The Acer M5100 uses the AMD Socket AM2+ / AM3 CPU socket. Any compatible AMD CPU will have the same socket entry.

Conforming to the ATX standard, the Acer M5100 should fit into the majority of cases. ATX is the most common form factor, and as such has a high degree of compatibility with other components while providing a decent number of slots to widen your expansion options.

The Acer M5100 supports onboard graphics. This allows for integrated graphics when paired with a compatible CPU that supports them. Integrated graphics are a cheap alternative to using a graphics card, but should be avoided when frequently using modern applications or games that require intense graphical processing. There are 1 PCIe x16 slots on this motherboard. This means it is perfectly capable of accommodating the latest graphics cards, although it is important to try and use a graphics card with the same graphics card interface of PCIe v1.x, as anything below will not reach the motherboard's potential, and anything above will have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the Acer M5100's PCIe v1.x. The Acer M5100 does not support multiple graphics cards via Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire.

The Acer M5100 has 4 USB 2.0 slots but no USB 3.0 slots. While USB 3.0 slots are so far by no means necessary, and with a plethora of USB 2.0 peripherals to choose from, the USB functionality on this motherboard should be fine. With so few slots, however, you would have to use a USB expansion hub. As such, we would highly recommend a different motherboard, preferably with USB 3.0 functionality as well.