When shopping for a motherboard (First time PC builder). Is the determining factor in CPU MOBO compatibility ONLY THE SOCKET TYPE?? OR are there others. Help SOOO confused.
The motherboard should have a list of compatible CPUs to confirm.
As long as your CPU doesn't require more power than the motherboard can supply you should be ok. Get a decent motherboard though, don't buy the cheapest one find somewhere in the middle with a good feature set.
There's also BIOS version sometimes and TDP for some AMD boards. You should have most of the info available on the website of whatever motherboard you wish to know more about. Or just ask the fine people on this website when you select a motherboard and the CPU and we'll tell you if they're compatible and if you should change something.
Yeap. Never go with the cheapest motherboard option. It's one of the most important, overlooked parts in a PC. Spend just a little bit more for something in the mid tier level, and that'll go a long way in extending the usable life of your PC.
Thanks guys, so the motherboard is not only important in terms of compatilibility with your target processor, its features, but also the computers usability (Upgradeability)? This forum is amazing learned more in 3 days than 2 weeks of researching ;lol. I was always thinking the MOBO sdhould be as cheap as possible from all the budget build videos im watching.
Don't worry. That's what my friend thought as well, when he bought some cheap 4+1 power phase board for his FX8350. Before he even installed his processor, I told him what could possibly happen and he almost instantly exchanged it for an Asus M5A99FX Pro r2.0.
Yeah you have to be really careful choosing your motherboard. Posting a topic in the build a pc section with your build is always a good idea. Just make sure you get a couple of opinions on it, preferably from people that have been around for a while. There have been a couple bad motherboard recommendations from some of the newer guys hehe