HOW TO BUILD A COMPUTER 101
Date: 10/8/00
By: Rice

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5. Motherboard Brands

    Now that you are armed with the nitty gritty of motherboard terminology, you're set to go out and make a purchasing decision. Most motherboard companies hail from my very own Taiwan. I myself am partial to Asus, but others will swear by Abit or AOpen. Here are a list of them that I personally recommend:

    Each of those companies have clear websites posting their latest BIOS's and product information. All of them produce motherboards based on the 4 main core logic chipsets I mentioned earlier. Take Asus and Abit for example:

   Each manufacturer has a similar list, just different names for each chipset. As you can see, a full motherboard comparision guide is waaayy beyond the scope of this article. However, there are two sites that I can confidently recommend for info on just about any motherboard: Anandtech and Tom's Hardware Guide. Both of them have excellent chipset roundups that include all of the above mentioned motherboard brands, and easy to comprehend text that doesn't require a degree in Rocket Science. Just punch in your query in their respective search engines and you're off to the races!

    Keep in mind, motherboard shopping is NOT easy. As a matter of fact, for a person starting from ground zero, it may seem like an impossible task to mix chipsets with motherboard brands with different CPU slot types. Many people begin their research on building computers give up and run to an OEM supplier for a pre-built system because they are too lazy to finish truly understanding motherboards. Take your time and understand your own needs.

  1. Ask yourself which chipset you want to go with.
  2. Find out the budget you're working under. Are you willing to spend more for the motherboard and less on other components? Or vice versa?
  3. Finally, ask yourself which company's product based on that chipset has the best features that fit under your budget.

    In the interest of keeping this guide to a decently lengthed article, I am sorry I am unable to present to you everything I know about pairing CPU's and motherboards. However, if you contact me either privately or via the message board, I would be more than glad to help.

Tower Case and Power Supply:

    This is one component many people overlook. You'd think all towers are created equal? Nuh uh. They range from 30 bucks all the way up to the hundreds. However, there are basically only two specs that you have to know:

  1. AT or ATX?
  2. Mini, Mid, or Full?

    The AT/ATX spec tells how the tower is supposed to be designed, as well as the type of power supply you need for it. #2 is self explainatory. How big do you want your tower? The bigger, the more expansion slots, more space, and more money. Probably comes with a beefier power supply too.

    Here's how you can break down your tower purchase: Get an ATX case. AT's are all but phased out. You'll probably want to go with a Mid tower as well. A Full tower is way too big and only servers need a lot of drive-space. Mini's are too cramped, and probably won't fit larger motherboards like the Asus A7V. Get a tower with at least 250 Watts of power. More is better, but 250 ought to be enough.

    Then you have the various quirks of each tower that determines its cost. Does it have a slide-out motherboard tray? Are the metal edges rolled so they don't cause the "bleeding knuckle" syndrome whenever you're digging around in there? Is the construction flimsy? Etc, etc... An average case might come out to around $50 or so. A good case with all the works, 300W power supply, and a screw-less slideout motherboard tray might tip the $75-80 scale.

    I strongly recommend you to NOT buy the case online unless you absolutely have no local dealers nearby. Shipping will kill whatever price is listed on the sites, plus there's no guarentee the UPS or FedEx boys will really treat the package very well and you might end up with a dented case.

System RAM:

    System RAM is a finicky product, both hardware wise and price wise. If you get a low quality, generic stick of RAM, your system might end up crashing a whole lot, or maybe not even bothering to boot up at all! Also, prices fluctuate like mad in the memory market due to God knows why reasons. Best place to check up on your memory prices is at Sharky Extreme's newly launched Weekly Memory Guide section: click!

    There are different types of RAM and their specs. However, all you need to be concerned about is SDRAM. This guide does not cover i820 core logic chipsets, therefore you will have no need for RDRAM. Why did we omit it? Because the price to performance ratio is ridiculously ugly. Maybe one day when RDRAM can actually begin serious competition with the rest of the market, I will update this guide.

    There are 2 specs to note about RAM:

  1. CAS Latency: You'll either encounter CAS 2 or CAS 3. Since latency denotes lag, CAS 2 is better than CAS 3. However, it's more expensive as well. The difference is noticable, but not by a large degree. I recommend going for the cheaper CAS 3 unless you're a performance nut with a large wallet.
  2. Speed Rating: You'll see PC66, PC100, or PC133 SDRAM's. Now that you all know about motherboard FSB, this ought to be self-explainatory. I'd just recommend PC133 these days... PC100 if you're strapped on cash. I don't recommend PC66 RAM because if you get one, you've just shot any future upgrade capabilities with it.

    And that's it! I recommend getting RAM either online or thru a local vendor if you trust them. The advantage of the latter is that you can return it easily if you got problems, but most of the time they only stock generic sticks.

Graphics (Video) Card:

    See my detailed 3rd-party guide: click!

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