, the only thing is i need to check by if the specs are all compatible.

Motherboard: Techbuy.com.au

Cpu: Techbuy.com.au

Graphics card: Techbuy.com.au

RAM: Techbuy.com.au

Case: Techbuy.com.au

Powersupply: Techbuy.com.au

Harddrive: Techbuy.com.au

Niteshade wrote: Another big thing that TheHappyFriar forgot to mention is the FSB (front side bus) of the motherboard (mobo).
You don't want your motherboard to be a bottleneck for your system RAM for example (the FSB speed of your motherboard should match the speed of your system RAM).

Honestly, at this point in in computer history I couldn't think of a modern CPU & MB combo that would have that as a limit. At the current moment the HD throughput is more of a limit on me then the FSB/CPU speed/RAM/etc.

TheHappyFriar wrote:

Niteshade wrote: Another big thing that TheHappyFriar forgot to mention is the FSB (front side bus) of the motherboard (mobo).
You don't want your motherboard to be a bottleneck for your system RAM for example (the FSB speed of your motherboard should match the speed of your system RAM).

Honestly, at this point in in computer history I couldn't think of a modern CPU & MB combo that would have that as a limit. At the current moment the HD throughput is more of a limit on me then the FSB/CPU speed/RAM/etc.

Maybe not but I often see people planning to buy RAM that is faster than what their FSB can handle (because they picked a budget motherboard)

Edited by: Nightshade