How to Choose a Motherboard: 3 Levels of Skill

what's up guys I made a budget CPU buyer's guide a few weeks back and people seemed to like it so here's another video kind of in the same vein this one is how to choose the right motherboard this time I'm taking the three-level approach so follow along if you're having a hard time choosing and let me know in the comments section down below what level you see yourself at when it comes to picking the right parts for your build the new asus VG 259 QM gaming monitor from the tough gaming VG display series features a twenty four point five inch full HD IPS panel with an ultra fast refresh rate overclockable to an astounding 280 Hertz it's Nvidia g-sync compatible to which practically eliminates ghosting and tearing for a sharp and fluid gaming experience it also sports an extremely fast one millisecond response time thanks to Asus extreme low motion blur sync technology and its display HDR 400 certified as well click the sponsor link in the description for more so forget about the PC you will need it not just a motherboard you'll need all of the necessary parts fortunately I have a beginner's guide playlist that will walk you through what those parts are and how to build your system put everything together also follow up guides on system setup and software installation so I'll link all of those in the video notes down below if you want to check them out especially if you're building for the first time I usually list 7 core components for a gaming PC which includes the CPU or the processor memory storage via a hard drive or more likely an SSD a case a power supply a graphics card and of course the motherboard that ties everything together like a nice rug if you're picking out a motherboard you should have made two decisions already what CPU you'll be using and what case as the CPU will determine what platform and socket your motherboard should have and the case will determine the size or form factor so if you're just getting started you're probably most concerned about the basics will it work and this is the level 1 skill level which just means that you're focusing on the most fundamental compatibility questions which for the motherboard are most related to your choice of CPU and case for case compatibility there are three common choices right now ATX which is a full sized desktop motherboard and is the most common micro ATX which is a little bit smaller so you won't have as many expansion slots down here for adding cards although usually there are one or two extra along with your main expansion slot for your video card and mini ITX which is the smallest form factor and a great choice for super compact builds but it won't have any PCI Express expansion slots apart from this main one for your graphics card full-size ATX provides the most room to work and expansion options for the future as well as the most options for cases and motherboards on the market micro ATX is sometimes overlooked so your choices and motherboards and cases might be limited but I think it's a great option if you need a smaller system while still maintaining some room to go mini ITX is popular for super compact builds but those can be more challenging for beginners since there's less room to work with and of course there's limited room to grow as well there are pros and cons to all three sizes but once you decided what's right for you just make sure that you get an ATX motherboard for an ATX case or a mini ITX motherboard for a mini ITX case or a micro ATX motherboard for a micro ATX case yes you can put a smaller motherboard in a larger case that's okay it will just look a little weird so if you're buying new parts it's just generally better to match up the sizes the other aspect of basic motherboard compatibility relates to your CPU physically your motherboard will have a socket that's usually right in the middle and the CPU needs to be made for that socket for AMD builds the current generation mainstream socket is called a m4 and for Intel they've been using socket LGA 1 1 v 1 or 1151 for 4 or 5 years now but they're about to launch a whole new family of 10th gen core CPUs as well as a whole new set of motherboards that will use LGA 1200 and you'll need to do motherboards for the new 10th gen CPUs if you're just looking at the physical differences between a mainstream AMD and mainstream Intel CPU right now the main difference is probably going to be that the AMD CPUs have pins on the bottom and the Intel's do not if you want to know why and what the difference is between those two types of socket check out my LGA vs. PGA video and that should inform you simply put though your socket types must match between the CPU and the motherboard so an old socket am3 CPU won't fit into a new socket a.m. for motherboard for example at least not without breaking something I wish I could leave it at that for the sake of simplicity but both AMD and Intel now have CPU sockets out that supports some but not all CPUs of that same socket Intel for example launched products supported by the LGA 1151 socket starting back in 2015 but it was only around for two generations of CPUs their sixth and seven Jen parts when Intel launched 8 Jen core CPUs in 2017 they also launched a new series of LGA 1151 motherboards but they weren't backwards compatible with the 6th and 7th gen CPUs so even though you're on the same socket 6th and 7th gen need a 100 series or 200 series chipset motherboard whereas 8th and 9th gen Intel CPUs need a 300 series motherboard still with LG LM 51 though besides the socket motherboards are commonly referred to by their chipset a component that helps with communication between the CPU and other parts of the motherboard so you will need to check your chipset 2 for the sake of simplicity on the Intel side if you want the latest parts in 2020 you should be getting a 10th gen core CPU which is made for socket LGA 1200 motherboards and an LGA 1200 motherboard with a 400 series chipset such as Z 490 like this one I have right here more details on the difference between chipsets and what they can and can't do when we get to level 2 though AMD now has three families of chipsets that might sport to their current am 4 socket the 300 series and both of these are be 350 motherboards the 400 series such as this B 450 tomahawk and the 500 series like this X 570 motherboard which they have just recently revealed will be the only motherboards that support their next-gen 4000 series rise in CPUs which aren't expected until late 2020 or early 2021 but for support for those you'll need a 500 series chipset that's only relevant for people who are already considering an upgrade path to CPUs that aren't even out yet but it is something to consider and also the reason why you can't just say match the socket if you want that basic level of compatibility if you want the end-all solution though for figuring out CPU and motherboard compatibility and if your choices will work together you will want to find the motherboard that you're interested in go to the motherboard manufacturers support page for that board and find their CPU support list this will tell you very specifically what CPUs are supported and also if you'll need to update your BIOS for support if you're using a slightly older motherboard and a newer CPU that came out before the motherboard launched so the motherboard would need an update in order to recognize the newer CPU so if you just go ahead and purchase a board based on that advice from skill level 1 you should at least have functional and interoperable parts but what about the extras what else makes one motherboard good over another one level 2 motherboard buying means that you're paying attention to feature support and extras some of these are enabled by your choice of chipset on the board and some are bonus add-ons that the motherboard manufacturer is like Asus MSI and gigabyte like to include to make their board potentially a more compelling option for you to buy now a major selling point for some DIY builders is CPU overclocking support overclocking can be fun but not everyone is into it so if you never plan to overclock you can get by with a less expensive motherboard and also sometimes less expensive CPU if you're talking about intel on AMD side though overclocking support is pretty straightforward if you have a rise in CPU it is unlocked for overclocking cool that's pretty straightforward whether you're talking about 1000 series first gen 2000 series second gen the 3000 series third gen or the again upcoming 4000 series fourth gen they're all unlocked you do need a motherboard that supports overclocking as well though but also for AMD that's pretty easy as both their premium chipsets and their mid tier chipsets support it premium chipsets for a m4 start with an X and end with 70 at least for now so X 374 306 474 400 series X 574 500 series the mid tier chipset starts with B and ends with 50 so be 350 be 450 and be 550 AMD's 500 series chipsets are the only ones that also have PCI Express Gen 4 support as long as they're paired with a 3000 series or newer rise in CPU so if you need a very fast storage SSD it might be worth your while to go for 500 series and boards with that be 550 chipset are launching June 16th overclocking on the Intel site also requires compatible parts but Intel only allows overclocking on their CPUs that end with a K such as a 9900 K or the upcoming 10900 K if you're talking about 10th gen and they must be paired with a premium chipset which for Intel starts with a Z or Zed I guess if you're outside the US and usually ends in a 70 or a 90s such as Z 270 for the older LGA 1151 200 series boards or Zed 490 for the upcoming LGA 1200 400 series motherboards overclocking CPUs and motherboards for Intel are more expensive so here is where you can save some money if you do not plan to overclock by going with a non Z series chipset or a non case QC you chipsets can also determine feature support and peripheral connectivity though so keep that in mind to the AMD a320 chipset for example doesn't just not support overclocking it's also a bit cut down versus B 350 or X 370 or B 450 or X 470 since it has fewer USB ports available fewer SATA ports and it also doesn't support features like to wait GPU setups you may or may not make use of these features so check some of the links I have added in the description if you'd like to see some direct comparisons between chipsets and what they can or can't do I've also done a video on what you do or don't get out of a budget chipset and motherboard so check that out too and then of course there is everything else besides the socket and the chipset these are mostly things that the motherboard manufacturer might choose to add on I will quickly cover the most important stuff starting with the memory slots they only actually need to have two there for proper ddr4 dual channel support but there should be four if you're buying an ATX or micro ATX motherboard just having two Ram slots is fine on mini ITX but with four Ram slots you can easily add more RAM to upgrade your system in the future RGB I usually consider lighting and RGB features to be an extra that is nice to have but not what I shop for specifically but a lot of people really like RGB so see if the board you like has lighting integrated or it might have four pin non addressable or three pin addressable RGB LED headers actually realizing that there are a lot of little extras that can go into a good motherboard so I'm gonna point you guys towards my five favorite motherboard features video for more details here's a short list though of the five things that you should keep an eye out for surface mounted power and reset buttons are super convenient for outside-the-box builds and testing setups and LED post readout is very helpful for troubleshooting a system that won't boot and it will often default to showing CPU temperatures when the system is just up and running normally which is handy a BIOS flashback feature is also super convenient this lets you flash your UEFI or bios without a CPU or memory installed this is a somewhat newer feature but so helpful especially for these AMD boards that might be older boards but the support newer CPUs as long as you update the bios of course before you would have needed an older CPU to get the board up and running in order to update it but with this feature you can update with no CPU or memory needed this feature might go by different names though Seuss calls it USB BIOS flashback MSI calls it BIOS flashback + but just double check that it's there if you want that feature integrated I also like the option of having a clear CMOS button on the rear i/o and the CMOS is sort of the long-term memory that your motherboard has is a very small amount of it but it's what tells your motherboard what to do right when it's first booting up sometimes you need to reset your computer to factory defaults and clearing CMOS is the only way to do it with the button on the rear panel you can do it without having to crack open your case or in the worst case scenario use a jumper directly on the board itself then there's fan stop mode which doesn't run your fans at all if the system is not warm enough or just simply advanced fan controls system fans plug into your motherboard usually unless you have a separate fan controller so having multiple three pin or four pin headers available is a really nice thing especially if you need a lot of cooling in your case but it's even better if there's a way to intelligently control them lots of newer motherboards let you set up a fan curve and more for each header on the board directly from the UEFI you might also specifically be interested in integrated Wi-Fi especially for a mini ITX board like this where you don't have as much alternative expansion options available it is nice to have but it is something that you can also easily add just with a USB plug in adapter so it's not something I mind going without if there's a board that I like otherwise that's all for your skill level - though let's step it up one more time to skill level 3 which involves components and build quality analysis in your choice of other bolts if lovell - was already pretty complicated for you that is okay because level 3 is a little bit more optional it involves not just compatibility and not just feature support but build quality performance and component selection for the stuff that's integrated onto the motherboard itself build quality is often what separates an $80 entry-level board from a $200 plus premium offering this can potentially mean a thicker motherboard with more PCB layers for complex trace layouts between the components that can help smooth things out while overclocking it can also mean an over built power delivery configuration which is usually the stuff up here these are the voltage regulating components that feed power to your CPU again which can help with overclocking or it can mean just better cooling for those components again helpful for overclocking but also it's generally good idea to keep your components cooler if you can to enhance your PC's longevity heat can be a killer over time even if it's running at temps that are within design parameters now you might notice that a lot of these level three considerations are overclocking related and with good reason on one hand you don't really need any of that stuff to run a system at stock speeds although it should be mentioned that if you pair say the lowest end entry-level motherboard with the highest end top-tier CPU like a 39-foot the X on the AMD side which is 16 cores and 32 threads with like a $70 entry level a 320 board technically it might work but it might have a harder time running at full throttle for extended periods even if it's not overclocked but on the other hand it means that you can save some money if you know what you want and if you know that you'll probably never overclock getting an over built board is okay for non overclockers to because it will probably run cooler and have more features but I like a nice middle-of-the-road option like AMD's B 450 chipset which is about to get supplanted by B 550 by the way so you should get B 550 instead but the point here is that there are very viable 100 200 and $20 B 450 boards that have all the entry-level features that you need while also being built well enough to overclock if you want to it's kind of like the best of both worlds although boards like this extremely popular MSI B 450 tomahawk do miss out on some of those favorite features like surface mounted power buttons and debug LEDs that you might get on a more expensive board oh yeah and for any of you guys who are like how do I do this level 3 thing you you can't really just check them other boards thermal performance or a power delivery setup so that's what makes level 3 level 3 you would have to test the boards and cross compare them or you'd have to take the heat sinks off and analyze close-up photos or the capacitors jokes and MOSFETs to determine how it is designed and what the peak power output potential might be it's been a while since I've had the time to do that level of testing with motherboards but fortunately I'm happy to recommend a couple youtube channels that do do those things regularly they are Hardware unboxed and build Zoids actually hardcore overclocking channel the gentleman over at hardware unboxed do great comparison testing and that's probably a bit easier to digest for you than builds IDEs PCB breakdowns but both are excellent sources of information and I will link their channels in the description down below so though those are my three skill levels for motherboard shopping and if I may sum up I would say that level one isn't quite enough this is how pre-built PC shops make their money they'll sell a high-end CPU like a ninety nine hundred case so they can put that in the product listing but then they'll pair it with a compatible motherboard that is otherwise bare-bones it is worth it to spend a little bit of time to get yourself up to level 2 because level 2 includes pretty much everything that most people really need to consider when it comes to functionality if you think you have level 1 and 2 covered then browse around for some level 3 style deep dives on the board that you're looking at level 3 is really for enthusiasts and overclockers but meticulous shoppers can also benefit from educating themselves on these sort of hidden board features and it's a great way to plan ahead if you think that you might want the option to dabble in overclocking in the future particularly on the AMD side because there's less expensive overclocking unlocked boards and again a cooler running board with better power delivery is never really a bad thing unless you paid an insane amount of money for it I really hope you guys have enjoyed this video though and I will put relevant links to the stuff I've talked about down in the video's description and I will be checking your comments and feedback so let me know if there are any other favorite motherboard features that I missed here I'll subscribe to my channel if you haven't already check out my store at Paul's hardware net for shirts like this zero insertion force shirt as well as mugs pint glasses bottle openers and other cool stuff you can buy to help support me hit that thumbs up button on your way out too if you're feeling like this video helped you out at all and we'll see you guys in the next one you [Music]

Channel: Paul's Hardware

Views: 1,422,840

Keywords: computer, PC, PC gaming, personal computer, computer hardware, paulshardware, how to choose a motherboard, motherboard buyers guide, intel, amd, intel vs amd, LGA 1151, LGA 1200, socket, chipset, build a computer, how to build a gaming pc, AM4, B550, X570, Z490, Intel 10th gen core, amd ryzen, ryzen 3000 series, ryzen 4000 series, 2020, buying a motherboard in 2020, ATX, micro atx, mini itx, form factor, compatibility, how to, tutorial

Id: lP-pinlU-Ko

Length: 17min 10sec (1030 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020