
Motherboard Specifications on MotherboardDB - aspenmayer
https://motherboarddb.com
======
aspenmayer
I found this during research and thought I'd share. It could be better, but
it's a one-person project labor of love, so I'm pretty forgiving.

For new-ish parts, PCPartPicker.com is still the single best resource for this
info, but their info isn't always _entirely_ accurate. For a given board I was
researching with USB3.0, PCPartPicker listed it as having USB3.1Gen1 support.
For compatibility its built-in checking is pretty good for what it does, but
if your use case demands specific I/O ports/functionality, especially dicey
things like Thunderbolt over USB-C, always discover the ground reality for
yourself from first-party sources, such as the OEM/vendor.

[https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/](https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/)

Here's some other motherboard research links I found:

[https://acme.com/build_a_pc/boardfinder/](https://acme.com/build_a_pc/boardfinder/)

[http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/stats.html](http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/stats.html)

~~~
toast0
> but their info isn't always entirely accurate. For a given board I was
> researching with USB3.0, PCPartPicker listed it as having USB3.1Gen1
> support.

This one is just USB being USB. USB 3.0's 5 Gbps Superspeed mode was renamed
to USB 3.1Gen1 with the release of USB 3.1.

~~~
aspenmayer
Of course, now that you mention it, I can remember enough of what I read at
the time to corroborate this. I actually feel a bit silly for not remembering,
then I remember that I’ve been alive for every USB revision, and it’s hard to
keep up with this stuff.

I’m reminded of the WiFi renumbering scheme that dropped with Wi-Fi 6, and
yes, that is the way that it’s written. I never write it out hyphenated, or
usually with numbers, because that’s not how most equipment with those
features is labeled; only modern Wi-Fi 6 devices, and those older spec devices
produced since its introduction, use the new numbering scheme, rather than 1-2
letter revision name.

Thanks for the correction, and the reminder.

~~~
pcarmichael
The names changed out from under us. It’s hard because some people expect to
see 3.0, while others expect to see 3.1gen1. Whichever one we pick we end up
confusing the other side. In the end we went with the current industry naming
because that’s what people will see on manufacturer spec pages and most
retailers. Had our specs differed in naming between those (even if we were
specifying the same thing), we’d end up getting a lot of confused people
thinking our specs were wrong. We ended up doing the same rename for WiFi
numbering - both those name changes went in about the same time, though I
stubbornly held out as long as I felt we could...

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gruez
May I suggest adding some information that enthusiasts are interested in? For
instance, VRM, debug LEDs, RGB headers, pci-e conflict information (eg. if you
use pcie_0 alone, it runs at x16, but if you have pcie_1 populated they both
run at x8).

basically this:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IY6W6YhyjnzSvi8BqEqi...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IY6W6YhyjnzSvi8BqEqiK1xykSiTDF2Lt1FO8cNhI6I/edit)

~~~
aspenmayer
That's a really well done spreadsheet. It's not my project, but I believe the
creator invites contact via email.

It's a shame I see so many good spreadsheets like yours, almost always on
Google Sheets. A social network based on spreadsheets would help surface this
content, and if clear licensing were included, instant remixable data would
have me beating down that site's door.

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ddcc7
I've found that geizhals.eu is great for this sort of stuff. Here's an example
for Intel LGA1151v2:
[https://geizhals.eu/?cat=mbp4_1151v2](https://geizhals.eu/?cat=mbp4_1151v2)

You can filter by details like the LAN chipset (e.g. Realtek RTL8111E,
AQuantia AQC107, etc), the audio chipset, etc.

~~~
aspenmayer
If I could upvote you twice, I would. This is even better than
PCPartPicker.com. You really did a good thing with this post.

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popotamonga
Its terrible to buy MB. I want the best possible MB for my 3950x that supports
128ram at the highest possible clock etc regardless of pricr and i just get
lost with all the possibilities.

~~~
DiabloD3
You want two community spreadsheets:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9_E3h8bLp-
TXr-0zTJF...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9_E3h8bLp-
TXr-0zTJFqqVxdCR9daIVNyMatydkpFA/htmlview#gid=639584818)

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wmsTYK9Z3-jUX5LGRoFn...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wmsTYK9Z3-jUX5LGRoFnsZYZiW1pfiDZnKCjaXyzd1o/htmlview#)

But I'll save you the work (since this is rather complex): Look at the Asrock
X570 Taichi, MSI X570 Aorus Xtreme, and the MEG X570 Godlike, those are the
three boards that have most overbuilt VRMs and least flawed designs.

Asus sold nothing worth mentioning for X570. Sadly the ROG Crosshair VIII
Formula isn't as good as the other three, and Asus boards may have an issue
with cooking CPUs due to subtle overvolting.

~~~
stefanfisk
That should be "Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme", right?

~~~
DiabloD3
Whoops, my bad.

Yes, Gigabyte. Too many companies with gamer brands, I usually refer to boards
purely by their brand/product line, not their actual company, and that,
apparently, finally stung me.

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AceJohnny2
When last I built a PC a few years ago, I found that the best place for
motherboard specs was their user manual, certainly not any "product" webpage
nor even their "specs" subsection, which is overloaded with marketing BS.

The user manuals had accurate information on the number of ports, their
capabilities, number of sockets, max RAM, etc...

I'm glad to see that MotherboardDB has direct links to the User Manual PDFs,
and distills that information down.

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Jhsto
Learned something new today from this site: there exists motherboards
specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining, e.g.,
[https://motherboarddb.com/motherboards/920/B250%20Mining%20E...](https://motherboarddb.com/motherboards/920/B250%20Mining%20Expert/)

~~~
x0
Wow, there's an ASUS mining mobo. I knew cryptocurrency boards existed, but I
thought they were bespoke diy projects and random aliexpress jobs. Anyone else
wondering, those are PCI-E x1 ports, 18 of them.

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fadesibert
Consider adding a Crossfilter or something similar that shows how many results
exist in the criteria you are narrowing by.

Eg:
[https://github.com/crossfilter/crossfilter](https://github.com/crossfilter/crossfilter)

For a working example - see the flight search results on Kayak

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shmerl
It would be good to add the info on super I/O chip maker there.

This is useful to know when selecting a motherboard since for example Nuvoton
usually provide documentation for their chips and ITE don't, that's why
sensors work much better on Linux with motherboards that use Nuvoton.

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nemothekid
This is a good resource, but I with it was easier to search for motherboard
with 2x PCI-E @ 16x

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snshn
Great idea, very useful resource.

First suggestion: make 0 results look different in
[https://motherboarddb.com/advanced-
search/results/e1afe77e-f...](https://motherboarddb.com/advanced-
search/results/e1afe77e-f380-4ffc-99b5-9c40f07c7b0e?page=1) \-- way too many
elements there for an empty list.

Secondly, it'd be a good feature to have a "None" option for drop-downs, as
in, if I would like to find a motherboard without audio chip on it.

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k_sze
I wish it allowed me to search by CPU family instead of socket.

I care a lot more about the CPU family than the socket. There is no way I
remember what socket the latest AMD Ryzen 4000 family uses.

~~~
neogodless
While the general idea that discovering sockets for different CPUs can be
challenging, all AMD Ryzen consumer CPUs use the AM4 socket, including the
Ryzen 4000 APUs. That hasn't been hard to remember, in my opinion. (But sure,
Threadripper and EPYC are different - TR4 and SP3.)

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fomine3
What I need is search by PCIe lanes/slots, comes from PCH or CPU. Whether the
lanes come from PCH or CPU is important but rarely described in specs but on
manuals.

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Hemospectrum
This looks nice and detailed.

If I had one wishlist item, it would be the exact board dimensions.
Occasionally there are boards smaller than what their form factor specifies.
For example, the Asus PRIME A320M-K, at 226mm by 221mm, will fit in a CM
NR200, which is nominally a Mini-DTX case.

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tumblewit
This will make life simpler ... buying a motherboard with knowing exactly
which chips come with the board (like Ethernet) is usually digging through
bunch of online documents or reviews.

~~~
lostlogin
Unexpectedly finding a nic isn’t compatible is a painful experience. ESXi 7.0
had no support for some newer nics.

~~~
tumblewit
Audio is also a problem sometimes though generally the specs are pretty clear
on it. I wish it had more details like USB layouts and PCI lane distribution

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maz1b
Before clicking, I thought this was another new database startup. But this is
an interesting site, and appreciate the effort.

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kn100
Cool site, but the hamburger menu doesn't open on Firefox Mobile :(

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rasz
scrapping pictures from the manufacturer website might not be the most legal
thing imaginable

