How important are motherboards?

[DEATHMASTER]

I'm not getting anything just yet. I'm just wondering because I see the justification for everything else; graphics, cpu, ram, hdd, etc. But I never understood what's important about choosing one motherboard over another. I mean I know you should get one with all the connections for all that you have but what is/why is FSB important? What should one look for when selecting the right mobo?

 

[Ravioli]

Well the if the north/southbridge are slow then its going to bottleneck your entire system. The motherboard is what provides the links for all your components, if those links are not good, then your overall system will perform less. Also, you should look up the heat management of whatever motherboard you are getting, because the bridges usually get really hot, especially on gaming rigs. Copper pipes + heat sinks ftw

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Considering it's what allows all those components to communicate, it's probably one of the most important things to consider while building. You need a board that is not only compatible with all the other pieces you choose, you look at socket type, cooling/power abilities and how future proof the board will allow you to be.

Look for trusted brands (Asus, DFI, etc) and the proper socket type / cooling and memory DIMM sockets.

 

[VirusType2]

Use the ratings at www.newegg.com so you'll know about the quality, performance, and reliability and whether it's a good value.

 

[Asus]

Well, assuming the quality of the board is good (from a good brand and good parts like capacitors) then the connections should be fine on any. They have to meet specifications and when they pick their board to be a Socket 775 supporting the newest Intel CPU out at the time they are also going to make sure it reads it correctly and runs at the correct FSB. And this is also the basic things you look at when matching motherboard/CPU/RAM etc and making sure the board has your GPU and other connections too.

The northbridge and southbridge chips are what you are going to look at if you really want to compare boards and not what you are going to be plugging into the board. Those handle things like onboard video, onboard sound, networking, USB and also what extra settings there are for FSB and RAM. All on one or two chips.
What the board uses for the on-board sound option differs sometimes.

 

[Saturos]

Also, if you want to use SLI or Crossfire, make sure the motherboard supports it.

Furthermore, I'd pay attention to the location of the northbridge and what kind of cooling it uses. If it only uses a heatsink, especially beware if it's located in between expansion slots. (which is a stupid design decision)

I made this mistake on my last motherboard purchase a couple of years ago and have had problems with GPU overheating and such since the northbridge heatsink is right in between my two PCI-16x slots. (It gets very hot)