
The CPU you choose determines the type of motherboard you need. Choose a Socket 478 Pentium 4 or a Socket A Athlon motherboard. With fast Socket 478 and Socket A processors available at very low prices, there is no point in buying into older technology, even though motherboards and processors using that technology may remain available.
Buy a motherboard that uses the right chipset
For a single Pentium 4 or Celeron processor, choose a motherboard that uses an Intel 845-, 865-, or 875-series chipset, depending on your budget and priorities. For a single Athlon processor, choose a motherboard that uses an nVIDIA nForce2-series chipset. For a dual-processor Athlon MP system, choose a motherboard that uses the AMD 760-MPX chipset. We have not tested any dual-Xeon systems, and so cannot make specific recommendations for them.
Make sure the motherboard supports the exact processor you plan to use
Just because a motherboard claims that it supports a particular processor doesn't mean that it supports all members of that processor family. For example, some motherboards support the Pentium 4 processor, but only slower models. Other motherboards support fast Pentium 4s, but not slower Pentium 4s or Celerons. Similarly, many motherboards support the Athlon with a 200 or 266 MHz FSB, but not Athlon models that use a 333 MHz or 400 MHz FSB. Make sure the motherboard supports the exact processor you plan to use, before you buy it.
Choose a board with flexible host bus speed
Choose a motherboard that supports at least the settings you need now and expect to need for the life of the board. For example, even if you install a 400 MHz FSB Celeron initially, you should choose a motherboard that supports Pentium 4 processors using the 400, 533, and 800 MHz FSB speeds. Similarly, even if you plan to install an inexpensive 266 MHz Athlon at first, you should choose a motherboard that supports the full range of Athlon FSB speeds—200, 266, 333, and 400 MHz. Boards that offer a full range of hostbus speeds, ideally in small increments, give you the most flexibility. If you intend to overclock your system, make sure the motherboard offers multiple choices of hostbus speed (again, the smaller the increments, the better) and allows you to set CPU voltage, ideally over a wide range in 0.05-volt increments.
Make sure the board supports the type and amount of memory you need
Any new motherboard you buy should use DDR-SDRAM. PC2100 memory is still sold new, although it is now used only in the least-expensive systems. PC2700 memory is mainstream, and likely to remain so until DDR-II memory becomes widely available. PC3200 memory, which as late as early 2003 we expected to remain a technical curiosity, was legitimized by the Intel 865- and 875-series chipsets, but PC3200 memory remains difficult and expensive to produce relative to PC2700 memory, and is therefore likely to be used only in systems for which memory performance is a high priority. Even so, we recommend choosing a motherboard that supports at least PC2700 and PC3200 memory.
Do not make assumptions about how much memory a motherboard supports. A motherboard has a certain number of memory slots and the literature may state that it accepts memory modules up to a specific size, but that doesn't mean you can necessarily install the largest supported module in all of the memory slots. For example, a motherboard may have four memory slots and accept 512 MB DIMMs, but you may find that you can use all four slots only if you install 256 MB DIMMs. Memory speed may also come into play. For example, a particular motherboard may support three or four rows of PC2700 memory, but only one or two rows of PC3200 memory.
Also, chipsets and motherboards vary in terms of how much memory of different types they support. For example, the Intel 845 chipset supports up to 3 GB of SDR-SDRAM, but only up to 2 GB of DDR-SDRAM. Registered versus unbuffered memory may also be an issue. For example, although Tyan recommends (and we concur) that you use only Registered DDR-SDRAM with its S2460 Tiger MP dual-Athlon board, some have reported that the Tiger MP does work properly with unbuffered memory, but only if you limit it to one DIMM.
Nor do all motherboards necessarily support the full amount of memory that the chipset itself supports, even if there are sufficient memory sockets to do so. Always check to determine exactly what combinations of memory sizes, types, and speeds are supported by a particular motherboard.
For a general-purpose system, support for 512 MB of RAM is acceptable, and 1 GB is better. For a system that will be used for memory-intensive tasks such as professional graphics, make sure the motherboard supports at least 1 GB of RAM, and 2 GB or more is better.
Although you may be able to find a new motherboard that supports migrating existing memory from the old motherboard, it's usually not a good idea to do so unless that older memory is current—i.e., PC2700 DDR-SDRAM or better. Memory is cheap, and it seldom makes sense to base a new motherboard purchase decision on the ability to salvage a relatively small amount of old, slow memory
Avoid hybrid motherboards
Every time there's a change in memory technology, some manufacturers make motherboards that accept both the old and new types of memory. During the transition from SDR to DDR memory, such hybrid motherboards were common. We expect to see hybrid DDR/DDR-II motherboards when DDR-II memory begins shipping in volume. We think buying a hybrid motherboard is usually a mistake, both because we've yet to see one that worked well with both types of memory, and because hybrid motherboards are often problematic in other respects as well. Motherboards are relatively inexpensive. If you want to use DDR-SDRAM, buy a DDR-SDRAM motherboard. In a couple of years, when DDR-II memory becomes available, if you want to use DDR-II memory, buy a native DDR-II motherboard. The advantages of new memory technologies are seldom compelling enough to make it worthwhile to compromise on a hybrid. Wait until second-generation motherboards are available for the new memory technology.
Check documentation, support, and updates
Before you choose a brand or model of motherboard, check the documentation and support available for it, as well as the available BIOS and driver updates. Some people think that a motherboard that has many available patches and updates must be a bad motherboard. Not so. Frequent patch and update releases indicate that the manufacturer takes support seriously. We recommend to friends and clients that they give great weight to—and perhaps even base their buying decisions on—the quality of the web site that supports the motherboard.
Buy a motherboard with the proper form factor
If you are building a new system, choose an ATX motherboard that best meets your needs, and then buy an ATX case and power supply to hold it. For most purposes, a full-size ATX motherboard is the best choice. If system size is a major consideration, a micro-ATX or FlexATX motherboard may be a better choice, although using the smaller form factor has several drawbacks, notably giving up one or two expansion slots and making it more difficult to route cables and cool the system.
The preceding issues are always important in choosing a motherboard. But there are many other motherboard characteristics to keep in mind. Each of them may be critical for some users and of little concern to others. These characteristics include:
Expansion slots
Any motherboard you buy will provide some PCI expansion slots, but motherboards differ in how many slots they provide. Three PCI slots is marginal, four adequate, and five or more preferable. Integrated motherboards—those with embedded video, sound, and/or LAN—can get by with fewer PCI slots. Using ISA slots should be avoided at all costs, so the number of ISA slots is largely immaterial. Having an AGP 2.0 or 3.0 slot (4X or 8X) is a definite plus, even if the motherboard includes embedded video. Many recent motherboards include an Audio-Modem Riser (AMR) slot or Communications and Networking Riser (CNR) slot, the sole purpose of which is to allow system manufacturers to embed low-end audio and communications functions cheaply. Very few AMR and CNR components are commercially available, so the presence or absence of an AMR or CNR slot is immaterial, except in that the space occupied by an AMR or CNR slot is much better used to provide another PCI slot.
Warranty
It may seem strange to put something generally regarded as so important in a secondary category, but the truth is that warranty should not be a major issue for most users. Motherboards generally work or they don't. If a motherboard is going to fail, it will likely do so right out of the box or within a few days of use. In practical terms, the vendor's return policy is likely to be more important than the manufacturer's warranty policy. Look for a vendor who replaces DOA motherboards quickly, preferably by cross-shipping the replacement.