This article is part of Newb Computer Build’s “How to: Build a Gaming PC” guides to choosing your PC hardware for your Gaming PC builds. When you are choosing all of the hardware for your Gaming PC build, I would suggest that the very second piece of hardware you choose is the motherboard; with the Processor being your first choice. The reasoning behind this is that once you choose the Processor you want then you are able to select all of the compatible motherboards based on “Socket Type”, then you can select all of the other options you want included on your motherboard. I will start this article off with a brief description of what a motherboard, all of the parts of the motherboard you should be familiar with, and then a few steps you should go through when shopping for your new motherboard.
What is a “Motherboard”
In a desktop computer the motherboard aka. mobo essentially includes all of the crucial components of your system. The motherboard connects all of the components of a computer system including the Processor, and can host a number of other peripherals, subsystems and devices. Minimally a motherboard will include a socket to hold your Processor, memory slots for your RAM, a chipset (forms interface between Processors front side bus, main memory, and peripheral buses – don’t worry about these yet), non-volatile memory chip (which contains the firmware or BIOS – the software that can be used to control the motherboard), a clock generator (keeps everything in sync), expansion slots (for various peripherals), and a power connection (to connect to a power supply to power the motherboard). Modern motherboard will most likely come with at least some connectors for a mouse / keyboard, and mounting points for a heatsink or fan to cool your Processor.
So this afternoon I sat down and polished and updated all the gaming tiers (Entry Level through Fifth Gaming Tier Build). In the lat couple of months I am sure everyone trying to purchase computer hardware has heard about the Cougar Point problem. There was a problem with the release of the new Sandy bridge processors where all the 1155 socketed motherboard made for them had a SATA problem that could cause connection problems later on. The Fourth and Fifth Gaming Builds do consist of Sandy Bridge processors, but currently I cannot provide a very concise recommendation on any particular motherboards; there are none. If you decide you want to purchase the hardware in these builds, you can still do so, however you may have to wait a couple weeks still to purchase a motherboard.
If you are planning on building your own computer choosing the right processor is a critical decision with the wrong choice potentially wasting the other expensive parts of your machine. The processor market has been dominated by two major players for over a decade now with Intel and AMD alternately being at the top, more recently ARM low power processors have begun to move from the mobile device market into low-end Netbooks.
When choosing a motherboard for the Intel Sandy Bridge Processors you have to make sure of a few things. First, make sure that you choose a motherboard with an LGA 1155 CPU Socket Type; this is a new CPU socket type needed by and only by Intels Sandy Bridge Processors. Second, you have to choose between an H67 or P67 Chipset.
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