When deciding upon a PC’s configuration, the processor normally heads the
list. It is, however, not the only deciding factor. An equally important factor
is the motherboard, which governs which processors will fit on it. The
motherboard also decides the other capabilities of your machine, such as its
upgradability, performance, and features. Given its importance, we’ll look at
the various motherboards available in the market to help you choose the right
one. We’ll also share with you the information that we found when we tested 27
motherboards in PCQ Labs.
|
Final scores |
| Boards with external graphics/Socket A boards: |
| Features |
200 |
| Performance |
100 |
| Price |
100 |
| Total |
400 |
| Here, a user would expect a certain level of performance from the board, and would be willing to pay the price for it. That’s why more attention would be paid to the features. |
| Boards with onboard graphics: |
| Features |
100 |
| Performance |
200 |
| Price |
200 |
| Total |
500 |
| Here, a buyer would be very price sensitive. At the same time he would want the best performance, while features would take a back seat |
All motherboards can be classified into two broad categories: those that have
integrated graphics, and those that let you add your own graphics card. Earlier,
graphics cards would fit into the PCI slot on the motherboard. This trend was
later discontinued with the introduction of the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
slot. AGP gave dedicated bandwidth to the graphics card, resulting in much
better performance. With the growing popularity of AGP, Intel integrated this
function in its chipsets, called the i810. Motherboards based on this chipset
didn’t have an external graphics slot, making it impossible for anyone to
upgrade to a better graphics card. Other players like SiS have also brought out
similar boards in the market.
Whereas motherboards with integrated graphics can be used for routine office
work, they’re not suitable for graphics’ intensive work. For this, there are
boards with AGP slots that let you add a graphics card of your choice. Boards
based on the Via chipset are quite popular in this category, be they for AMD or
Intel-based processors. Intel also introduced another category of boards
recently, based on the 815 chipset. These boards have both built-in graphics as
well as an AGP slot.
Intel-based boards now come with Socket 370, which can take either a Celeron
or a PIII processor. AMD-based boards have what’s called the Socket A, which
can take either a Duron or an Athlon processor. The advantage of this feature is
that you could buy an entry-level processor, and later upgrade it to a
higher-end one without having to change the motherboard. However, you can’t
have any cross linkages here, meaning you can’t use an Athlon board to house a
PIII and vice versa.
As we can see, boards are becoming integrated with greater functionality. You
could buy a board with an entry-level processor and use its onboard graphics. As
your needs grow, you could change to a better processor and add a graphics card
to turn it into a high-end mean machine.
Other important factors in a motherboard are the features it provides such as
onboard sound, number of PCI slots, and maximum RAM. We took all these factors
into account when testing the boards. Test criteria
| 
