Does having a good motherboard make any difference to the overall speed of your PC?

48633DX · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:07

My question is

Does having a good motherboard make "any" difference in the overall speed of your PC?

... so if I buy a simple intel i7 chip (OC that) + fast 16GB RAM, the combination of the chip + RAM would make all the difference between a fast machine and a slow one? (assuming there is no graphics card). Also bearing in mind the HD will be using SATA 3 (or even a SSD).

Sorry for the newbie question, I see so many MB out there, all of them adding new things, most of which will never get used by most people?

thanks

beejjacobs · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:09

48633DX said:
My question is

Does having a good motherboard make "any" difference in the overall speed of your PC?

... so if I buy a simple intel i7 chip (OC that) + fast 16GB RAM, the combination of the chip + RAM would make all the difference between a fast machine and a slow one? (assuming there is no graphics card). Also bearing in mind the HD will be using SATA 3 (or even a SSD).

Sorry for the newbie question, I see so many MB out there, all of them adding new things, most of which will never get used by most people?

thanks

This is true, so it's good to get a board which fits your needs. For instance more expensive boards can generally overclock better, and have more sata ports etc.. as well as features such as SLI/crossfire support.

As per your other thread, an i5 2500K is plenty for gaming the hyperthreading on the i7 is wasted. However if you do video editing or similarly demanding tasks then the i7 might be worth it.
This board is a popular budget choice, with plenty of features and it even overclocks fairly well too
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI

heres some reviews:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/10/11/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-review/1
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...herboards/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-1026263/review
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z68ap-d3_review/1
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainboard/35865-gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-motherboard/
http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/

48633DX · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:12

beejjacobs said:
This is true, so it's good to get a board which fits your needs. For instance more expensive boards can generally overclock better, and have more sata ports etc.. as well as features such as SLI/crossfire support

Thanks beejjacobs, you really are a wise guy.

But on a serious note, I'm one of these people where paying more on HW will be better, but for motherboards, I really don't think thats the case.

beejjacobs · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:14

48633DX said:
Thanks beejjacobs, you really are a wise guy.

But on a serious note, I'm one of these people where paying more on HW will be better, but for motherboards, I really don't think thats the case.

It is the case, more expensive motherboards will use higher quality components, perhaps be better built, but there are some great and cheap motherboards out there, like the one linked above. It is recommended so much on here because for the price its amazing!

48633DX · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:16

beejjacobs said:
It is the case, more expensive motherboards will use higher quality components, perhaps be better built, but there are some great and cheap motherboards out there, like the one linked above. It is recommended so much on here because for the price its amazing!

Thanks again beejjacobs, I can't thankyou enough for your insights and time to help people like me.

cmndr_andi · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:25

beejjacobs said:
It is the case, more expensive motherboards will use higher quality components, perhaps be better built, but there are some great and cheap motherboards out there, like the one linked above. It is recommended so much on here because for the price its amazing!

+1

In this case, it really is worth paying the extra for a good motherboard (within reason).

First, that £85 Z68 board is one of cheapest Z68 boards you will find to buy. This is significant because on the LGA1155 socket (which is used by all mainstream Sandy Bridge CPUs) the only chipsets which allow overclocking are Z68 and P67 (P67 was discontinued a while back, but there are still a few boards floating about). Therefore, if you want to overclock the CPU then you need to be willing to pay at least £85 on a new motherboard, since H61 and H67 boards will require you to keep your CPU at stock clockspeeds.

As for paying more than £85, there are a few key features to look out for on the Z68 boards available, some are more worthwhile than others:

- SLI certification (~£100)
- The two main PCIE slots run at PCIE x8/x8 (~£100)
- PCIE Gen3 - when used with an Ivy Bridge CPU (~£110)
- Use of a bridging chip to allow for three graphics cards to run together (£~200)

If you feel you may use a second graphics card in the future then going for a compatible board (that does SLI, crossfire and PCIE x8/x8) costs £100 - like this one. Past that it is very much diminishing returns, though if you plan to install an Ivy Bridge CPU at a future date it is worth checking the board works with these 22nm CPUs and it properly supports PCIE gen3.

As for RAM, with Sandy Bridge you may as well just get a good value 1600Mhz kit from a good brand, since even faster RAM doesn't offer much of a performance boost (see here). Also, if you are mainly gaming then 8GB is plenty. This is a good value, low profile RAM kit.

beejjacobs · 28 Mar 2012 at 23:30

48633DX said:
Thanks again beejjacobs, I can't thankyou enough for your insights and time to help people like me.

You're welcome. You buying the rest of your PC soon? What are you settled on so far?

as usual, cmndr_andi has put some good info in his post above

48633DX · 29 Mar 2012 at 11:28

cmndr_andi said:
+1

In this case, it really is worth paying the extra for a good motherboard (within reason).

First, that £85 Z68 board is one of cheapest Z68 boards you will find to buy. This is significant because on the LGA1155 socket (which is used by all mainstream Sandy Bridge CPUs) the only chipsets which allow overclocking are Z68 and P67 (P67 was discontinued a while back, but there are still a few boards floating about). Therefore, if you want to overclock the CPU then you need to be willing to pay at least £85 on a new motherboard, since H61 and H67 boards will require you to keep your CPU at stock clockspeeds.

As for paying more than £85, there are a few key features to look out for on the Z68 boards available, some are more worthwhile than others:

- SLI certification (~£100)
- The two main PCIE slots run at PCIE x8/x8 (~£100)
- PCIE Gen3 - when used with an Ivy Bridge CPU (~£110)
- Use of a bridging chip to allow for three graphics cards to run together (£~200)

If you feel you may use a second graphics card in the future then going for a compatible board (that does SLI, crossfire and PCIE x8/x8) costs £100 - like this one. Past that it is very much diminishing returns, though if you plan to install an Ivy Bridge CPU at a future date it is worth checking the board works with these 22nm CPUs and it properly supports PCIE gen3.

As for RAM, with Sandy Bridge you may as well just get a good value 1600Mhz kit from a good brand, since even faster RAM doesn't offer much of a performance boost (see here). Also, if you are mainly gaming then 8GB is plenty. This is a good value, low profile RAM kit.

thanks for your comments cmndr_andi!

FrankJH · 29 Mar 2012 at 13:09

I wouldagree with all of the above

Decide what motherboard resources you need (ie PCIE /PCI slots and USB/ Sata ports) ....hmmm after deciding which cpu socket you are looking for.

Once you have done the above, I would normally go for one of the bigger brands which has been in use for a little bit (so there are users on here if issues arise). I always go for paying a little bit more for reliability from a bigger brand /better componants but only to a certain point compared to cheaper options from other brands.

Iused to be an avid upgrader / tweaker, but nowadays I leave it until Im doing a complete new build rather than just one componant - I have to admit I dont think Ive EVER just done a mobo upgrade while keeping the other componants the same, just dont believe it to be worth it most of the time

aimeehudson · 30 Mar 2012 at 05:26

FrankJH said:
I wouldagree with all of the above

Decide what motherboard resources you need (ie PCIE /PCI slots and USB/ Sata ports) ....hmmm after deciding which cpu socket you are looking for.

Once you have done the above, I would normally go for one of the bigger brands which has been in use for a little bit (so there are users on here if issues arise). I always go for paying a little bit more for reliability from a bigger brand /better componants but only to a certain point compared to cheaper options from other brands.

Iused to be an avid upgrader / tweaker, but nowadays I leave it until Im doing a complete new build rather than just one componant - I have to admit I dont think Ive EVER just done a mobo upgrade while keeping the other componants the same, just dont believe it to be worth it most of the time

Good Share!