Choosing the best motherboard and processor - AMD and Intel: ITReviews.com Buyer's Guide
Choosing and upgrading your motherboard and processor
03 August, 2011 by IT Reviews Staff
If you're looking to give your system a bit of a speed boost, you could try adding a bit of extra memory if it's short on that - but if you really want to give a decent performance hike, you'll be wanting to upgrade to a new processor. And if it has been a little while since you last splashed the cash, it's likely you'll need a new motherboard, too. But what should you buy with your hard-earned? ITReviews helps you through the throny process of choosing these key components.
Processor
The processor is the heart or brain of a computer. It's basically avery complex engine for calculations. If you're not a gamer, it's the component that's likely to be working the hardest at any given time. Choosing the wrong chip for your needs can leave you with a system that feels sluggish, no matter how much you spend on the rest of the components. Pay attention to the number of processing cores a chip has, the amount of cache memory, and its processing speed - measured in gigahertz, or GHz.
Motherboard
The motherboard, in contrast, is the part of the computer that combines all the other components together. It's the main circuit board inside your computer, into which pretty much all other components are plugged. Unless you have specific needs, such as the ability to overclock - running components such as the processor, memory and graphics card faster than their rated speeds to squeeze the very last drop of performance - it's an easier decision to make than the CPU. All you need to do is pick the board that has the features you need.
Memory (RAM)
Random Access Memory or RAM is the workspace your computer uses to open applications in or store frequently used bits of information so that they're quickly and easily accessible. The more you have, generally, the faster your system will be.
Most modern memory is of the Double Data-Rate (DDR) type - but even this comes in several flavours. When buying memory, always make sure you know what type your motherboard takes. A system that's designed for DDR2 won't take DDR3 RAM, and vice versa. Also check your motherboard's documentation to see it recommends using a specific number of memory modules - many systems can benefit from a speed boost if you buy a certain number of modules and enable dual- or triple-channel mode in the BIOS.
The first step towards getting your system upgraded is to decide what category you fit in to: budget, mainstream, or premium.
BUDGET
The budget category is self-explanatory: if you've picked this, it's because you're building upgrading a system for general-purpose use and don't want to spend the earth - office tasks and Internet browsing will be the order of the day, with perhaps a little streaming video in your off hours.
The good news is that there's plenty of choice at the cheaper end of the market at the moment. As is usual, your processor choice is between two main market powers: Intel and AMD.
Both companies offer a budget-specific processor range. In Intel's case, it's the Celeron, and in AMD's it's the Sempron. Both are cut-down versions of the companies' respective mainstream processor lines, featuring reduced clockspeeds - basically, the number of calculations a processor can make each second - and less cache (very fast memory that's built directly into the chip to store frequently accessed information close at hand aiding performance). Both of these factors translate to a significant performance drop.
Unless you desperately need a processor for under £30, you're better off spending the extra money required to get a processor that hasn't been hobbled. An AMD Athlon II X2 250 dual-core 3GHz processor can be bought for under £50, and will provide a much more pleasurable computing experience - and likewise an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5500 3GHz processor will cost much the same.
Intel's Pentium Dual-Core E5500 is a starting point for budget systems.
The main issue with buying on a budget is longevity: the processors listed above are a few generations old, and while AMD has promised to keep the AM3 processor socket used by the Athlon II X2 250 alive for a while longer, the LGA775 format used by Intel's equivalent Pentium is already old-hat - meaning you'll probably need to buy a new motherboard the next time you upgrade.
Speaking of motherboards, at the budget end it's a buyer's market. Simply pick a reliable brand such as Gigabyte, Asus, or ASRock, and make sure it matches your processor type - AM3 for the AMD chip, or LGA775 for the Intel - and comes with the required number of SATA ports and expansion slots. If you won't be playing games, buying a board that includes integrated graphics - such as the Asus M4N68T-M LE, which includes an in-built Nvidia GeForce 7025 graphics processing unit (GPU) - could save you a bit of extra cash.
For those going the AMD route, the Asus M4N68T-M LE is a good budget choice.
When buying the motherboard, the specifications will mention the type of RAM supported as well as its maximum speed. Remember that, for a budget system, the quantity of RAM is more important than the speed - so if you can buy a larger amount of slower memory, do so. As with motherboards, it's always worth paying extra for a brand such as Crucial or Kingston - the unbranded memory might seem like a bargain, but it can result in compatibility problems that the warranty simply won't cover.
At the time of writing, buying either of the processors above, 4GB of memory, and a motherboard with integrated graphics will cost you no more than around £130 - and while choosing a Celeron or Sempron chip would drop that price down a little, it's a saving that we really don't think is worth making.
