Motherboard
Minimum Price Range: $50-$80
The motherboard (mobo for short) is the central component of the PC that routes, connects, and enables communication between every piece of hardware you have installed in your PC. It's easy to look at everything you see on it with all of the complexites there are to look at, and feel overwhelmed since you have no idea what most (if not all) of what all of those little pieces of plastic, metal, and circuitry that make-up the board actually do.
Relax.
You will find that installing it is really not that difficult, and once it's in place, all of the subsequent components will fit rather easily into the board as well. Once you get a basic understanding of the major parts on the board, you will have no problems whatsoever with installing the different components of a PC. Anyone that can buy the components
of a PC can learn how to put them together.
Before you buy your board though, you need to decide what type of processor you're going to have. The mobo is completely architected around the processor and is only compatible with certain types. The 2 main choices are AMD and Intel. There are many views as to which company's processors are 'better', which is beyond the scope of this website. You'll need to research on your own which kind you want, but you really can't go wrong with either choice, as you can build a cheap and economical PC up to an absolute gaming bohemoth with either brand processor, so don't get hung up on which one you should pick if you don't know, just find one that fits your budget.
Another thing to keep in mind is how many PCI cards do you have? If you don't know what those are, they are auxiliary cards that are inserted in PCI slots on the motherboard (usually PCI, PCI-E, or PCI-X) that you will find on the left-side of the board that enable the user to add more functionality into their PC. Typical cards that you might use for your PCI-slots are wired and wireless NICs (Network Interface Cards), sound cards, USB/Firewire cards, dial-up modems, etc. The more slots on a board, the more scalable the functionality you can give your PC. Most motherboards include around 2-3 slots, and many offer more. If you are already using any of the above mentioned cards, and want to use those cards on a new motherboard, be sure the new board has A.) enough slots to facilitate connecting all of them to your board, and B.) the motherboard has enough slots for whatever interface your cards are (Ex. you have 3 PCI cards and the board you're looking at has 2 PCI slots and 2 PCI-X slots, you may or may not be able to connect your third PCI card as some, but not all, PCI-X slots are backwards-compatible with some older PCI standards, but the bottom-line is your board's PCI-X slot may or may not work with your PCI card). It's something you will need to be aware of as a new system-builder if you plan on importing former hardware onto a new motherboard.
