Motherboards

Most motherboards are stamped with a manufacture name and model number.With these you can go to the web site and get all the info you need. ie(www.intel.com).Or go to www.motherboards.org

Hope this helps

While they are not as up to date as I would like, you can try the motherboard comparison tools at www.motherboards.org

Then, there are the hardware sites such as www.tomshardware.com
that review PC components.

If you are looking to build a new system, post a new question with what you plan to do with the system in as much detail as possible, and you will get a number of recommendations of what motherboard would be good to use.

My general rules:
Stick with name brand manufactures.

Stick with the big chip-set vendors.
(AMD, Intel Nvidia, VIA)

If you plan to use an Intel CPU, it can be worth the extra cost for an Intel motherboard.

Avoid on-board ANYTHING:
Video,
Modem,
Sound,
Network Adapter

First, most on-board features have lower performance than plug-in cards.
Second, if the on-board item fails, it can disable the entire motherboard.

Chas

sNSWE 1 IS RIGHT, ALTHOUGH TO ADD TO THIS, SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO SEE. OPEN CASE OF PC AND LOCATE MOTHERBOARD. BEING CAREFULL, TRY SLIGHTLY PUSHING RIBBON CABLES AROUND. THE MODEL NUMBERF ABD MANUFACTURER NAME MAY BE UNDERNEATH ONE OF THESE CABLES. . IF THIS IS NO GOOD, TRY LOOKING AT ALL NAMES/CODES/NUMBERS YOU CAN SEE ON MOTHERBOARD THAT ARE BIGGER THAN NORMAL. THEN DO A SEARCH ON INTERNET (IE. GOOGLE, JEEVES) AND TYPE IN WHAT YOU SEE. TRY THIS FOR ANY NUMBER/NAME YOU SEE ON m/B THAT IS NOT DIRECTLY RELATED TO ANY JUMPERS, SWITCHES ETC..

PS. THIS IS HOW i FOUND THE MANUFACTURER OF MY MOTHERBOARD ON A TOME 1998 pc

Try going to the motherboard manufacturers and look at their wares.

http://www.asus.com/
http://www.supermicro.com/
http://www.giga-byte.com/
http://www.aopen.com/
http://www.epox.com/

Techsite for information and evaluations
http://www.anandtech.com

Good Luck Lee