The mother board, also known as baseboard or mother card, is the printed circuit plate where the microprocessor, the RAM, ROM, support circuits, additional plates and peripherals such as keyboard, monitor, etc are connected. In this section, we will give you advice when buying a mother board.

Hardware it supports: it is essential for you to make sure that the mother board is compatible with the other components you are planning to install in your computer. It is even convenient to buy a mother board compatible with all the technologies existing at the time so that you can have the chance to use them if you wish to. It is especially important to check that the mother board is compatible with the different types of microprocessors.

Physical resistance: boards are built with different numbers of fiber glass sheets. The more fiber glasses there are, the more resistant the board will be, and this will prevent it from breaking when connecting and disconnecting components. Boards are usually built with 4 or 6 fiber glass sheets, although they may exceptionally be built with 8 sheets.

Welding: you need to verify always that the board welding is properly built because otherwise the board may become obsolete in a few months. You can do it by using a magnifier and checking that all welding points are bright and full (without holes).

Supported memory: you must consider the potential memory capacity of a mother board, together with the amount of space to place cards it has. It is important to take this into account for the memory in particular but for the board in general: the more possibilities and slots a board has, the more the improvements could be made and the more components can be added. Not only the RAM memory comes in sheets to be added, you can also buy sound, video boards, etc. that will improve your computer.

Format: dividing mother boards into AT (or baby AT) and ATX, we will find some differences. The baby AT format is the cheapest one but ATX is the most advanced and provides improvement possibilities. The way they are set up on their electrical circuits and structures make both formats very different. When buying a board, you must be aware that AT are not compatible with ATX compartments (computer boxes or frameworks) and that ATX boards are not compatible with AT compartments.

In short, before considering each of the items above developed, it is important to listen to a trustworthy person (either the salesman or an acquaintance that goes with you to buy it) when discussing eventual options to effectively combine components. Talking about mother boards, a golden rule is always looking for the one offering a greater chance of improvement and optimization. Our advice is not to reduce costs with the mother board: it is better to do it when buying other components.