If you spend any time building your own computers you’ll know it can be tempting to grab a cheap motherboard…

Saving some dollars on the motherboard means you can spend more on a better processor or a better graphics card. BUT…

This is actually one of the worst ideas that experienced and beginner enthusiasts suffer because of. This is the biggest common mistakes people make when building a custom gaming computer. It’s time to put a stop to it.

Not convinced? Find out the top 5 reasons you should prioritize your motherboard.

5 Reasons Why Your Motherboard Matters:

5. Budget Motherboards Are Unreliable

Budget options often fail faster than quality products, meaning you’re going to cost yourself more in the long run. A failed mobo can destroy other components, so it’s a big risk.

When you think about it, this doesn’t offer great value for money. The reality is that a lot of people say all Motherboards are equal and all that matters is the chipset, but it’s simply not true.

Some motherboards are simply better quality.

4. Chipset Support

One thing a lot of people overlook is how important the latest chipset is, with most Intel boards, when a new chipset is released there are usually several boards available with backwards compatibility.

This is important because even if you have to buy an older processor to begin with, the newest chipset mobo is going to allow you to use that and then upgrade at a later point.

Grabbing an older motherboard means you’ll need to eventually upgrade your motherboard just so you can update your processor.

Related: Find Out What Motherboard You Have [Windows]

3. Integrations

Some of the better motherboards out there will have better quality integrations.

What do I mean?

Things like sound quality, inbuilt wi-fi etc. Some of the best come with genuine sound cards, sure it’s a bit rarer these days but these integrations are the kinds of things you need to shell out extra for with a lower quality mobo.

Related: Micro-ATX vs ATX (Full ATX)

2. Design

The design is important, and no I don’t mean how ‘pretty’ the motherboard looks. What I’m talking about is how the mobo functions.

It’s not uncommon to buy a cheap motherboard to only find that you’ve got case/tower wires being stretched to the point of ridiculousness. Not only this but these cheap alternatives often prevent you from being able to install certain graphics cards easily (not to mention large heatsink & fans).

Design matters a lot if you want everything to run seamlessly, and it’s one of the things I pay a lot of attention to in reviews when shopping for a new board.

Related: Best Motherboards 2018 – Gaming Edition

1. Overclocking

Some motherboards as I’ve said simply perform better than others. This is due to how they’re built, with what quality of materials and more.

For gamers this is important if you want to overclock. You can put the same CPU in different motherboards, and what you’ll find is that you can’t always overclock them as well.

So does the motherboard make a difference when overclocking? Yes it 100% does.

Conclusion

There are a lot of enthusiasts out there who deem the motherboard as little more than a plug socket for their other components, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

It’s the foundation on which you build the rest of your computer, and the foundation needs to be solid. We wouldn’t build our house on quicksand, so don’t build your computer on junk.