Motherboard : 

Almost everyone knows that the motherboard is the most important component of your computer. At one point or another, every other component connects to the motherboard. Keep in mind that your motherboard choice controls your future upgrade paths. Want to upgrade you RAM? You first have to check and see what type your motherboard will take, and how much it will support. Want that new video card? Your motherboard will need an AGP slot. Get the point? If you choose the wrong motherboard in the beginning, you may find yourself having to buy a different one down the road to support some other upgrade. Today's motherboards are a lot more sophisticated than the one's in the 486 days. If you are used to these older systems, you will need to come up to speed on the latest boards. Where you once needed an IDE controller card, the connectors are now built right on the motherboard. USB was once an option - now it is integrated on every board. Some boards go all the way, offering built on SCSI controllers, 10/100 Ethernet support, onboard video and sound, etc. Buying a motherboard is a tradeoff - you need to know what you want and then pick that board which has the best combination of features for you. Bear in mind the old adage - sometimes it is better to buy what you will eventually end up with anyway.
There are really three levels of motherboards. Of course this is a generalization, but it’s accurate enough.
	Bare-bone boards. These are the types of boards you usually get if you are not into PC hardware and don't want to deal with frustrations. You just want to build it and turn it on. These boards have built in sound and video, and sometimes other gizmos too, like a modem. They don't usually overclock well and don't have a wide range of CPU support. These boards are comparatively inexpensive. Many times, pre-built PCs come with these types of boards, and this is one of the reasons you should be following this tutorial. If you’re going to bother building your own PC, get a board that’s worth your time. This isn’t it.
Secondly, we have the level of board most commonly used. These boards come with a single CPU slot, EIDE controller, etc. Most don't have built in video, although more of them have built-in sound. This is fine, as long as it is easily disabled. They support a wide range of processors, and with more voltage and multiplier settings, they are more overclocking friendly. Some of these boards offer RAID capability. With the proper amount of PCI slots, these boards are great.
Thirdly, you have the beasts which most of us cannot afford. These are the dual processor boards, often with built on NIC and SCSI, a crapload of PCI slots. These are more for NT workstations than your desktop PC.

Some things you want to bear in mind:

• Board Layout - A lot of people don't consider where everything is placed on the motherboard, but it is important. Is there a big capacitor right near the CPU slot, blocking where your CPU fan will go? Is there a bunch of crap that will block your full-length PCI card from fitting? Are the memory slows in a position where you’d need to remove the floppy drive to get at I them? You need to know roughly what you will be plugging into this board and know if anything will get in the way. This also depends to a degree on the size of the case you are using. Trying to cram a larger board, like an Abit board, into a mini-tower is asking for trouble.
• Slots - If we had our way, we'd have a motherboard with 20 PCI slots so we could run everything in the world. Unfortunately, this doesn't exist. So, you need to pay attention to how many PCI slots a motherboard has. For most of us the standard 4 or 5 PCI slots will be fine. Be careful, you can easily fill all your slots. Make sure the board has an AGP slot and if necessary, ISA or CNR slots.
• Manuals - Believe me, you'll regret it if you don't think ahead and get a board with a good manual. If you purchase a no-name board, you'll probably get stuck with a manual that was written in Taiwanese or English you think a third grader would write. A lot of times, you'll find a pile of addendums added to the manual. They couldn't get it right the first time?! Make sure to look at the manual for your board and make sure you can understand it. Most well known brands have decent manuals. Asus, Abit, FIC, Tyan, Shuttle and a few others come with nice manuals. Another thing to keep in mind is that the better known manufacturers often have nice web sites, and you can get support info there, too. If you don’t know who the manufacturer is, of their website is utterly useless, think twice about using the board. Otherwise, you’ll be trying to email people like me asking who made it and I’ll probably not even reply.
• Form Factor - Unless you would die without that older server case you are using, I would recommend going with the ATX form factor. ATX integrates all of the connectors, whereas with AT, you have to plug all of that crap in. AT boards use that big DIN keyboard connector which is a relic.
• Chipset - The chipset is the hub of your motherboard. You need to pay strong attention to what chipset a motherboard has before you purchase it. The chipset is fully responsible for what hardware your motherboard will support now and in the future. It controls everything. If your motherboard won't support ATA-100, AGP 4x, etc. blame the chipset. There are many chipsets out there, and this tutorial is not the place to address them all. But, doing your research on this site and others, as well as observing the specs of the chipset itself before you buy it, will be beneficial.
• Hardware Support - This one is really a no-brainer, but bears mentioning anyway due to its obvious importance. Pay attention to the specs to make sure that the board will support the hardware you would like to use. If possible, allow room for expandability beyond what you will be using as this will ensure you can use the board for awhile. If there are embedded components such as sound or video, this is fine as long we you are able to disable it easily. Unless you like that all-in-one thing, you’ll find you want to eventually put something better in there and you don’t want it conflicting with the built-in components.
• Reviews - Finally, before purchasing any motherboard, find out what others think of it. You can rest assured that if there is any nagging annoyance with any motherboard you are thinking about buying that several people have noticed it and have posted all over the internet about it. Check out hardware review sites. I'm sure you all know where to go for those. Also check out Usenet Newsgroups.

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