How to interpret motherboard names?

B150, B250, Z170, Z270, X370... what does it all mean? And how do you know which motherboard to pick for your specific CPU? Sockets are obvious, but what should you look if you want to overclock (or not)?
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Just chipset numbers. Usually you can bring up a review site to see the differences between ones in the same family.
 

MisterEd

Member
The lower end chipsets are on lower end motherboards and have fewer features. Upper end chipsets are for higher end motherboards. Higher end motherboards have more features and may have better quality components. The buyer has to decide what features are important to him and how much is he willing to spend on them.

Intel Socket LGA 1151 chipsets
100 series (Sunrise Point) for Skylake CPUs:
H110, B150, Q150, H170, Q170, Z170
200 series (Union Point) for Kaby Lake CPUs:
B250, Q250, H270, Q270, Z270

AMD Socket AM4 chipsets for Ryzen and other AM4 CPUs
A/B300 "Essential Small form-factor"
X300 "Enthusiast Small form-factor"
A320 "Entry-level"
B350 "Mainstream"
X370 "Enthusiast"
 
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