1) For latest Intel 6th and 7th gen processor, using socket LGA1151, it's easily distinguish into the following type of board:
H110 - most basic board, most user will fall under this category if budget is the biggest concern. Memory frequency supported is up to 2133MHz.
B250 - mainstream motherboard. Got more than enough features you need and some models will focus on aesthetic options as well. Include Intel Optane Technology support but that don't matter to average consumer. Memory frequency supported is up to 2400MHz
H270 - the most advance mainstream motherboard, same as B250 but with RAID storage support.
Z270 - the most advance consumer (note: not prosumer) motherboard, targeted for those who is more of an enthusiast but not the hardcore type. Same stuff as H270, but include overclocking and multi gpu supports.
X99 - enthusiasts motherboard. Have more stuff than z270, have quad gpu support, quad memory channel support and many more. Meant for hardcore enthusiasts and prosumers. Only matches i7 extreme processors.
Only the Z series can overclock for mainstream motherboard (x99 can overclock too but it's an enthusiast board), with the use of Intel unlocked processor, those model ending with the letter K. (eg. Intel Core i7-7700K) Those without K, all are locked, means cannot be overclocked.
For AMD side, using AM4 sockets come with these:
A320 - most basic boards, cannot overclock.
B350 - equivalent counterpart to Intel B250, but without Intel Optane as the name suggests it's Intel-exclusive. But for AMD this model onward can overclock.
X370 - Intel Z270 counterpart, same as B350 but with multi gpu support.
Both AMD and Intel latest uses DDR4 memory.
2) Processors for Intel can be found for the current LGA1151 socket, are Skylake (6th gen, like i5-6500) and Kabylake (7th gen, like i5-7500). Main difference is the core clock on kaby lake is higher, support more PCIE lanes and Intel Optane Technology. The Models are as followed:
Pentium G series - cheapest and most basic 2 core 4 threads. Most bang for the bucks for basic system. Suitable for streaming media and basic task to entry level gaming.
i3 - like Pentium G but higher clock frequency and better integrated graphic. Not worth the price though.
i5 - mainstream 4 core 4 threads processor. The most popular processor for gamer for high clock speed as games mainly uses single or dual core. Run most things really well. Jack of all trades.
i7 - 4 core 8 threads processor. With more threads, this is more focused for high cpu usage application and competitive gaming as the clock speed is higher than i5 in general. Suitable for content creation, streaming your stuff to others, competitive gaming. More expensive than i5.
i7 extreme - enthusiasts platform processor. Matches X99 motherboard only.
AMD newest Ryzen line up have similar naming scheme as well, but at the time of this post, I'll only say what's released only as of currently.
Ryzen 5 - mainstream processor targeted for people who wants both gaming and productivity work. Come with 4 cores 8 threads and 6 core 12 threads variants. All variants can be overclocked.
Ryzen 7 - 8 core 16 threads processors for enthusiasts market as well as direct competitor to i7 extreme at a very attractive price. All variants can be overclocked. For high productivity work which uses more cores and threads like virtual machine, heavy 3d and video rendering, bitcoin mining and many more.
As of currently, Ryzen pricing is very competitive and finally caught up with the Cpu competition with Intel, offering more core and threads and overclocking ability on all of its cpu variants at an attractive pricing. Though Ryzen is still pretty new, so expect multiple bios updates for motherboard, optimization from software updates to be very frequent. Ryzen have upper hand in multi core workload due to more cores available, while Intel have upper hand in gaming due to higher clock speed.
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