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I used to build with expensive boards. Every machine I've had with the exception of an old P4 machine I built in 2004 has had a high end motherboard. On C2D I had a P5Q-E, on Nehalem I had a Rampage III Formula. For Sandybridge I had a Maximus IV extreme.
Now with my 4790K Haswell chip, I have an ASRock Z97 anniversary, which cost 1/4 of what my last board cost.
Why such a cheap board?
Well, it has everything I need, and nothing I don't. 6 6Gb/s SATA ports, enough USB, a "good enough" audio implementation (I use a USB DAC anyways) and the NIC is an Intel NIC. It supports 1 GPU which is all I need.
Sure, it only has crummy 4 phase power delivery, but I'm not planning to overclock my 4790K very much, and it has FIVR, so 4 phase should be good for the 4.6Ghz or so I will eventually put on it.
Why did I used to buy expensive boards? Well, I think it was more about bragging rights than anything else. The dip switches and all the I/O and fan headers and the fact that I could tweak from a seperate phone or laptop really turned me on with the Maximus IV, but you know what? In 4 years I never used any of those features. I never needed them.
I thought about it and with the extra $300+ I spent on that board unnecessarily I could have gotten a bigger SSD, or a better GPU, or more RAM, or more hard drive space. Things I would actually use.
At the end of the day, for the average user, a high end board just isn't going to make a meaningful difference.
I have seen people who are using a single GPU, not overclocking, not tweaking, and not using 12 fans use very expensive boards in their builds on forums for years. It's common for first timers to select a high end board.
It's just not necessary. If you are a newbie and you are considering making your first or second build with a high end board that has features you might not need, you should really reconsider. Why buy a Maximus VIII extreme and a 120GB SSD and a GTX 1070 when you could buy a cheap board that will still let you overclock and do most of the things you want. Take that money and put it into a 1080 or a 1TB SSD. Things you will use.
Rant over hehehe!
Now with my 4790K Haswell chip, I have an ASRock Z97 anniversary, which cost 1/4 of what my last board cost.
Why such a cheap board?
Well, it has everything I need, and nothing I don't. 6 6Gb/s SATA ports, enough USB, a "good enough" audio implementation (I use a USB DAC anyways) and the NIC is an Intel NIC. It supports 1 GPU which is all I need.
Sure, it only has crummy 4 phase power delivery, but I'm not planning to overclock my 4790K very much, and it has FIVR, so 4 phase should be good for the 4.6Ghz or so I will eventually put on it.
Why did I used to buy expensive boards? Well, I think it was more about bragging rights than anything else. The dip switches and all the I/O and fan headers and the fact that I could tweak from a seperate phone or laptop really turned me on with the Maximus IV, but you know what? In 4 years I never used any of those features. I never needed them.
I thought about it and with the extra $300+ I spent on that board unnecessarily I could have gotten a bigger SSD, or a better GPU, or more RAM, or more hard drive space. Things I would actually use.
At the end of the day, for the average user, a high end board just isn't going to make a meaningful difference.
I have seen people who are using a single GPU, not overclocking, not tweaking, and not using 12 fans use very expensive boards in their builds on forums for years. It's common for first timers to select a high end board.
It's just not necessary. If you are a newbie and you are considering making your first or second build with a high end board that has features you might not need, you should really reconsider. Why buy a Maximus VIII extreme and a 120GB SSD and a GTX 1070 when you could buy a cheap board that will still let you overclock and do most of the things you want. Take that money and put it into a 1080 or a 1TB SSD. Things you will use.
Rant over hehehe!