4.Motherboard

MOTHERBOARD

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Motherboard, also known as mainboard, is one of the basic components of computers, and it is the carrier of other computer accessories. There are many interfaces and slots offered to users to install accessories such as CPU, graphics card, and memory on it. In addition, the mouse, keyboard, and display can also be linked to the motherboard.

The key to choose a motherboard is to match the motherboard with the CPU. Tips are listed below:

• Select a CPU.

Different CPUs adapt to different motherboards(Intel’s CPUs are not compatible with AMD’s motherboards，and vice versa).

• Decide the chipset corresponding to this CPU.

A chipset is a core chip on the motherboard to make the motherboard recognize the CPU and work normally.

In this step we mainly concern about the interface on the motherboard. For example, a LGA 1151 interface on the motherboard with 1151 pins do not match the Intel CPU over 10th generation which has 1200 pins.

Manufacturer	Interface	compatible CPU
Intel	LGA 1151	6th-9th generation
	LGA 1200	10th, 11th generation
AMD	Socket AM4	2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 series

The above table is a brief instruction to select a motherboard. Different chipsets has different series and positioning which decides the performance after installing CPUs. Let’s take Intel as an example. While there are many series of chipset, we can simply think that the higher the first number, the better the performance. And The chipset level can be divided into four levels: H, B, Z, X from entry to proffesional.
Here are some recommendation for Intel 11th generation CPUs:

Positioning	CPU	Recommended chipset	Remark
Entry	Core i3-10105	H510	Limited budget, mainly for office and light games
	Core i3-10105F	H510, B560
Mid-range	Core i5-11400, Core i5-11400F, Core i5-11500	B560	For designer or 3A game users
	Core i5-11600KF	B560, Z590
High-end	Core i7-11700F, Core i7-11700, Core i7-11700KF, Core i7-11700K	Z590	Adequate budget, for in-depth office and enthusiast games
Top-level	Core i9-11900F	Z590
	Core i9-11900K	Z590

• Select the mainboard with the specific chipset.

After selecting the chipset, the final step is to determine the brand of motherboard. We strongly Recommend you to choose motherboard from these brands: msi, ASUS and AORUS.

• Size of the motherboard

Last but not least, do select the motherboard with approptiate size so that your computer case is able to suit. The sizes are listed below, in which E-ATX is the maximun size while ITX stands for the minimun size.

Refefence

How to select a motherboard
Baike-Motherboard
How to choose a motherboard in 2021 computer