Building a PC Gaming configuration – Choosing a motherboard

After reading the article “What to choose when building a PC Gaming configuration”, you probably have an idea of the components you need to be able to build the configuration yourself or choose pre-built configurations. However, the importance of components is only briefly mentioned, for the mainboard it is as follows:

For those of you who want to learn more and have searched on Google, you probably won’t be stunned by the complex knowledge of the components on the motherboard. In addition, most knowledge sites list a lot of standards related to mainboards that you really don’t need to know because… Biareview doesn’t sell those things. Therefore, this article was born to simplify as much as possible knowledge related to motherboards, helping you to look in a few minutes and conclude: Is this motherboard suitable for you?

Overview of the mainboard

The mainboard, also known as the “motherboard”, is the most important circuit board in the computer, because all components are installed here.

Because it is the most important device, it is also often the least replaced/upgraded component in a computer because replacing the motherboard is very laborious, you have to unplug all the jacks and remove all the devices. Install it on it and remove it from the computer case. Additionally, typically the motherboard, funnily enough, contributes relatively little to a computer’s gaming performance (despite being the most important component). You definitely don’t want to install a new motherboard into a dusty old computer case…

To summarize, we have the following list of commonly replaced/upgraded components: RAM>Hard drive>Graphics card>Case>Power>CPU>Mainboard.

Important parameters of the mainboard

Chipset

Fortunately, after a long period of struggle and development, motherboard manufacturers have a much more standardized way of naming than in the past. Thanks to that, just this one parameter can say quite a lot: the price and relative segment of that motherboard, compatible CPU, possible number of RAM slots,… And often this parameter is right in the name of the product, very easy to see. And you should also note that mainboards using AMD chipsets will not be able to mount Intel CPUs and vice versa, so choosing a mainboard is almost like you have already chosen your CPU:

Size

This parameter affects the case that the mainboard can be installed in, so choosing the mainboard is similar to choosing your case. However, this parameter has less influence than the chipset because most cases support more than 1 mainboard size. In the worst case, if you can’t choose a suitable case, you can… leave it bare and use it. Currently, Biareview is selling main lines with the following standard sizes:

ITX or mITX or mini ITX

mATX or micro ATX

ATX

EATX

Other standards: Usually belong to the server mainboard line, we will not discuss it for now.

So this case supports Mini ITX, Micro-ATX (mATX) and ATX size mainboards. When choosing a mainboard, just scroll down to the “detailed description” or “technical specifications” section and see if that mainboard has The corresponding “Standard sizes” are done.

Connector

Luckily, most current devices can connect via USB, so you won’t have to worry about finding a mainboard with the connection ports you need. The same goes for monitors, the connection ports on most mainboards are enough for you to use and if you intend to use more than 1 monitor to play games, then the problem will be transferred to the separate video card. It’s not the main problem anymore. If you want to connect your computer to a monitor or projector that still uses the VGA port, a DVI to VGA or Displayport to VGA or HDMI to VGA jack will solve everything.

Summary

In short, the mainboard is a component that is rarely upgraded, related to CPU, RAM, M.2 SSD – you can quickly conclude by the chipset that the mainboard uses and the case – standard size specifications are easy to find.