selecting the right motherboard.

[c2tarun]

Hi friends,

After getting inspired by my this thread, I am planning to assemble a PC for me. Till now I am thinking about
Intel i3 processor,
4 or 8 GB of RAM,
no graphic card (Intel HD integrated one will be great)
500 GB HDD

The main problem I am facing is how to choose the right motherboard and then right RAM or other products for the motherboard. I visited shops, they are giving motherboards in which they have the maximum margin, and when it comes to telling about the why X motherboard over Y they are as ignorant as I am. Well I had no reasons for not believing them, but one of them said Gigabyte motherboards are not good and this ticked me, I have a PC at home with P4 processor and Gigabyte motherboard and I got it assembled in 2004. And its still working. I tried to google on various types of motherboard and got overwhelmed by the information there.

So, if anyone can guide me to a good tutorial which tells me the basics of various motherboards and advantages of one over other. Also a suggestion that which company makes good motherboard will be really helpful. (I heard that ASUS and Gigabyte make good MBs)

One more thing, I am planning to install Ubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04 in it.

Okay, I went to Asus site and found this list in their Products>>Motherboard section.

intel socket list.PNG
Can anyone please explain me that what are the socket numbers? And how do I decide which one is better for me?

[Yellow Pasque]

Can anyone please explain me that what are the socket numbers? And how do I decide which one is better for me?

It has to match your CPU. In case of Core i3, Socket 1155 is what you need.

[CatKiller]

Gigabyte and Asus are both good makes, although I'd avoid the cheaper Asrock ones. Motherboard chipset is pretty much determined by which processor you want to use, and then there will be variations based on extra peripherals; onboard graphics, sound, network, bluetooth, number of ports and so on.

Once you've picked the motherboard you want, there's a handy RAM picker tool on the Crucial website that will tell you which RAM will work with that motherboard. Obviously they'd rather you went on to buy your RAM from them, but you don't have to. Crucial is a well-respected RAM maker, though.

[Mark Phelps]

I used ASUS mobos for years -- more than I care to mention -- but when they dropped BIOS and drive support for the last one I had, less than 18 months after it was introduce -- I jumped ship and went over to Gigabyte -- and couldn't have been happier.

Despite the fact that my Gigabyte mobo is several years old now, they recently put out Win8 drivers for it -- not that you need those, but it just shows that they support their products for a long time.

[c2tarun]

Gigabyte and Asus are both good makes, although I'd avoid the cheaper Asrock ones. Motherboard chipset is pretty much determined by which processor you want to use, and then there will be variations based on extra peripherals; onboard graphics, sound, network, bluetooth, number of ports and so on.

Once you've picked the motherboard you want, there's a handy RAM picker tool on the Crucial website that will tell you which RAM will work with that motherboard. Obviously they'd rather you went on to buy your RAM from them, but you don't have to. Crucial is a well-respected RAM maker, though.

I used ASUS mobos for years -- more than I care to mention -- but when they dropped BIOS and drive support for the last one I had, less than 18 months after it was introduce -- I jumped ship and went over to Gigabyte -- and couldn't have been happier.

Despite the fact that my Gigabyte mobo is several years old now, they recently put out Win8 drivers for it -- not that you need those, but it just shows that they support their products for a long time.

Thanks for your great advises. I was also thinking about ASUS and GIGABYTE only I am planning to buy a H77 chipset as they are neither very low nor very high on features. Between ASUS and GIGABYTE I'll look for availability and price in nearby stores and choose one.