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Good motherboard for general office use?

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My folks computer is quite old and runs like shit and i was reading about rebuilding it. I can get my head around most of it but the numerous motherboards has me confused as to what is best suited to the various uses of a computer.

Can someone recommend a good motherboard that would be suitable for upgrade in the future. It would only be used for general office duties, email, accounting word docs. No real intense video or audio use besides occasional youtube and emailed short vids.

Curious if any computer heads can help out. With a mobo sorted i should be able to work out the rest independently

cheers

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Cheaper, to just update imo. You can pick up some really good deals for a eeasonable office pc without all the mucking around with compatability of this with that etc.

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The main two concerns are

1. What you need

and

2. What you want

For the first, I'm talking about compatibility. Since you seem to be clear on choices of other components, simply work out what parts you want, and write down a list of motherboards that are compatible with the other parts:

Case: If you have a micro-ATX case, you will need a micro-ATX mobo, but if you have a regular ATX case, you can fit either a micro or regular mobo in it.

CPU: Mobo needs the same slot as the CPU

RAM: again, needs to be compatible.

I/O: If you are buying a new HDD, you will need a mobo with sata (which I'm sure all recent mobos have), but if you are reusing an old one, then you might need one that also has an IDE slot. These are becoming increasingly hard to get. If they have an old IDE drive, I would chuck it out and get them a new SATA drive, but it's not necessary.

For the second item, I'm talking about tailoring to the intended use. Based on the requirements, you will be fine with integrated graphics. As far as I know, every mobo with a slot that is compatible with IG CPUs will be able to use the graphics, but this might be worth checking on the mobo specs. What this means, though, is that you probably don't need any PCI-e slots, unless there is some other requirement that you have not mentioned. If there are no PCI cards in the current system, then you'll pretty much be able to get away with any slot configuration out there. I personally like to have a few usable slots on a mobo even if I don't expect to use them, but most mobos these days come with at least 4 slots or something.

Data storage doesn't sound like it would be an issue, so you can probably get by with the minimal number of SATA ports.

Work out how many rear and front usb ports will be used. The mobo has headers on it for the front panel, so even if your case has 4, if the mobo only has two headers, you will only be able to use two of the front panel slots. Also, some mobos use the same circuitry for the headers as for the back panel slots, so when you plug in the front ones, the rear ones are disabled. Check whether this is the case in the mobo manual, and if so account for it when calculating how many slots you need. Most people would get by with one front panel one and two rear panel ones, and most mobos will exceed this by a wide margin.

It's probably worth making sure you have SATAIII and USB3.0, though most mobos nowadays probably have both.

Also, if you're going with integrated graphics, then check what sort of outputs the mobo has for graphics, and if this will be compatible with the monitor you want. Most mobos have two or three different connectors. I prefer DVI, but many monitors don't support it. Most mobos and monitors will have at least two of DVI, HDMI, and VGA, so whichever ones they have, there will usually be at least one that matches up, but it's worth checking before buying.

I usually use 'concern 1' (compatibility) to write a list of mobos in my price range that will be compatible with the parts I want, and then pick from the list based on 'concern 2'. Sometimes I do it the other way around, like I recently wanted a computer with at least 8 internal SATA slots, and that severely narrowed down my choices and I had to pick other components for compatibility, but that won't be an issue for you. After writing a list of compatible ones, your task will be pretty easy because you don't have a lot of requirements.

I wouldn't buy an el cheapo one, but you won't need an expensive one. It would probably be excessive for your needs to spend more than about $80 on a board. If you don't want to overclock it (I would avoid this when building a machine for someone else) then you don't need any fancy BIOS features, and you probably need minimal PCI, PCI-e, and SATA/IDE slots. There are plenty of respected brands. I would avoid getting a brand that is hard to find info on. I have done this when refurbishing an old computer with a damaged motherboard (while keeping the almost decade old cpu and ram) but would not do it for a new system. Gigabyte has always served me well, but there are plenty of other brands that are just as good.

Edited by ballzac

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Cheaper, to just update imo. You can pick up some really good deals for a eeasonable office pc without all the mucking around with compatability of this with that etc.

While there are reasonably cheap budget pcs around it will work out a fair bit cheaper when things such as the case, power supply, HDD, operating system are not needed.

Ballzac, thanks for that run down, its really helpful. It wont be overclooked. It really is just a simple home office computer. Just needs to run smoothly for basic programs and be a reliable brand as my folks are rural and i am not around to fix issues and computer stores are expensive to get something minor looked at.

It all seemed overwhelming with such variation in price and functions but youve made it seem simpler. Time to make some lists. Thanks again

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