Motherboard

Now that you have picked all these components you simply need to find a motherboard that supports everything. You will basically take the list of components that you have created and use their specifications to select a suitable motherboard. I usually use NewEgg's power search option in the motherboard selection to try and help me find a good fit. Simply go down the list of filters and select the specifications for what you've picked. Be careful though, because if you select that you want a hard drive with 4 SATA ports, then it will only show motherboards with exactly four SATA ports. So, if you want at least 4 ports, select 4 SATA ports as well as all of the larger amounts to give you the best view of results.

An essential for picking your motherboard is making sure that it is the right socket type. Your processor attaches through a special interface on the motherboard known as a socket. Different generations of processors use different socket types because they provide different connection speeds to the motherboard. Because of this, it's very important to make sure you get a motherboard that has a compatible socket type with your processor.

Picking a motherboard that supports the RAM you have picked out is fairly straightforward, but there are a few tricks to it. First of all, make sure your motherboard supports the same generation of RAM that you have picked out. Next is the speed compatibility. To make the most of the RAM that you have selected you will want to get a motherboard that supports at least the speed of RAM that you selected. For instance if the RAM you picked is rated at DDR3-1066, get a motherboard rated for at least that 1066. Sometimes it can actually be cheaper to get a motherboard rated slightly higher just because of what RAM speed is most common, so keep your eyes peeled. And although you can certainly get a motherboard that is rated at a lower speed than the RAM you've selected, it is somewhat of a waste because you're paying quite a bit for that rating but not making good use of it.

Expansion is another good thing to keep in mind when picking out your motherboard. For instance, if you might be adding another hard drive in the future make sure you have enough SATA ports on the motherboard. If you have decided to go with integrated graphics but plan to upgrade to a graphics card later then make sure you have a free PCI Express x16 slot for future use. And if you think you might run out of USB ports in the future, make sure there are enough PCI slots to make use of.

As for compatibility with the rest of the components you should have few worries. As long as your motherboard supports the same data interface that you picked out for your hard drive you should have no troubles. Almost all modern motherboards come with several SATA ports and an IDE port if you're trying to re-use an old hard drive.