I’m looking to build a reliable, basic, no-frills computer primarily for Internet browsing and watching movies. Not sure if it matters, but it would be running Linux Mint. I may also look to do some amount of photo and/or video editing on it at some point too, but i don’t have any real needs for gaming with it. There’s a million choices when it comes down to the mobo and cpu and all the rest of it, though i think i know which case i want to get so i think that may help narrow my options. (Fwiw, it’s a Fractal Designs North model case I’m considering)
Any advice, please?
Edit: thank you all so much for your responses, I’m really glad i posted here! I have a much better sense of which way to go now. I really appreciate the time y’all took to help me out. 😄
The motherboard you pick should have a QVL (Qualified Vendor List). It’s basically RAM they’ve tested and verified to work with your motherboard.
It’s not rigorously tested at all, and stability comes down to a mixture of the CPU you pick and the silicon lottery, but it’s a decent baseline.
For brands, go with the ones you know. Crucial used to be my go-to, but they’re focusing on SSDs and don’t do RAM anymore (I do recommend their hard drives, btw). Pick a motherboard that has the features you want, but don’t worry about things like PCIe5, since hardly any content even makes use of the full PCIe4 specification.
Looks like you should be able to pick whatever motherboard you want with that case, so unless you are going with ITX, you shouldn’t have to worry about clearances. ASRock tends to be the cheapest option, Gigabyte is somewhere around the middle, and MSI/Asus tend to be the most expensive, but the last also often come with extras. Just look into what each one offers, and don’t settle.
Thank you for the follow up response!! I really appreciate your insight 🙂 I’ll do some homework when i get a minute and sort through my options.