Question on MoBos

[PunisherUSA]

What are the advantages of having a newer, more expensive Motherboard?

I understand they have different memory/card slots and chipsets, but what does that really mean performance-wise?

I get having PCI express slots means the ability to have such cards, and more RAM slots means 4 1gig chips instead of 2, but what else?

 

[lePobz]

It doesn't really matter how new it is, the feature list is what you should check whenever buying a motherboard, and also the manufacturer of the chipset.

Some chipsets have massive advantages over others... although most these days use the same, newer pioneering chipsets (such as nForce2 was back in the days) are always the best.

Be on the look-out for nForce 4.

 

[SidewinderX]

Well, some motherboards support SATA and/or firewire.... some have better sound, some have better network stuff... etc.

 

[Asus]

Brand. Chipset, Features, and Performance. The less common reasons would be bios options, board component arrangement, heatsink compatibilty, and included goodies.