The motherboards, also known as motherboards or motherboards in America, and motherboard in English- are the central element of any PC. There are usually no large differences in quality between them at equal price and, although they may vary in the chipset they implement to control the different elements, that chipset is specified by the processor companies.
Manufacturers can add additional features, such as a better audio or network chip, add more or less PCIe and storage slots such as M.2, or even add leds for player boards. But the sector of the motherboards is very mature and almost all give very similar qualities.
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How to choose your motherboard
The manufacturers of motherboards put the name of the chipset in the name of the motherboard, and this chipset will define the connectivities of the board as well as its orientation of use: normal, gaming, overclocking, or more usually a mixed model overclocking / gaming.
The difference between a normal plate and another overclocking is in the quality of its components – capacitors, protection against interference, adaptation for liquid cooling, others – to allow the objective of making stable frequency increases to processor and memory. They are usually places that sell from 90 euros.
The chipset of the motherboards determines the type of processor the board accepts, how many USB ports it can support, how much RAM it can handle or the graphics card connections it supports. When choosing a motherboard you have to think about what you want to include RAM, hard drives, SSD, type and number of graphics cards, etc.
Then you have to choose one that fits the budget you have. There is no notable difference in quality between an expensive motherboard – above 90 euros, which is not overclocking – and another cheap one -40 euros- , only of connections and expansion possibilities. In case you want a license plate for overclocking, you have to be more careful when making the choice.
Of course, there are exceptions and some bad can come to some manufacturer, but it is not usual. For this article of motherboards, I am going to provide several purchases that I think are interesting according to the socket of the processor, which will be the first filter that you are interested in establishing when buying a motherboard, and based on our recommendations of the best processors of the moment.
What motherboard (chipset) does my processor need?
If you have looked at a specific processor, you will need to know which chipsets are compatible with it to choose a suitable motherboard. Next, the processors and chipsets are summarized in a table. Keep in mind that the choice of the chipset also depends on the orientation of the equipment.
If you want a basic one, there is nothing that prohibits combining a cheap motherboard of 50 euros with a Core i7 processor. Generally the name of the chipset is indicated in the name of the motherboard. If you have any questions, ask me in the comments.
Processor | Recommended combination | Also with | |
AMD | Ryzen 3 | A320, B350 (for OC) | X370 |
AMD | Ryzen 5 | B450, X470 | A320, X370, B350 |
AMD | Ryzen 7 | B450, X470 | A320, X370, B350 |
Intel | Core i7, Core i9 (Coffee Lake soda) | Z390 | Other 300 series previous BIOS update |
Intel | Core i7 (Coffee Lake) | Z370 | B360 |
Intel | Core i5 (Coffee Lake) | B360 | H310, Z370 |
Intel | Core i3, Pentium, Celeron (Coffee Lake) | H310 | B360 |
Things to keep in mind to choose a motherboard
Here are some recommendations to keep in mind before choosing a motherboard. They may seem basic to someone who knows computers, but there are many people who are looking for some guidance and advice since they do not know anything about PCs, and may find them interesting.
- Spend more than about 70 or 80 euros on a motherboard many times is to throw away the money unless you really need the expansion options that offer, or have the money to spend.
- Above 80 to 90 euros you will find plates for overclocking or that provide gaming features, such as better input-output device drivers, lower network latency, etc. In practice, the difference for a normal user is not noticed, unless you know that you are looking for a good reason, so I insist again that you look for a plate below 70 or 80 euros.
- Take for granted that if you change from a processor of different type of socket you will have to change the motherboard. If it is from the same socket, you will have to see that the BIOS accepts the new processor, and it is usually necessary to update it by downloading the new version from the manufacturer’s website.
- The consumption of the plates is in most cases less than 10 W, depending on the manufacturer and socket. For example, the LGA 1150 – Haswell processor from Intel – is about 4 to 6 W. It will also depend on additional chips that the manufacturer includes, such as a chip for a second Ethernet, better audio, etc.
- Make sure that the PC box you buy has the anchors for the base plate that you choose.
LGA 1151 (Coffee Lake)
The Coffee Lake processors, the 8th generation of Intel Core processors, require a motherboard with the 300 series chipset despite maintaining the same LGA 1151 socket.
Socket LGA 1151 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Characteristic | H310 | B360 | H370 | Q370 | Z370 | Z390 |
Memory | 64 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB |
Overclocking | CPU + GPU | CPU + GPU | CPU + GPU | CPU + GPU | CPU + GPU + RAM | CPU + GPU + RAM |
Max. with. USB | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
SATA3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
USB 2.0 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
USB 3.0 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 4 |
USB 3.1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | ||
RAID | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | ||
Additional PCIe tracks | 6 | 12 | twenty | 24 | 24 | 24 |
AMD or Intel? I very confuse choose both…. LOL
I like Intel, amd is very hot