The Motherboard, Processor, and Memory - Choosing and Installing
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Choosing a motherboard is more difficult than buying a car. The market is overwhelming, with more than a dozen major manufacturers, each usually with several current motherboards in circulation at any given time.
First, you’ll need to decide which processor family you wish to go with. The vast majority of solutions use DDR memory; it’s getting hard to find Rambus motherboards for current processors. For bleeding-edge performance at any cost, the Pentium 4 3.06GHz with PC3200 (400MHz DDR) is king. For a more cost-effective but still extremely fast solution, look at an Athlon XP 2800+ with PC3200 memory.
Next, you’ll have to decide on a motherboard brand. This author has tested and benchmarked hundreds of motherboards through the years. The best brands consistently have been SOYO, ASUS, ABIT, and DFI. If you’re building your first system and you’ve never handled a new motherboard, add Gigabyte to the list; its boards come with the friendliest documentation and installation guides available.
Specific motherboards recommendations, based on performance and features, are listed in the following table:
| Pentium 4 | Athlon XP |
| SOYO P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition (supports processors up to 2.8GHz only) | SOYO KT400 DRAGON Ultra Platinum Edition |
| DFI NB80-EA | ABIT KD7-G |
| ASUS P4PE | ASUS A7V8X |
Choosing between Intel and AMD is difficult. We recommend AMD, mainly because its parts are cheaper than Intel’s, it runs equally well, and AMD-based computers tend to be more upgradeable than Intel-based systems. Intel often creates new motherboard architectures, forcing frequent upgraders to buy not only a new CPU but a new motherboard as well.
Our current favorite motherboard is the SOYO KT400 Dragon Ultra, in its shiny and showy Platinum Edition. The edition describes the color of the board, and this one comes in a nifty silver color. A black edition is also available.
Installing the Motherboard When you’ve chosen a motherboard, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get busy. Be sure you know how to open the case, and if your case’s motherboard panel comes out, know how to remove it and replace it. You might also want to remove the 3-inch drive bay bracket if it comes out, as it does on most tower and mid-tower cases.
- Take the cover off your case, or open the cover if it has individual panels. Take off the panel that, with the case’s front bezel facing you, is on the left side. Lay the case on its side with the open side facing up and the front bezel facing you.
- If your case’s motherboard mounting panel comes out, remove it and work on it instead of working through the case.
- Your case should have come with mounting hardware in a bag or box somewhere inside. Find it, open it up, and separate out the brass standoffs (the little brass double-threaded risers that support the motherboard).
- Find the screw holes in the motherboard. Each of those holes corresponds to a hole in the metal panel that houses the motherboard. Insert a standoff in each corresponding hole, and tighten each one with a pair of pliers.
- Your motherboard may have come with a small, rectangular panel with holes of various shapes and sizes cut out of it. Look for it. That’s the bezel for the I/O port riser, and it needs to go in the back of the case near the power supply. Carefully remove the bezel that came with the motherboard, and insert the new one, snapping it into place. If your motherboard did not come with an I/O port riser bezel, don’t worry about it.
- Next, insert the motherboard into the case, wriggling it carefully past any drive bays that are in the way, until it lays flat on the grid of standoffs. Then slide the motherboard toward the back of the case so that the I/O ports fit snugly against the bezel. Some of the ports, like the serial and parallel ports, will actually go through the bezel.
- The motherboard screw holes should be close to being lined up with the brass standoffs. Finish lining them up and continue on.
- Insert a screw through the motherboard into one of the standoffs. Turn it a couple of times, but don’t tighten it entirely. Add screws to each of the other holes, turning each one a few times but not tightening them. When you’ve finished inserting all of the screws, go back around and tighten them snugly. Don’t over-tighten them or you can crack the motherboard.
- With your motherboard firmly in place, it’s time to connect the power supply to it. Find the largest plug, and match it to the white receptacle on the motherboard. It will go in only one way, so you can’t connect it backward. Insert it until it’s snug. If you’re using a Pentium 4 motherboard with the proper power supply, you’ll see a separate, four-wire power lead that you have to connect.
When you’re finished, you’re motherboard is in place and ready for action.
Two Types of Screws: Two styles of mounting screws are associated with PCs—one with narrow threads and another with wider threads. Usually, the standoffs accept screws with the narrower thread, but there’s no set standard. The best way to find out which screws your risers work with is to try inserting a large screw; if it doesn’t turn easily, insert a narrow screw and try turning it.
 This chapter is from Build Your Own High Performance Gamers' Mod PC, by Chen and Durham (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0072229012). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now. |
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