It's not unusual for many users to start getting a little antsy around the holidays as they contemplate various upgrades they might want to make. They say it's better to give than to receive, so we at AnandTech thought it might be nice to give you some good advice for holiday purchases, and if you're lucky you might receive a few choice upgrades.

Motherboards are one of the most important components in any computer system, but at the same time they're one of the most difficult decisions you face when it comes time to upgrade. You might think that going out and spending a ton of money on a motherboard would be a guarantee of success and quality - you get what you pay for, right? -- but as we've discussed recently that's frequently not the case. We have used and abused many motherboards over the past year, and there has been more than one occasion where a significantly cheaper motherboard easily surpassed some of the high-end offerings.

To help out with your holiday shopping, we've put together a comprehensive motherboard guide, looking at everything from entry-level products up to high-end enthusiast offerings. We will be looking at both AMD and Intel options, including the latest X58 motherboards for Core i7 systems. We will have several other component buyer's guides over the coming week, but the motherboard is the heart of any modern system so we felt it would be best to start there.