Plan a Computer Build: Part 2

So; let's talk motherboards. This topic gets complex really quickly so, stay with me here.

To simplify things, I'm going to talk mostly in generalities and at least for this series, I'm only going to discuss Intel. Please understand that I'm not doing this because I'm an Intel "fanboy", or have it out for AMD, it's just that in the current state of the industry, if you can pay the difference, you'll go Intel virtually every time. They are just that far ahead. 

 And when you talk, Intel, all discussions begin with the chipset. There are actually 2 dynamics when you get into it though; the generation (as in Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Sky Lake etc.), and the actual chipset that's soldered on the motherboard. In the Intel world, there are performance chipsets, and for consumer boards, these range from the "performance/enthusiast" versions such as "Z" or "X". To further simplify our discussion, we'll eliminate the Ultra-performance "X" chips that are for workstations and people with too much money, to the much more commonly used "Z" lettered chips. Regardless of which manufacturer you go with (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASROCK, MSI.....), somewhere in it's name, will be a letter such as "Z", or "H". "Z" boards generally are "unlocked" meaning that if you put in the right hardware (e.g. CPU, RAM, etc.) the BIOS is set up so that you can manipulate the individual settings quite a bit.... bump the BUS speed, increase voltage, CPU clock-multiplier..... that list goes on almost endlessly. However, there's a catch! If you want to do those sorts of things, you have to buy hardware that's created for that! The CPU will have to be a "K" spec version or your choices will be limited, buy "performance" RAM with a greater range of acceptable voltages and BUS speeds. ....AND any combination there-of. It's hours of fun but often frustration as well!

However, if you are more this....

than this; Intel has chipsets for you as well. While gamers, or hardware geeks like me, are likely to "play" with their machines, seeing just what it'll do, most people do run-of-the-mill things on their machines. For them, there's are the "H" (probably for home), and "B" (probably for business) chipsets. The board on which these chipsets live are generally quite a bit less expensive than the "Z" versions. They are loaded with less features and there are a LOT less in the way of configurability as well. In today's world, virtually all of these different chipset versions are available in all of the major form-factors. 

Therefore, the buying decision can be broken down into 2 questions to be answered. What do you want the machine to do? And how big (or small) do you want it to be?

Let's start with the "case study" that we started using in Part 1...that of a modern gaming machine that can be relatively portable so it can go off to college in a few years. So, that would typically imply a "Z" chipset such as this example from Gigabyte, the Z97N-Gaming. Even without the "gaming" part in the name and color, it's purpose is self-evident. The "Z97" means that it has a configurable chipset of the "9" (Broadwell) generation with has an onboard "N" type Wi-Fi card. Because it's 9 series, the CPU socket will be an LGA-1150. These specifications will dictate certain other buying decisions as well. It is also a Mini-ITX sized board, which will allow the buyer to install into very small cases which can sit on a desktop or tucked away. Why the "9" series, versus the "10" (Sky Lake) chipset? These are high school students in a middle-class suburb. For most games, the CPU is secondary to the performance of the graphics card. So, the $50 to $100 saved here can be applied to a better graphics card! So, if it was me, I'd probably go with the compromise as well. The price of these range down to $50 for "H" chipped boards up the around $200 for "Z" chipped versions. 

Next time; CPUs and RAM.