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What does one do when faced with the need for a new gaming system? Of course, consoles provide a convenient all-in-one gaming solution, but there are those who want a bit of flexibility, customisability, and upgradeability on which to exercise their ‘pwning’ ability.  For this, the stalwart gaming PC still cannot be beaten.

Foundation

With future upgradeability in mind, one of the most important elements of the system is the motherboard. Though AMD and Intel both offer a variety of platform options, the same basic considerations apply.
The motherboard features are going to be the backbone of the system for the next few years, so it pays to spend a little extra in this area. Hopefully this guide will clear up some of the confusing issues surrounding motherboard choice.

Sockets

Intel has recently brought two new CPU sockets to market, the LGA 1366 and LGA 1156, supporting Nehalem based processors.

The LGA 1366 motherboards may be a little out of budget for value shoppers - currently around R2500 - but they are usually full featured, and provide an upgrade path to the future i9 branded processors. However, the LGA 1366 runs triple channel DDR3, so be prepared to spend more on RAM as well.

LGA 1156 motherboards are more budget friendly - starting at R1500 for boards with two ×16 mode PCI-E slots. LGA 1156 boards run dual channel DDR3, which will also save some money over the LGA 1366 triple channel variant.

LGA 775 socket motherboards can still be found, but they vary greatly in price depending on features (from R500 to over R2000). This socket supports the old Core 2 and Quad processors, which will still perform admirably for a gaming system over the next year or two, but there is no real upgrade path for these systems other than the GPU.

From AMD, socket AM2+ and the recent AM3 will both provide solid gaming systems with a good upgrade path. The sockets are cross compatible with the corresponding processors - AM3 processors will work on AM2+ sockets, and vice versa, but some features will be negated.

This provides an interesting choice for those currently in possession of an AM2+ CPU, in that they can splash out on an AM3 board, and upgrade the CPU at a later stage. Due to the small price difference, one should lean toward the AM3 socket motherboards, which come in at around R2000 for a high end gaming board.
 
PCI-Express 2.0 and Motherboard chipsets

Many motherboards will have ×16 sized slots with less than 16 PCI-E 2.0 data pathways connected to them. An ×16 slot with 8 data pathways is described as ×16 (×8 mode) for example.

These days, the north bridge chipset has had most of its functions moved over to the CPU, but it still plays the important role of managing the PCI-Express 2.0 link to the CPU. A common offering is two ×16 slots, one running in ×16 mode, and the other in ×8 mode, which provides a good upgrade path to multi GPUs.

Running two slots in ×8 mode will usually suffice bandwidth requirements for multi GPU setups, but some games that use extremely large textures (Crysis, Flight Simulator X, GTA IV) will see a performance hit. Only the top of the range AMD north bridge chipsets will offer two ×16 mode slots, and these boards may be out of range of the budget conscious. The Intel P55 chipset boards do offer more than one ×16 mode slot however, and these boards fall within the mid range budget.

MyGaming has previously discussed budget GPU choices to aid the conscientious spender.

Nvidia's Multi GPU SLI

SLI functionality can be found on boards sporting an nForce chipset, with the nForce 7xx chipsets being the latest, supporting the Intel LGA775 and AMD AM2+ CPU sockets. These are both aging sockets and may not be appealing for those building a new system with longevity in mind. Some Intel X58 and P55 chipsets support SLI, as long as the manufacturer has had them certified by Nvidia. Cards in SLI have to be of the same chipset model - i.e. two 8800 GTS 512 cards.

Nvidia also appears to be taking a step back from the gaming market for the time being, so it remains to be seen how many SLI compatible motherboards will emerge over the next few years. With Nvidia's top of the line GPUs overpriced and underperforming in comparison with the latest ATI offerings, it might be wise to lean in favour of an ATI graphics solution.

ATI's Multi GPU CrossfireX

ATI's CrossfireX is generally more friendly that SLI. Not only will most AMD motherboard chipsets support it, but so will most Intel chipsets, as ATI has opened up the architecture to Intel. Unlike SLI, the GPUs don't have be of the exact same model, but just of the same generation. An HD4850 and HD4870 will work together for example.

Final thoughts

The budget conscious gamer would do well to spend a little extra on the motherboard. On top of a decent board, one can use cheaper entry level parts, which can be upgraded as they age. CrossfireX is the most sensible multi GPU upgrade path at the moment. Both the Intel LGA 1156 and AM3 platforms will provide a solid foundation for a long lasting budget gaming rig.

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