Upgrading certain components can give your PC a boost in specific areas. This is fine if there's a certain Achilles' heel that's making your computer hobble along when it should be sprinting, but if you want to give your machine an upgrade that offers the most performance enhancing possibilities - both now and in the future - then a new motherboard is essential.
In many ways, your PC is only as fast as its motherboard will allow. Sure, you might be able to upgrade bits and pieces every so often to prevent your computer becoming obsolete, but if the motherboard is too old to support the latest technology then it's always going to hold your PC's performance back.
Replacing your old motherboard with a new one opens up a whole world of possibilities for your computer. Faster processors and more powerful graphics cards that were once off limits due to an archaic motherboard are now excitingly realistic prospects.
What's more, if you choose the right future-proof model then you'll be able to keep your computer up to date with the latest technology. No longer will you have to greet tidings of new technology with the grim resignation of another missed opportunity - instead, you could be looking at an exciting potential upgrade.
The motherboard's relationship with the rest of the PC means there are lots of factors to consider before upgrading. For starters, you should think about whether you want to freshen up a number of other components in your computer at the same time, or whether you want to keep your existing parts.
Swapping the motherboard might not mean you need to buy a new graphics card, but if you want to keep using an older processor then it will limit your options when choosing another motherboard.
Choice of motherboard doesn't just determine the vintage of your processor, but also the type. AMD and Intel processors require different CPU sockets, so if you're tempted to try out Intel's new Sandy Bridge technology or are more a fan of AMD's Phenom offerings then you'll need to choose a motherboard that's going to allow you to use your preferred processor.
While the vast array of options might seem daunting, the benefits of upgrading the motherboard far outweigh any fears you might have.
Choosing a new motherboard
Your motherboard has a truly symbiotic relationship with the rest of your PC's components. Technological advances in one spur on new developments in the other, and the year ahead should have a lot of exciting innovations in store for both areas.
The big news so far has been the launch of Intel's new Sandy Bridge technology. Although Intel processors that use it continue to use the familiar Core i5 and i7 branding, the processors themselves have a new chipset, so if you want one in your computer, you'll need to upgrade your motherboard.
This new breed of board brings support for the SATA 6Gbps ports. These offer up to twice the speed of current SATA II ports. While no existing hard drives - and certainly no optical media drives - have yet used the full bandwidth of SATA II, solid state drives are beginning to feel constrained by the older technology.
In the future, SSDs that take full advantage of the SATA 6Gbps ports in new motherboards will become commonplace, and this new standard will make our PCs run faster than ever.
The time it takes for our computers to boot has long been a nuisance, and the BIOS that resides on the motherboards is one of the main culprits. Now more than 25 years old, it's long overdue for retirement.
The good news is that an excellent replacement is on the horizon, and is beginning to be shipped with new motherboards over the next 12 months. The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) will bring many improvements over BIOS when it's introduced.
The headline advantage is the decrease in boot times - a recent test displayed a boot-up time of just 1.37 seconds.
Other advances that will be ushered in with the arrival of the UEFI might not be as flashy on paper, but could prove to be just as revolutionary. For a start, it brings support for hard drives that are more than 2.2TB.
When BIOS was introduced back in the 1980s, it seemed impossible that drives would ever reach such a capacity. This resulted in the Master Boot Record partitioning scheme using 32-bit values that limited the maximum disk size to 2.2TB, and allowed only four primary partitions to be created.
UEFI will support the GUID Partition Table scheme, which uses 64-bit values to handle disks of up to 9.4 zettabytes. We might not need that kind of space now, but in 20 years' time, hard drives boasting that capacity might be as commonplace as 2TB and 3TB drives are now.
Three Intel motherboards to choose from
Asus Maximus IV Extreme
Performance
Intel
Price: £300
Info: http://rog.asus.com
When it comes to new PC components, odes to awesomeness are often overwrought. But take it from us, Intel's new Sandy Bridge desktop processors proved worthy of our finest prose. The Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K chips are preposterously quick. Of course, to get the best out of them what you need is a damn fine motherboard. For example, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG.
At least, that's what Asus would have you think.
This latest board from the enthusiast-class Republic of Gamers line is based on the new Intel P67 chipset, one of two consumer-oriented platforms for the new Sandy Bridge chips. The P67 is the discrete graphics alternative to the integrated graphics H67 chipset.
On the downside, that means you can't use the integrated graphics core that comes with all 14 of the new Sandy Bridge desktop CPUs. Normally, we wouldn't class that as a major disappointment. After all, the history of integrated graphics has been one of awful performance. However, Intel's latest effort is the best we've seen by miles.
Verdict: 4/5
Read the full Asus Maximus IV Extreme review
MSI H55M-E23
Budget
Intel
Price: £50
Info: http://uk.msi.com
This isn't for those who want to cram in the most powerful parts out there and overclock them like mad. It's for creating a stable and dependable system.
It supports the first generation of Intel Core processors, not the second, but if you're looking to upgrade your old Pentium processor, the leap to a Core processor will still give a huge performance boost.
While performance isn't the H55M-E23's raison d'être, stability and reliability are. The use of aluminium-core solid capacitors helps keep the operating temperature down, as well as providing a stable power supply to the processor. This gives a longer lifespan for the motherboard - MSI claims 10 years at full capacity.
If you're just using it for word processing, this stretches to 40 years. You won't want it for that long - its lack of support for the most recent technology makes it far from future-proof - but it's good to know you have a dependable motherboard that won't fail while you're in the middle of some important work.
Verdict: 3.5/5
Zotac H67-ITX Wi-Fi
All round
Intel
Price: £119
Info: www.zotac.com
A tiny motherboard capable of keeping pace with the big boys? That'll be the Zotac H67-ITX Wi-Fi then.
Back in the mists of time (well, October 2001) when VIA released its first ITX EPIA motherboards, my how people laughed.
"A tiny little motherboard?" They all said, "why it's but a toy!"
But a few people understood the concept and could see the possibilities. And from time to time the format would peek above the parapet to see if anybody was still interested.
Firstly through AOpen, but even Mr Jobs couldn't make that much of an impact with the mini Mac, and others released their own mini PCs but still they can't be said to have set the world alight.
Fast forward to today and just maybe Intel's H67 chipset could be the making of the concept and if Zotac's H67-ITX WiFi is any indication of where were heading, then we're in for some interesting times ahead.
Read the full Zotac H67-ITX Wi-Fi review
Three AMD motherboards to choose from
Asus Crosshair IV Extreme
Performance
AMD
Price: £233
Info: http://rog.asus.com
Another week brings with it another motherboard toting Lucid's HydraLogix 200 (nee Hydra 200) mix-and-match graphics technology. This time, however, it comes not from MSI, but from archrivals Asus.
It's taken Asus a while to launch a board based on the technology, but one's now a reality in the form of the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme.
The Crosshair IV Extreme is the latest addition to the AMD branch of Asus's RoG (Republic of Gamers) family and - just like the rest of the RoG motherboard lineup - has all the bells and whistles you expect from a top-end Asus motherboard. Like its brethren, it also comes in a box that's pretty much crammed with hardware.
It's worth noting that the Crosshair IV Extreme is the new flagship of the Crosshair range and hence is aimed at the higher end of the market, carrying a price tag to match.
Verdict: 4.5/5
Read the full Asus Crosshair IV Extreme review
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
Budget
AMD
Price: £73
Info: www.asus.com
This may be another motherboard from Asus, but it couldn't be more different to the Crosshair.
There's no fancy name or headline-grabbing features. This is a motherboard designed to do the job reliably, safely and above all, well. Function is the name of the game here.
What you will find is a sturdy motherboard for a low price that can handle some of the latest tech without a problem. You can fit a quad-core AMD Phenom II processor and DDR3 RAM to give your PC a big performance boost. What you can't do is have two graphics cards for high-end gaming.
The M4A785TD-V EVO has two PCI Express slots, but it doesn't have the power. It does have perfectly good on-board graphics, so if you're building a low-cost PC for movies and playing the odd casual game, you don't need to buy a separate graphics card.
This motherboard isn't going to change the world, but it's solid and dependable. It'll let you use some great components to make a decent PC very cheaply.
Verdict: 3/5
Asus Crosshair IV Formula
All round
AMD
Price: £155
Info: http://rog.asus.com
There's defnitely no coincidence in AMD sending out the review chips of its hex-core processor snugly secured in Asus' Crosshair IV Formula board.
It's the finest current example of the 890 chipset. And this is what we've come to expect from its lineup of Republic of Gamers motherboards.
What we've also come to expect is pricing so far out of the reach of most mere mortals as to render them out of range of all but the serious overclocker and the money-no-object buyers.
But not on the AMD side. Sure, they're at the top end of AMD mobos, but not astronomically out of reach. More importantly, though, the Crosshair IV Formula actually enables the hex-core Phenom II X6 1090T to compete with the current mid-range Core i7 platforms out there.
This is its raison d'etre, to provide a platform for this latest chip to launch from.
It's actually going above and beyond what AMD was looking for, too. Aside from the extra couple of cores tacked on to the traditional quad-core Deneb chip, AMD has introduced its own take on Intel's Turbo Mode: cunningly entitled Turbo CORE.
Read the full Asus Crosshair IV Formula review
How to fit a new motherboard
Your motherboard is at the heart of your PC - logically and physically - so installing one can be tricky. How tricky depends a lot on the size of the PC case.
If it's a large case then installation is simple - just align the holes in the motherboard with the holes on the metal plate inside the case.
Before you screw the motherboard in, make sure the plugs on the back of the motherboard (where the VGA, USB, LAN and sound ports are located) are accessible from the rear of the case. There should be a rectangle cut out of the case that gives you access to these ports.
The motherboard will come with a small plate that you can use to cover the rectangle from the inside and slot the ports through, which helps to keep dust out of the PC. Once everything is aligned, screw the motherboard onto the plate.
If you have a small PC case and motherboard, it's a good idea to install some of the components in the motherboard before you insert it into the case. The processor, fan and RAM are good choices to install whilst the motherboard is on the outside. Connecting the bulk of the cables to the motherboard before you fit it will also save time and frustration later. Although you can install the graphics card too, doing so can make it tricky to align the motherboard within the case.
Once the motherboard is installed and everything is connected to it, you can begin tweaking it to get the best performance.
A lot of the motherboard tweaks can be performed inside BIOS. One of the easiest and most effective tweaks you can perform here is cutting down the time it takes for your computer to boot.
Once in BIOS, go to 'Advanced BIOS features' and select 'Hard disk boot priority'. Make sure the hard drive that contains your operating system is at the top. Under the 'Boot priority' option, make sure 'Hard disk' is first, followed by 'CD-ROM'. This saves BIOS searching your other drives for an operating system.If you ever need to boot from a recovery disk, go back into BIOS and change the boot priority accordingly.
There should be an option called 'Quick power on self test'. Select this and make sure it's enabled. When your PC is first turned on, it runs a number of tests to make sure everything is running properly. Some of these tests are more important than others. Enabling 'Quick power on self test' means your PC skips some of the less important tests, cutting your boot times.
Create a bootable USB to flash your BIOS
1. Get the files
There aren't many reasons to mourn the loss of floppy disks, but the ability to boot into DOS quickly and safely is one of them. Thankfully it's not too difficult to create a USB drive that performs the same function.
To get started, you'll need the files 'command.com', 'IO.sys' and 'MSDOS.sys'. These can be found on an old Windows 98 disc. Put the files into one folder on your computer.
2. Format your USB stick
To make your USB memory stick bootable, you'll need to format it. The HP Drive Key Boot Utility is a great free tool that will format your USB device and make it bootable. You can download it from here.
Although it claims to be for HP USB drives, you can use it for most other makes as well. Once downloaded, insert a USB drive into your computer and make sure any important files have been backed up.
3. Add the files to the stick
Make sure your USB stick is selected under 'Device' and select 'FAT32' from the list under 'File system'.
Under 'Format options' select 'Create a DOS startup disk', then select 'Using DOS system files located at' and browse to the folder where you saved the files. Click 'Start'.
Once the disk has been created, you can restart and boot into DOS. You may need to go into BIOS first and change the boot priority so 'USB' is before 'Hard drive'.
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