Buying a motherboard for my build

[King Mir]

I have no clue how to compare motherboards, and I’ve gotten different suggestions. How do I evaluate if a motherboard will meet my needs. I can (I think) look at the specs and make sure the components will work together. But how do I evaluate a motherboard for upgradability? How do I evaluate quality?

[The Wise Monkey]

This is an interesting point - new people to the computer building scene often have difficulty choosing a motherboard. Someone who has been building computers for a while will know from experience which components are good.

My advice is to read a lot - read user reviews on newegg, have a look through the forums, check out up and coming releases, things like this. This means you will be one step ahead of the game.

If you can't be bothered with all of that, the best chipset (the main part of the motherboard) at the moment is Intel's P35 chipset. Asus do good quality boards, as do Gigabyte. Asus boards are very good overclockers and have lots of features, but Gigabyte boards are usually more reliable and hard wearing.

[King Mir]

Asus, Gigabyte. Are there any other brands I should consider? Is Abit any good?

[Jamie Nixx]

Abit are brilliant
Gigabyte are brilliant
MSI are good
Asus are at the peak of enthusiast boards now
Foxconn are excellent