Now I am not talking about some stupid add-ons, like a built in video, or sound card. And I know that you need a specific mobo for your chip, slot size, etc.
But would a different mobo really make that big of a difference in my computer?
In most cases no. More full featured boards will allow tweaks and have features to allow maximizing potential of hardware but if you intend to have a standard non-bleeding edge collection of hardware a top end mobo is not terribly necessary.
I would, however, ask you to consider than the difference between a top rated board with good build quality and a fair to mediocre board is typically 30 - 50 at best. I try to get the best board I can in most situations because this is what all the other hardware is depending on and system reliability is usually slightly better with the better boards. My data is worth a lot more $ 50.00. A good board is one of the cheaper insurance policies I can buy. I like ASUS boards although there are several excellent brands out there.
see http://www.anadtech.com for motherboard eviews
I once replaced a failed motherboard without doing any research (just picked the cheapest one from a reputable manufacturer), and found that the new board didn’t have enough expansion slot. So that’s one thing to watch out for. Also watch out for the type of expansion slots, as well as the number of memory slots. Watch out especially for ISA slots if you have ISA expansion boards - very few motherboards have ISA slots these days.
Different motherboards may also use different chipsets. A chipset is the support electronics for the CPU and provides an interface between the CPU and all other components, including memory, disk drives and expansion slots. So it can make a measurable difference in performance. You might want to check some on-line reviews and tech sites. Or tell us what CPU you are looking at, and ask. (I can’t answer it, but I’m sure someone here can.)
And of course, don’t forget the differences in customer service and warranty.
So then, what is the best motherboard to buy for a pentium, and an Athalon?
on a fairly obtuse tangent, i took a bunch of old motherboards that were languishing about the place, built some nice wooden frames for them, and hung them from the wall. they actually look pretty good, what with all the high-tech whiz-bangerey and so forth on them. you can have the top or the bottom of the board on display, and it’s quite groovy. i must point out that i am the first person to ever have done this, and that it is entirely my own original and brilliant idea.
Depends on what you’re looking for in a system: Raw speed? Stability? Room for expansion?
When I was researching new boards for an upgrade, I ultimately settled on an ASUS A7A266. It’s fast (though probably not as fast as newer DDR boards, but the newest versions do support AMD’s new Palomino chips), it has 5 PCI slots, and the reviews I read indicated it was quite stable. It also allows for sufficient tweaking that, if I ever decide to overclock, the MB is capable of supporting it.
Short answer: no. Most motherboards that you can buy at retail and that you will see reviewed at various tech sites will differ in the chipsets that they offer, the amount of expansion available to you, and the type of memory that you can use. Without knowing exactly what you plan on doing with your computer, I would highly recommend checking out the motherboard reviews at Anandtech, as well as researching the information on their forums, as astro said earlier. A little reading at Anandtech and other tech sites will pay off greatly. Good Luck.
Their website is not working.
And let’s be honest here. Outside of graphics, or research, the only reason that you need a computer better then a 200Mhz Pentium (and that is a Pentium 1 folks) is games.
I want to play games.
I want to play them fast.
I never want to see a tiny framerate again.
Will a Motherboard really make that much difference?
Cough. Graphics editing. Heavy-duty video work. 3D Rendering.
The only reason you would NOT need a computer better than a 200 Mhz is if you only plan on using it as a word processor.
Yes. A cheap motherboard will get worn out sooner. Worn connections between processor, RAM, and/or video card will result in dropped information, which will lower performance.
After all, there’s a reason they’re known as “cheap motherboards”.
Well, what processor & video card do you have? Those are two of the major components of a gaming machine. And, it depends on what games you want to play. Golf games (which I like) are undemanding. 3D shooters (which I also like) can tax top-of-the-line custom-made systems. Even among gaming systems, a system configuration can make a huge difference. Or not, depending on the target game.
I said graphics.
I don’t want to get this thread hijacked, but aside from games, 90% of a home computer use goes to the internet, word processing, and dinky refference software. And the Pentium 100 that I have in the back room still does all of those just fine.
First Person Shooters.
I know what difference the other hardware will make.
I wanna know what difference the Mobo will make, and which is the best one.
The main difference between a cheap mobo and a more expensive one (if they both have similar specs) is that the cheaper one is moe likly to wear out/fail . . . .
Get one that supports your hardware and that isn’t at the bottoms of the range and should be ok, for games it’s worth making sure it has an 4xAGP slot.
I thought you were referring to graphics CARDS, as in: “Outside of a good graphics card, you only need a fast processor… yadda yadda yadda.”
(Well, I thought it made sense!! Maybe I need sleep…)
Anyway, a fast processor is essential even if you want to run some higher-end word processors or web browsers. I remember our old 200-Mhz computer that would take over a minute to load up Netscape Navigator 4.0…
In any case, since you can pick up an 800-Mhz or 900-Mhz processor for under a $100, it’s not that steep of an investment…
Tom’s Hardware has oodles of motherboard reviews and cross-comparisions.
AFAIK, the ASUS boards are still the overall top performers/best quality/most full featured of the Athlon Boards. The ASUS A7M266 is the one I would get right now, for the same purpose as yourself.
I don’t pay attention to Pentium Boards.
Does one mobo perform noticably better than another? Within the same chipset, bells and whistles aside, not really.
One of the features you’ll probably want is a fully jumperless board, as this should allow you to change and, ahem, tinker with processors as you see fit without having to dig out the mobo’s manual to do so. You may also, if you’re planning to someday have more than 4 IDE devices (hard drives, CD-ROM drives, etc.), look for boards with onboard raid controllers. Even if you don’t need the raid, you can still add 4 more IDE devices w/out getting a separate controller.
Now, as far as performance goes, you’ll want something with DDR support, as this will give you the best performance now and in the near future (and is also backwards compatible w/ PC133 if you’re so inclined).
If you’re going AMD, you’ll be best served by the AMD760 chipset which, if you believe the tech sites, delivers the best AMD DDR performance. And as far as these boards go, according to this Tom’s Hardware shootout, the board to get is the Abit KG7 Raid (a non-raid version should be out shortly).
And, like Anthracite, I don’t pay attention to pentium boards.
I’ve dealt with motherboards from countless (well, about 20, actually) manufacturers over the years and I’ll offer up my personal observations. YMMV.
Tyan, Asus, ABit, Supermicro - Hard to go wrong with most of these vendors’ products. For the really high-end stuff (SMP, on board SCSI, etc), Tyan and Supermicro make some incredible products. ABit makes some great inexpensive SMP boards, too, but can’t compete with Tyan and SM for max features.
Intel - $table, u$ually, but generally $lower and a little le$$ feature-laden than imilar product from other vendor$. ometime a bit overpriced for what you get. Really common in OEM systems from companies like Dell, Gateway, and Micron
FIC, Soyo - decent and rather inexpensive.
Pine, PC Chips, Amptron, et al - I’ve had numerous problems with this crap. PC Chips offers their sh*t to about 10 or 12 other companies on a private-label basis. Avoid these like the plague.
There are a few other major brands out there, like GigaByte and IWill, but I’ve never had any first-hand experience with their stuff. Right now, my three PCs are using MBs from Tyan (old P54 SMP board), FIC (early Slot A board), and a Diamond-Micronics Super7(now defunct but decent stuff for the most part). My next system (if I can spare the $$$) will likely be a Tyan Thunder series with dual AMD Palominos. The old Tyan I have is getting really long in the tooth and is stretched to the max with Win2KServer on dual P54s and 128MB. If money gets too tight, I’ll settle for a Tyan P-III SMP board (VP-6).
NO, most MoBos are very different. I choose my MoBo because she will overclock my 600 MHz to at least 800 MHz, much easier than other MoBos…so much easier.
I haven’t done it yet, and thankfully I haven’t because of the problems I have had with fans failing. But over all it will depend on what you want out of your MoBo.
Once I get my fan situation worked out, I will be overclocking her to the most she can handle.
So no, MoBos are different and I highly recommend than anyone that is computer savy not rely upon the big dudes and go get your computer either custom built or build it your self…
Here’s a place you can get information on different MoBos:
Motherboards are the same, as transportation devices are the same. In other words, techchick, and sewalk got it right IMHO. To add a bit to sewalk, I’ve had good luck with Gigabyte’s, I rate them with Asus. The rest of what s/he said was on the mark. Cheap motherboards have cheap BIOS, cheap slots, cheap jumpers, etc. Your Blue screens, can be caused by your motherboard, it’s not always Microslop’s fault. (However it generally is)
A good motherboard will let you run your main processor above spec (“overclock”), which will give you better performance.