Ready to buy a motherboard? Here are PC World's recommendations.

Research chip sets first. At any given time, vendors build motherboards around several different chip sets. Companies like Intel, Via, SiS, and NVidia make most of the chip sets. First off, chip sets can be divided into those that support Intel CPUs and those built for AMD processors. Other differences include memory support, bus speeds, and integrated components like sound and video. Since many different motherboard manufacturers use the same chip sets to build their boards, getting a handle on what each chip set includes can help you pinpoint the differences between otherwise very similar motherboards.

Don't buy the fastest CPU. You'll pay a hefty price premium for the absolutely fastest processor available, and it won't be much faster than the chip two notches below it.

Buy the fastest memory your board officially supports. The performance difference may not be great, but if you need to add more memory later, the faster speed will be less likely to be outdated and much easier to find.

Be aware of the drawbacks of integrated video. Chip sets that integrate video onto the motherboard nearly always use some system memory to store graphics data, which decreases overall performance. While some integrated graphics chips, notably those from NVidia and ATI, perform decently, you're almost always better off with even a cheap video card. If you plan to upgrade later, make sure your board comes with an AGP slot.

Buy a little more motherboard than you need. Spending an extra $20 for a motherboard that includes RAID support, a LAN port, USB 2.0 and FireWire will pay off if you want to add any of those features later. If you don't get those features on the motherboard, the only other option is to add a PCI card; if the features are integrated, you'll save PCI slots.