What makes a good motherboard?

Can anyone tell me what makes motherboard a good one? And what motherboard needs to have a good overclocking potential? And which motherboard chipsets are better and why?

Having all the features you need while having reliability and support,

Overclocking potential needs:

  • Multi-phase digital power design
  • beefy VRM cooling
  • Luck

Again, better chipsets depends on features needed. Z77 and 990FX are the best chipsets on their respective platforms. They include the most SATA 6Gb/s, intel supports various Intel technologies such as iGPU, SSD caching, etc.

You should really Google such things

Thanks! 

I did Google that. And I did read a number of articles explaining all about north/south bridges etc. I just wanted an advice based on personal experience. 

Although, I didn't come across anything about Multi-phase digital power design. Would you mind explaining what exactly it is, or posting a link to a good article?

B.t.w, is any Z77 or 990FX motherboard guaranteed to be a good one?

 

I'm not sure exactly what phases are in terms of phase power design, but I do know is they help with making sure the CPU (and memory) get clean stable power. Most motherboards have a 4+1 or a 4+2, meaning 4 phases dedicated to the CPU and 1 or 2 dedicated to memory. More phases = cleaner power. More overclocking oriented boards will have at least an 8+2 phase power design with digital voltage regulation (sometimes called Digi+ VRM). That is what I mean by digital multi-phase power design.

I'd say most Z77 or 990FX boards are solid bets, though sometimes manufacturers will add their own touches, such as clear CMOS buttons, dual BIOS/EFI, extra USB/SATA ports via 3rd party controllers, etc.  ASUS has several, such as Digi+ VRM, MemOK, etc.

If you're a serious overclocker, or your PC is geared towards media productivity, there are lots of elements to consider. But if you're a gamer who just wants to OC, stick in a GPU, and be golden, even budget oriented boards will more than serve that purpose. If you're on the AMD platform, I'd say the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 is one of the best boards around if you aren't that concerned with those fancy features or I/O.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme9/ 12+2 Power Phase

You can see a phase as a wire, how more wires you have how better, normaly.

a VRM delivers the current, to the cpu. how more phases (wires) you have got, how easier for a vrm to transport the current on, cause more phases (wires) means lower currents over each phas (wire) lower current means less heat, less heat mean less l lose,less lose means better stability..  if you have less phases, then the vrms have more work to do to push the current trough those less phases,  and ofc the vrms producing much more heat, cause they have to push more current to less phases (wires) more heat is more lose,and if you gonne oc the cpu, then the cpu gonne ask more and more current., so you will get more  heat on the phases and the vrms, if you have less phases you  need more capacitors to keep the power stable..so with less phases you get limited.. how more power phases how better.. how higher the oc capability..

grtz Angel. ☺

 p.s. what a mobo makes to a good mobo is ofc also a personal thing, most inportant thing is youre personal needs,  what you wanne do with it, wich feutures are inportant to you, and what will you ask from a mobo. the power phase design is a very inportant thing on a mobo, especialy if you plan to oc the hell out of a cpu, then is the power phase design, the first thing to look at, wenn you wanne buy a mobo, but if you not plan to do any oc or something, crazy, then you can also look to boards, wo are cheaper, cause thera are also mobo, with a less power phase design but still have the same feutures, as the more power phase design boards, but they are much cheaper then.. so its realy something personal. so if you looking for a mobo, and you want us to help, then tell us youre needs..

 sorry for my Bad English i´m a Dutch girl, i hope its all readable for you..

 

 

Thank you for comprehensive answers! I'm pretty sure I'll get z77 mobo if I go with Intel. On the other hand, FX-8350's price is quite tempting.

One question though, does any AM3+ mobo supports 8350? Cause I've heard about some problems with amd970 mobos. Something about BIOS versions and mobos not being able to handle the amount of power, required for that CPU.  

The issue is actually with older AM3 motherboards with AMD 700 and 800 series chipsets re-branded as AM3+. Some do need a BIOS update since they were originally designed to run phenoms. The low end AM3 boards can run into issues with the power to run the 125w FX parts at full speed, but an easy indicator is the CPU supplemental power connection. If it's 8-pin, should be fine, but if it's 4-pin, you may run into some issues.

Any 970 board should run any FX-series CPU out of the box, without issue. Though, it's usually a good idea to be running the latest BIOS, so you may have to update it anyway.

Great! Again, thank you!

oke i  give 2 options.

for intel Z77 board i would say: The Msi Z77 Mpower.

for AMD Asus 990FX Sabbertooth R2.0, or Asus M5A99FX pro R2.0, or Asus ROG board R2.0.

Grtz Angel ☺