what makes a good mobo?

There really isn't anything about the specs of the motherboard that make it good.

Think about cars. There are plenty of cars that have the same specs on paper, but some end up being legendary cars and others end up being lemons. Even if they have the same horsepower, gas mileage, etc.

What makes a good board is how well it's designed, and the quality of the parts. You generally can't tell that just by looking at it, so that's where reviews come in. Find trusted review websites like the people here at OCN and trust their suggestion to be right and valuable.

Reviews - make sure you read reviews before you decide what to buy.

Go to any store, look at the prices and choose the three you like best. Then compare those in reviews.

well you have to ask yourself,,,what do want to do with it,,ru gonna games,,or photoshop,,or what,,,,,r u gonna overclock,,,,ru gonna sli or crossfire in the future,,do you want intel or amd,,,

There are a lot of attributes ppl evalutate to judge a mobo.
To mention just a few

• Overall layout and design: does it have the slots I need? Are they spaced cleverly? Do I have to run by cables across the case to reach headers etc.
• Stability under the intended use: overclocking usually draws 2-3 times the power, and boards not properly designed for it can suffer overheating and/or instability
• Max Overclocking potential
• Length of warranty and how good/fast manufacturers honors it.
• BIOS features and ease of use, frequency of updates for bugs / added compatibility / improved stability etc.

Things that make a motherboard good or bad:
Chipset
PCI express layout
PCI express generation
Onboard audio quality
Chipset and VRM cooling (for overclocking)
General quality of the parts used
Aesthetic appeal
I/O available
BIOS features
multiple BIOS
Features like Virtu MVP
SATA layout

You also have to look up reviews. Some things just don't perform the way their specs would suggest.

Thracks pretty much said it all, but let me just tell you a certain thing. Low-end motherboards in todays market which are often low-priced ones offer a handful of features that basically keeps a consumer satisfied overall. But what people don't know is that low-end mobo's don't exactly use the best of components in them. What also makes them less priced is that companys use lower quality parts in them, which may not be reliable in the longer period, or even when they would be stressed upon.

Now the higher-end/level motherboards usually and mostly never have this disadvantage in them. Their main disadvantage is their price point. Why people overlook it? Apart from the price, it's basically because of the features. They know before hand that they wont be taking advantage of all of them, so paying an extra premium wouldn't be worth it to them. And here is where they're forgetting what I mentioned before i.e. a motherboard with overall much better quality of components.

I'll take two basic example of this scenario. AsRock Z77 Extreme6 is an awesome motherboard for it's pricing, features and how it performs. It's smaller brother which is the Z77 Extreme4 on paper looks almost as good with the compromise of some extra features, but in real, the extreme4 doesn't have that much of a good VRM deisgn, it's components tend to heat up. However, with the Extreme6, everything is looking good.

One Final example that I'd wanna give is the difference between the Gigabyte's Z77x UD5H and it's smaller UD3H. Gigabyte on the other hands has reduced some features on it's UD3H motherboard and even removed a heatsink that off it's VRM zone. But the quality of components of both of their motherboards are as good. Now this is a company that truely sticks to it's name.

I hope you got what I was trying to say and that this was helpful in some way

and explosions. Don't forget that

You can tell if a motherboard is good by looking at it.
a)Count the number of inductors.(chokes)..There should be at least 8..preferably 10 or more.

b)Check the quality of the inductors (chokes) and MOSFETS.
c) The VRMs should be heatsinked like the board pictured.

Here's a good list..no AMD boards though
http://sinhardware.com/images/vrm.jpg

For AMD ..Go by XD and Reflex's chart:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1293127/what-makes-a-good-mobo/showthread.php?s=bd8d1313c09af4210eda3f9b5ad8a046&t=946407

How convenient Xd is here and I can just copy it from his sig :: Cheez!
Edited by Schmuckley - 8/13/12 at 2:16am