Motherboards

A motherboard is the main circuit board for a computer, and is what allows for communication between most of the components of a PC, including the CPU, fans memory, and more, as well as featuring connectors for several peripherals.

The motherboard is arguably the most important component of a computer, as it is what connects every other component of the system together, and allows everything to work together. You can certainly find a motherboard for an affordable price ($100 or less), models range significantly in both price and value with more expensive units having added features such as additional PCIe slots and SATA ports, overclocking potential, and more.

The Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, or PCIe, is a standard for connecting components to a motherboard. It is often used for graphics cards, as they require high bandwidth data transfer rates that are not possible with older standards such as PCI. A PCIe slot can also serve as an electrical power connector, although powerful graphics cards may still require a separate connection to the power supply.

There are three different sizes of PCIe slots: x1, x4, and x16. The number indicates how many lanes the slot has for data transfer. An x1 slot has one lane for data transfer, while an x4 slot has four lanes, etc. A motherboard will typically have multiple PCIe slots of various sizes to accommodate different components that require different amounts of bandwidth.

Finally, remember that there are multiple iterations of the PCIe standard, with PCIe 5.0 being the newest and fastest. Check your video card's specs to learn which generation it's optimized for, and look at which kind of PCIe slots are available on the motherboard. Fortunately, PCIe offers both forward and backward compatibility, so you can use a newer graphics card with an older PCIe slot or vice versa, although you may hit a performance bottleneck, depending on the card and the specs.

Serial ATA, or SATA, is a standard for connecting storage devices such as hard drives and solid state drives to a motherboard. SATA ports allow for data transfer rates of up to 6 Gbps, which is much faster than the older PATA standard. Most motherboards will have multiple SATA ports to accommodate multiple storage devices. The number of SATA ports on a motherboard can range from 2 to 10 or more.

Many newer motherboards also support NVMe M.2 SSDs, which are even faster than SATA SSDs and are becoming increasingly popular due to their small form factor. Check to ensure your motherboard includes M.2 slots if you want to use this snappy storage technology.

One of the most important parts of a motherboard is the CPU socket. This is where the CPU, or Central Processing Unit, plugs into the motherboard. The CPU is the brain of a computer, and as such, it is one of the most important components.

The CPU socket has a big effect on compatibility, which is why it's important to decide on which type of processor you want to use before purchasing a motherboard. These are the basic elements of CPU and motherboard compatibility:

• Brand: AMD and Intel are the two major CPU brands, and their socket designs are not compatible with one another. For example, an AMD CPU will not work with an Intel socket, and vice versa.
• Pin Array: Note which pin array configurations a CPU uses: AM4, AM5 or sWRX8 for AMD CPUs, and LGA1200 or LGA1700 for Intel models. These designations refer to the way the CPU and motherboard's connector pins are arranged, and both components must use the same array to be compatible.
• Chipset: Finally, AMD and Intel each manufacture various CPU chipsets, which also determine CPU and motherboard compatibility. Different chipsets are optimized for different uses, such as overclocking your CPU or connecting to large numbers of USB devices simultaneously.

Most motherboards will list which type of CPU socket it has in the product name or description. To avoid compatibility issues, many PC builders choose to use Micro Center's convenient CPU and motherboard bundles, which include a processor and motherboard selected for mutual compatibility.

While Wifi cards are often sold separately, many motherboards feature built-in Wifi cards that allow one's system to connect to the internet wirelessly without needing any separate components. Motherboards with built-in Wifi cards are often more pricey, however, this price increase can be worth it to many due to its added convenience. In the grand scheme of things, motherboards with built-in wifi cards can sometimes even save consumers money depending on the units.

A computer motherboard's form factor determines which PC cases will fit your motherboard, so it's important to select the right one. Smaller form factor motherboards also typically include fewer features like ports and PCIe slots due to their compact size. The form factors for desktop computer motherboards are as follows:

• eATX: The largest motherboard size, often used for gaming and workstation PCs that need extra memory slots, PCIe slots, and ports.
• ATX: The second-largest and most common size, with the widest selection of cases available.
• MicroATX: The second-smallest size, with a solid balance of compactness and performance.
• Mini-ITX: The smallest motherboard size, suitable for building small form factor PCs.

Each motherboard also comes with a number of built-in slots for RAM modules, each of which supports only a certain amount of memory per slot. Most boards have four slots, although some mini-ITX and micro-ATX motherboards have only two to save space. Some high-end motherboards have eight. If you're looking to optimize your PC for performance, be sure to check the memory type and clock speed that it supports, too. Most will either support DDR4 RAM or the newer DDR5, with a variety of supported clock speeds.

Most, if not all, of a computer's external ports (such as USB ports) pass through the motherboard, and it's preferable to buy a motherboard with headers for the ports you need already built in. Most users will need some combination of the following port connector types:

• USB-A
• USB-C
• HDMI
• DisplayPort
• Ethernet
• Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4
• 3.5mm Audio Jack