CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

of the more popular brands are ASUS, BIOSTAR, GIGABYTE, Intel, and
MSI. Your supplier may also have some lesser-known but perfectly
acceptable brands of motherboards. As long as the supplier has an easy return
policy, it’s fine to try one of these.
Second, make sure you’re getting a form factor that works with your case.
Don’t try to put a regular ATX motherboard into a microATX case!
Third, all motherboards come with a technical manual, better known as the
motherboard book (see Figure 6-38). You must have this book! This book is
your primary source for all of the critical information about the motherboard.
If you set up CPU or RAM timings incorrectly in CMOS, for example, and
you have a dead PC, where would you find the CMOS-clear jumper? Where
do you plug in the speaker? Even if you let someone else install the
motherboard, insist on the motherboard book; you will need it.
Figure 6-38 Motherboard box and book