I have questions about motherboards. PLEASE help me.

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link590o

Strangely enough, I've come to realize that I understand and know a LOT about just about everything that is ATTACHED to the motherboard. But I know next to nothing about the motherboard itself. I know how to recognize whether or not it will have the right slots and where everything gets hooked etc.

I guess what I'm asking is, what makes a motherboard good as compared to another one? What do some mobos offer that others don't? What should I look for when I'm buying one? Is there one particular brand or design that best?

Bear in mind that I'm not suggesting that I'll skimp on buying the best one I can. I figure it's good practice to avoid cheap pieces of 5h17.
 
different features, connectivity, ability to overclock than others, better components that last longer (like capacitors that aren't cheap), better ability to interface with north and south bridges... etc...

if you really want to compare mobos... go to tomshardware.com
 
Read up on reviews on motherboards you think you might be interested in. Most reviews will include some mentions of good northbridge chips, which today would be a whole list like the 965P, P35, 650i, 680LT, 680i. Well, these are the main ones anyway, and you've got some with integrated graphics which we tend to avoid.

Also, the perfect motherboard for you may not always be the best motherboard out there, or the most expensive. You have to look at the features the motherboard offer, and decide if you will make use of them. No point buying a motherboard with advanced RAID options, if you will not use RAID at all. Or a motherboard with SLI, but not running SLI. Or even a board with no IDE slots, but you want to use your old IDE drives.

These days, motherboards may come with huge cooling solutions. These are only necessary if you're going to overclock heavily.

Even then, you might be interested in using water to cool your northbridge, so those motherboards wouldn't be quite suitable then.
 
well if that is the case with motherboards, would you help to suggest a good mobo for me?

i'm looking for stuff that can run SLI because I plan on getting the new nvidia 8800 gts. i want it to have moderate cooling abilities because my computer overheated a few days ago. and i live in a hot climate area so i want to avoid overheating as much as possible. i want it to be plenty customizable in terms of video cards and memory. i'm pretty heavy on graphics and speed....i guess a mobo that's excellent for gaming is what i want. any suggestions?
 
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