USB 3 ports are usually blue and USB 2.0 ports black, but that’s not always the case-especially when board makers add feature like sleep-charge to some ports. One thing to know about USB ports is that color isn’t consistent. And the availability of 16GB modules means you can install 32GB of RAM on even a tiny Mini-ITX board-though you will pay a price premium for that extra density versus opting for a RAM kit that spreads the 32GB across four sticks. That said, for most mainstream tasks (including gaming) 16GB is good enough and 32GB is ample. Many boards based around high-end chipsets (X399/Threadripper for AMD and X299/Core X for Intel) have eight slots (and support quad-channel memory for more bandwidth). If you need more, you’ll need to opt for a board with at least four DIMM slots. Some low-end chipsets are also limited to two slots, because only one DIMM per channel is supported. Mini-ITX motherboards are usually limited to two RAM slots due to board space constraints. But unless you are going to ship your system, or plan to cart it to LAN parties and you have a very big, heavy card, metal slots are more for show than a necessity.

We have seen slots break before-usually when large cards are installed in a system that’s been shipped across the country. The idea is that they provide more support for large graphics cards, to keep the plastic slot from cracking or outright breaking under the weight of heavy cards. Lastly, a note about metal-wrapped PCIe slots: These are increasingly common in high-end and even mainstream boards. Even if a smaller board has all the slots and ports you need now, it’s good to have some left over for future upgrades. If you are planning on installing lots of expansion cards, you’ll want to opt for an ATX motherboard (if not an E-ATX model), as smaller form factors have less room for slots (as well as other features that take up lots of PCB space). So while there are six slots on the board here, if you install two graphics cards, you’ll have just two accessible slots to add other cards. In the image above, if you install a gaming graphics card (the vast majority of which are at least two slots tall) in either of the two x16 slots, the shorter x1 slots below them will be blocked. Also know that slot arrangement/spacing is key if installing more than one or two expansion cards. Note that some PCIe slots may be wired for fewer lanes than the slot length suggests, or have some lanes disabled depending on what other slots or fast drives are installed.

Blue or white ram slot