In this post I am going to continue the series of posts on building your own PC and today we are going to look at the motherboard. You will only really buy a motherboard if your building your own PC or upgrading an old one and for both of these situations the things you need to consider are the same.

Choose something that fits you needs

The most important thing is to buy a motherboard that fits your needs.  You need to decide  whether you building a media PC, an office type PC for using business applications or a top of the range gaming rig.  Whichever of these it is, will mean different features will be more important to you than others, so make sure you focus on those.

Things to consider when buying a your motherboard;

1. Form factor and size - Just as we discussed with the cases some thought needs to go in to the size or form factor that you will need as this will effect the choice of both case and the motherboard you will eventually choose.
2. Processor support - Your choice of processor will have some determination on which board you can go for. For most applications at present this is likely to mean that it would to support an Intel dual core processor as this will get you the best performance for your money.  The major exception to this is if you are building a media PC where the processor is generally not required to be such a high performer.
3. Graphics - A lot of motherboards can provide a graphics capability on the board. This should be perfectly good enough for a standard PC.  For a media PC is can be useful as long as it is up to the heavy work required for playing back video.  A gamer will more likely add a specialist graphics card so is not required on board.
4. Memory - Ensure the motherboard you purchase will provide you with enough memory.  My recommendation is for as much as you can afford but no less than 2 GB.  The other consideration is the type of memory. I would stick with the standard DDR2 memory at the time of writing as this will keep  your memory costs down.
5. Other Features - Last but definitely not least is everything else provided by the board, such as overclocking capability, networking, sound, USB connectors etc.  These are slightly less important than the other aspects but could be important for your specific needs.

Just to finish off with an example the ABIT IP35 Pro is one of the highest rated motherboards on PriceGrabber.

What do you think are the most important aspects to consider when buying a motherboard?