Advantages of a good motherboard?

luckyguy20

luckyguy20

luckyguy20

Associate
Joined
14 Jun 2011
Posts
182
Hi there just wondered what the avantages of a good motherboard to a bad one. Does it affect performance in some sort? How will i know if its better thab my current motherboard? I currently have an asrock N68c-s and was also thinking of upgrading but will want to know if it would make any difference..
 
you get some chipsets which are better than others (more features) and bios options can be essential to some people if they want to overclocker. build quality of the board and components also makes some boards better than others. it really comes down to your defenition of good.
 
Aye, it really depends on what you need.

Here are a few features which many people find useful and pick out boards which have some or all them based on their needs:

Overclocking options
good overclocking performance
The two main PCIE slots run at x8 speed or more
SLI support
Crossfire Support
wide spacing between main PCIE slots
USB3
SATA 6G (native)
hardware RAID options
dual gigabit ethernet
UEFI BIOS
Future processor support (eg Intel Ivy Bridge, AMD Bulldozer)
Good quality onboard sound
number of USB connections
number of SATA(2) connections
good onboard cooling
cool running components
looks nice


If you don't need any new features, you will be using the same CPU and don't plan to overclock then there isn't much point upgrading the motherboard if it still works fine. However, if you are planning a rolling upgrade then buying a board that supports more features and future CPUs (as well as your current one) - like the AM3+ boards - are worth a look.
 
Hi guys thanks for the feedbacks. My mobo still works finebut my only concern is ive got a hd 6870 gpu, my mobo only supports pci-e x16. It works on it but im worried that it compromises the gpu as it is pci-e2.0.
 
It doesn't matter, PCIE is fully backwards compatible. The only difference is the speed. A PCIE v1.x slot (like the one on your board) runs at half the speed as a modern PCIE v2.0 slot - so your main slot is equivalent to a x8 slot on a modern board. However, this bandwidth doesn't really limit modern graphics cards - have a look at this article.
 
No, not really since a x16 PCIE v1.x motherboard slot isn't much of a bottleneck to a modern card like the 5870 or 6870. Have a read of that article and you will see the small performance difference between PCIE v2.0 x16 and x8 - where x8 is the same speed as a x16 PCIE v1.x connection. The real world FPS difference is only a few percent.

If you want to spend money to improve performance either overclock your CPU (not a great deal of scope for that on your current board), buy a new CPU (that fits in your existing board), buy a new CPU+board or buy a new Graphics card. If you are running a dual core CPU, then I would suggest upgrading the CPU before the 6870 GPU.
 
I currently have an amd athlon II quad. Im not planning on upgrading my gpu but i was thinking of crossfire but my mobo doesnt support.. :( so any suggestions for a good mobo? A mobo that has good pcie spacing and at a reasonable price will be great
 
If you want to run crossfire cards, then I would suggest looking at a 990X AM3+ board like this one. In dual-card crossfire (or SLI) it runs each card at PCIE v2.0 x8 speed - which is plenty. It also supports upcoming AMD Bulldozer CPUs (as well as your existing Athlon II X4).
 
I would say a 990FX like this, however - if you don't need the features of a £150 board then I would suggest saving your cash for something else (perhaps start saving up for a Bulldozer CPU) and go for the cheaper, yet still very capable, gigabyte 990X board.
 
It supports some Bulldozer CPUs unofficially with a BIOS upgrade, but if you are going to spend this ammount of money at this stage I would still recommend going for a proper AM3+ board. If you really want the dual x16 lanes, then this one is pretty much the same price as that Crosshair 4. That 990FX board also supports SLI (as well as crossfire) so it is great for flexabilty with future graphics card upgrades (ie you can switch over to Nvidia cards and still have a good multi-gpu option).
 
Last edited:
The UD3 as mentioned ^ is what I would go for :) Got the features you need and looks amazing :D Will handle future upgrades too (USB 3, SATA 3, Bulldozer...) which is always a bonus!
 
i have an asrock 890fx deluxe and its a pretty awesome mobo for the price. it does indeed support the 16x pci-e when in crossfire which is good, so i would strongly suggest the 990FX range. asrock offer you some pretty good features for little money. their overclocking options are pretty straight forward to, so that helps.
have used several gigabyte boards myself, both at home and work, and for the money, i would take an asrock everytime.
 
have been looking around and im getting a little bit confused on what to get.. lol
my only worry is if i get ie a £150 mobo and later on find a £100 with the same specs.. ill be gutted :D how do i compare them? is it the more expensive the better? or is the price based on the NAME in them? btw the mobo i would be wanting is more or less like this:

SSD support
crossfire and SLI
support of New and upcoming processors for future upgrades
pcie slot spacing
cable management (position of the slots)
looks :P

PS: im still new to custom pc building, i just need a rough idea on how to compare the mobos as much of the terminologies are a bit confusing for me.. :D but im getting there! :D
 
seriously look at the 990FX range from ASrock. should be close to your budget and they offer everything you require.
you cannot judge a component, or anything for that matter, on price. just because something is more expensive does not make it better.
things to consider :
pci-e spacing
pci-e speeds in CF/SLI
SATA III ports
USB 3.0 Ports and Headers
Ram Slot & other Components positioning (for aftermarket coolers)
Chipset
CPU Support

ummm cant think of anything else.

ASRock 990FX Extreme 4
■Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100%Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
■Supports AM3+ Processor, 8-Core CPU
■Supports Dual Channel DDR3 2100(OC)
■Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
■2 x Front USB 3.0, 2 x Rear USB 3.0, 8 x SATA3, 2 x IEEE 1394
■Dr. Debug, Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
■Supports XFast USB Technology, Graphical UEFI BIOS
■Supports On/Off Play Technology, Instant Boot, Instant Flash, APP Charger, SmartView, Turbo UCC
■7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection, supports THX TruStudio™

990FX%20Extreme4(m).jpg


(not sure why the pic on their site looks like it has thermal paste all over the cpu socket :rolleyes:)

not sure when it is out though and im not sure if it will have SLI support.

EDIT : ok on the specs page on their site :
- 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4 @ x16 mode; PCIE5 @ x4 mode)
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
- 2 x PCI slots
- Supports AMDTM Quad CrossFireX™ , 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
- Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
Click to expand...

so think it will do sli too.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom