The Ultimate PC Upgrade Guide - Part 1: Motherboards

by Staff writers on Jan 9, 2009

Tags: PC | Upgrade | Guide | motherboard

7 Comments

Upgrade your motherboard

How long does it take?
Replacing your motherboard is an evening's work.

How Hard is it?
Replacing your motherboard requires a decent amount of tech savvy

Moving your PC to a new motherboard can revolutionise its capabilities - and open the door to a host of useful money-saving features.

Fitting a new motherboard could give your PC a new lease of life. At a stroke, a new motherboard can add support for cutting-edge technologies such as quad-core processors, DDR3 memory, and multiple graphics cards.

Installing a new motherboard brings your PC right up to date, allowing you to install all the latest components. Upgrade to a new processor at the same time and your PC could enjoy a major speed boost, allowing you to do things that your system previously struggled with, such as video and audio editing.

Most modern boards also come with lots of useful extras, such as surround sound, an integrated ethernet connection and even built-in antivirus capabilities. And upgrading your motherboard is a great way to improve your understanding of PC hardware – once you’ve done it you’ll literally know your PC inside and out.

In this step-by-step guide we show you how to choose the right motherboard, how to install it and how to deal with any problems you might encounter.

Choosing a motherboard

Most people combine a motherboard upgrade with a processor upgrade – keeping an older processor will severely restrict your choice of motherboards, and upgrading the motherboard alone won’t visibly improve system performance.

Whichever processor you go for, there will be a wide range of motherboards that can support it, so pick your processor first, then focus on motherboards with the appropriate CPU socket. There are two main socket types currently in use – Socket 775, used by Intel processors, and Socket AM2/AM2+ used by AMD. See page 26 for more on CPU sockets.

Checking compatibility

Picking a motherboard with the right socket means your chosen CPU will physically fit, but before settling on a motherboard it’s worth double-checking that it supports the specific model of CPU you’re planning to buy. Download the motherboard’s technical specifications or manuals from the manufacturer’s website for a full list of supported processors.

The next thing to consider is whether your case, power supply, graphics card memory and drives will work with your new motherboard. If your existing PC is more than a few years old, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to bring all of these components across onto a modern motherboard.

The case (or chassis) is the part you’re most likely to be able to keep. Unless your PC is extraordinarily old, it will probably conform to the ATX form factor, which governs the size of the motherboard and the placement of its connectors and screw-holes. You can find out by looking up the form factor of your old motherboard: if it’s an ATX board, you’ve got an ATX case.

ATX remains by far the most common form factor today, so it should be easy to find a board to fit your existing case. Even models built to the smaller microATX standard can still be fitted into an ATX chassis, though you’ll waste some space inside the case.

You may well be able to keep your existing power supply too. Check that the main power plug is of the newer 24-pin design, as the older 20-pin connector is now obsolete. Some power supplies have a 20-pin connector with a supplementary 4-pin connector, so they can be used with either. Also check that there’s a free 4-pin 12V connector, as modern CPUs need this as a dedicated power line. And, naturally, you need to be sure your power supply has sufficient wattage for any new components.

Your old graphics card is likely to be a problem. Unless you bought it within the past two years, it’ll probably use the old AGP connector, which is all but extinct. Sad to say, your card is almost certainly a write-off. However, many current motherboards have integrated graphics processors, which are perfectly powerful enough for everyday tasks and older games.

Memory is another common casualty of a motherboard upgrade. The vast majority of today’s boards use DDR2, with a significant minority using the faster (but far more expensive) DDR3. If your motherboard is more than a few years old, it’s likely to use an older memory technology, and you’ll just have to ditch your RAM.

Even if your old system did use DDR2, it may run too slowly for a new motherboard. But don’t despair – memory is now so affordable that you can buy two fast 1GB DDR2 DIMMs for under $80.

Finally, consider your drives. Older systems use the IDE interface (also called PATA) to communicate with hard disks and optical drives. Current motherboards still support IDE, but where in the past it was normal to offer two IDE connectors, modern boards now offer only one. Each connector supports two drives, so you’re limited to bringing a maximum of two IDE drives across from your old system – typically a hard disk and an optical drive.

It’s sometimes claimed that running an optical drive and a hard disk on the same IDE channel will slow the hard disk down; but so long as both devices support UDMA addressing, they’ll happily work together at full speed. You can check that UDMA is in use in the Windows Device Manager, or often in your PC’s BIOS.

Once you’ve worked out which components you’ll need to update, you can set a realistic budget for your planned upgrade – or abandon it if it turns out to be uneconomical.

- Continued next page -

** For more information on how to upgrade your computer, including the ultimate guide to upgrading your processor, memory, hard disk, graphics and power supply - make sure you check out the Febuary 2009 issue of PC Authority. It's out now! **

This article appeared in the February, 2009 issue of PC Authority.

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Comments: 7

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

djaef Jan 11, 2009 7:48 PM	Not to knock what is a very extensive article, but really, how often do we "upgrade"? In the course of 15 years and 5 pcs, the only upgrades I can remember are an extra stick of RAM once or twice and an extra hard-disk. Not to say it isn't widely done, but I think it's much more likely these days that we just put up with the beast for six months and then buy a whole new pc. I bought my current pc nearly three years ago, but already it's not a platform I'd consider upgrading. So many advances with m/boards and processors and the fact that after three years, many of the parts like hard disks and power supplies are nearing the end of thier lives means that upgrades don't make any sense. And of course, with the ever falling costs of pcs, it means that most people will just buy new. Comment made about the PC Authority article: The Ultimate PC Upgrade Guide - Part 1: Motherboards ? Want to perform an extreme makeover of your system's motherboard, processor, memory or hard disk? We'll show you how. What do you think? Join the discussion.
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Jan 11, 2009 9:22 PM	It depends djaef. Many people want the best of everything, others can't afford a whole new PC. A motherboard upgrade, really, means a new PC in most cases.
Nat.W¿LL¿ Jan 12, 2009 4:23 PM	i just inhaled a pringle. it really hurts!! ahem..well the gamers always want the best of everything before everyone else. makes their penis grow another inch apparently because they are too young to drive 'big' cars. :-" so superficial this world we live in. its sad.
malai5 Jan 12, 2009 4:52 PM	Yeah Nat I agree. What good is an extra inch when there is no where to make use of it.:lol: Cheers Malai5
Nat.W¿LL¿ Jan 12, 2009 5:21 PM	:O mal!! :shock: haha excellent
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Jan 12, 2009 6:39 PM	That's an unfair statement, most gamers are in their 20s. Upgrading isn't just for gamers or enthusiasts either.
malai5 Jan 12, 2009 7:27 PM	I agree, Cyb, An upgrade of Mother Board can open up a path to progressive upgrades that can be done as the money becomes available. THAT gradual process gives one ownership of the computer instead of paying through the nose in interest payments if you just went out and put a new computer on plastic. Plus, you get the satisfaction of learning how it all works by being a hands on builder. Generally, as long as the socket is the same as your existing CPU, you can push that socket to the limit of CPUs that it will handle as most modern Mother Boards have flexible FSBs that cater for better CPUs and better RAM. So, if one has to have the most up to date computer, NOW, there is a huge price to pay. However, if you are prepared to get there in stages it WILL be more fulfilling and cost far less. Just remember, as in life, it's the journey that is important, not the destination.;) Cheers Malai5