Mother board compatibility?

Question

I am going to make my own pc and i am confident in doing so.

I have set out what i need but i am having problems with the mother board and how to find out which one to buy.

So here are the questions

1) How do i know if a quad core or core 2 duo processor is compateble with a mother board

2) How do i know if a certain type of ram is compateble with a mother board

3) How do i know if a certain type of graphics card is compateble with a mother board

4) How do i know if it supports wireless network cards

5) How do i know what type of dvd drive it supports

6) How do i know what type of hard drive it supports

7) What is a chipset on a mother board

8) Does any mother board support intel quad core or does it have to be an intel bios mother board.

9) What does FBS stand for and what does it do, is it important

10) If the chipset says nvidia and you get an ati graphics card, will the graphics card work on the mother board.

Answer 1

Most decent comp websites will have a specifications setting for any motherboard you're looking at. It will list these items.

For example, check this link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131343



Click the specifications tab. It will say it all.

1) For quad or dual core, etc, this will be listed under CPU socket type/CPU type

2) RAM compat will be under Memory section

3) GPU will be under Expansion slots... this will tell you what type of graphics card slots it has which is what matters

4) Ports will be towards the bottom.

5 and 6) will be under the Storage Devices section

7) Chipset has its own section



AMD does the Phenom processors as their quad cores, X2 is their dual core. Intel does the Core 2 Duo and Core Quads. Every motherboard is either AMD or Intel compatible ONLY.



FSB is front side bus and this represents your bus speed for your RAM. If your FSB is only 800mhz and you put 1066mhz RAM in, it will only run at max 800mhz speed. The faster the better.

Answer 2

ok 1. Usually it tells you when you buy the motherboard what CPU's its compateble with...Use TigerDirect.com

2. RAM is probably most likely going to be DDR2 nowadays, DDR3 is JUST now coming out, and is only available on the higher end models....and again, it should tell you when you look at it online.

3. Graphics Cards....Express card 2.0, integrated and AGP are ones out there. AGP is outdated and is used only on older machines. Integrated Graphics are graphics GPUS directly on the motherboard, these are good if you're short on money, but they suck RAM away from the OS. Expresscard 2.0 is the best performance card available right now, and is on most cards right now. Some Motherboards have Integrated AND expresscard 2.0 slots.

4. Wireless cards are going to be supported on all motherboards, you just need an open PCI slot.

5. DVD drives are sorted into IDE and SATA catagories. The IDE are going to be for slightly older machines. They will most likely run a LITTLE slower than SATA. Most Motherboards have only 1 IDE slot...So it depends on what you're buying.

6. Hard drives have 2 catagories like DVD. IDE and SATA. IDE is for OLDER machines, and is generally going to be quite slower than SATA. However, IDE drives are going to be SLIGHTLY cheaper than SATA. SATA slots are usually in great numbers on the motherboard, so you should probably get SATA.

7. Chipset is the Manufacters Specs. Its like identification for the Motherboard type. Like Intel 965E. This is used to search compatibilty and supported CPUS.

8. Any motherboard can support any CPU it just needs a specific Socket Number. Socket Numbers Determine what CPU can go into whatever motherboard. no it does not have to be Intel Motherboards.

9. FBS stands for Front Bus Speed, and it determines how fast your computer can run. GHZ also deals with Speed as well. Generally, more FBS, more speed.

10. The Graphics card will most likely run on the Nvidia board. Nvidia recently started to make Motherboards to help gain money along with their Graphics cards. They shouldnt have any compatibility issues, because that wouldnt be user Friendly. :P

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

go to a website called tigerdirect.com and do some research on motherboards. it will tell you there.

Secondly go to a computer shop and look at the motherboards along with the salesperson and ask him all the questions with the motherborad that your looking at.

when you see a motherboard on display it will tell you all the processor types it is compatible with. the same with RAM. the MB and RAM will tell you their compatibility at the same time speak with the sales rep.

Answer 4

Choose your motherboard first!