Determining the make and model of a motherboard is not as hard as it sounds.
When looking to upgrade a PC, one of the most important things to know is what kind of mainboard---or "motherboard" as it is more commonly referred to---your machine has. Knowing this will help you determine what kind of RAM and what kind of CPU you can use when upgrading your hardware. Determining what kind of mainboard you have is relatively simple, as it requires little more than a pair of eyes to look over your board.
Instructions
Examine the Hardware
1. Look for obvious branding. Some enthusiast boards, like those manufactured by XFX, have their board clearly labeled with custom branding on or near the center of the board.
2. Find the sticker. The majority of motherboard manufacturers place a sticker somewhere on the board, usually on a clear area away from expansion slots or, alternatively, on the underside of the bottom-most expansion slot, that lists the motherboard name, chipset and serial number.
3. Examine the area between the RAM slots on your board. Your RAM slots are long, vertical expansion slots located to the right of your CPU socket, which is the big squared space on your motherboard. Some mainboard manufacturers place the board's identification number in laser etching between the RAM slots.
Looking in the BIOS
4. Restart your PC and enter your BIOS by pressing the proper function key. Depending on the board manufacturer, the key in question can be either "F2", "F6" or "F10."
5. Use the directional arrows on your keyboard to navigate to the "Advanced Chipset Features" option and press the "Enter" key to go in to the submenu.
6. Look through the info on the screen to find the motherboard name, model number and serial number. When you have the information you need, press "ESC" as necessary until you exit your BIOS and your computer restarts.
Identifying via Software
7. Download and install the proper hardware identification software, which includes programs like CPU-Z, PC Wizard and PC-Config. While these programs are all different from each other, they all operate in a similar manner. For the sake of this guide, the software used is PC Wizard.
8. Double-click the icon for your software and allow up to one minute for the program to scan through your hardware to properly identify your PC components.
9. Click the "Mainboard" button and look for the "Manufacturer" and "Mainboard" listings to learn the motherboard make and model.
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