Motherboards on the market can generally be divided into two categories: those that support Intel CPUs and those that support AMD CPUs, according to the types of CPUs they support. Regardless of the type of motherboard, the following aspects can be considered when purchasing a motherboard.
PCB board workmanship
The fineness of the motherboard workmanship will directly affect the stability of the motherboard. Therefore, when choosing a motherboard, you must carefully observe the workmanship of the motherboard. At present, in the motherboard market, some manufacturers make a big fuss about material selection and workmanship in order to reduce costs, and even some unscrupulous manufacturers polish chips to make fake ones, resulting in extremely unstable motherboard performance. The motherboard materials produced by famous brand manufacturers, such as CPU sockets, expansion slots, etc., all use famous brand components, high-quality SMD components (gold-plated treatment), high-quality tantalum capacitors.
First of all, the PCB boards produced by powerful PCB manufacturers must have uniform color, smooth edges and good finish. Secondly, the more wiring layers the PCB has, the better. Generally, a 6-layer board is suitable, with a complete power layer and wiring layer. However, ordinary motherboards are mostly 4-layer PCB boards, and there is a big gap in stability.
Secondly, look at the quality of the main board's several-phase power supply and capacitors. Because it plays a key role in the stability of the motherboard's supply voltage and current. Common capacitors on the motherboard include aluminum electrolytic capacitors, tantalum capacitors, and ceramic chip capacitors. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors (vertical capacitors) are the most common capacitors, and are generally found near the CPU and memory slots. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are large in size and capacity. Tantalum capacitors and ceramic chip capacitors are generally small, with a black patch appearance, small size, good heat resistance, low loss, but small capacity, generally suitable for high-frequency circuits, and are widely used on motherboards and graphics cards. Finally, look at the thickness of the motherboard PCB, thicker is better than thinner; then look at the wiring of the PCB, if the components and wiring are unreasonable, it is likely to cause mutual interference between adjacent lines, which will reduce the stability of the system.
Motherboard Thermal Performance
When purchasing a motherboard, you should also pay attention to the heat dissipation performance of the chipset. Especially for the north bridge chip that controls the memory and graphics card, from the beginning of adding heat sinks, to adding dedicated small fans, and today there is a way to remove the fans and use large-size heat sinks. In addition to reducing operating noise, The most important thing is to consider the heat dissipation performance. The good heat dissipation performance of the motherboard can not only effectively ensure the stability of the whole machine for a long time, but also further improve the overall overclocking performance of the computer.
Integration and scalability of the motherboard
Now more and more motherboard manufacturers are emphasizing highly integrated products, and motherboard products including integrated graphics cards, sound cards, network cards, etc. are everywhere in the market. When purchasing such integrated motherboard products, the user's own needs should be mainly considered. At the same time, it should be noted that the performance of these integrated control chips is still slightly inferior to that of similar mid-to-high-end board products. If there is a higher demand, you should still purchase the corresponding board to achieve higher performance. In addition, on-board functions should also be considered: on-board indicator lights, monitoring and management, anti-virus functions, etc.
Motherboard after-sales service
Considering the technical content of the motherboard is relatively high, and the price is not cheap, so when choosing a motherboard, you must not ignore whether the manufacturer can provide you with perfect after-sales service.
motherboard brand
For ordinary users, it is often impossible to judge the quality of the motherboard. Branded motherboards have a good reputation in terms of quality, workmanship, and after-sales service. Therefore, as a user who knows nothing about motherboard technology, or knows little about it, the first consideration should be to choose a branded motherboard. At present, there are several branded motherboard manufacturers in the market, such as MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS. The workmanship, stability, and anti-interference performance of these motherboards are superior to similar products. Excellent quality assurance and perfect after-sales service.
Large and Small Plates
Generally, there are two types of motherboards of the same model on the market: large boards and small boards. Usually, the design of large boards is designed by more formal manufacturers, while many small boards are designed by public boards. Small boards are better than small boards.