Good value Motherboard £100-£150ish

[Rickin10]

Looking for a mobo for mainly gaming, and some photoshopping and video editing. I will be doing a bit of overclocking but this is not the major concern.

I'd like a board that provides a good set of features, good onboard audio (is there much difference between boards in this area?) and has a reputation for being reliable. Oh, and if possible it wont have red or green on it.

 

[stulid]

Hi,

ATX or mATX form factor? Crossfire/SLI support?

 

[Rickin10]

ATX. Is there any benefit to going that route over the mATX? I'm debating whether to go for a Sapphire Tri-X 290 or a 780, but I'd like the potential to Crossfire/ SLI in the future, yes.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

You didn't say which CPU.

 

[Rickin10]

Apologies, I'll be getting an Intel i5 4670k.

 

[ShivP]

^ Which socket/chipset? I'm assuming Z87, and if it is it has to be the Z87X-OC or the UD4H which is coming with a free water-cooler atm

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £157.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with *FREE COOLERMASTER SEIDON 120V COOLER £143.99
Total : £311.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



EDIT: Yep, Z87 so probably one of the above.

 

[Rickin10]

From my extremely feeble knowledge, I thought I'd read the z87 OC didn't have great audio and sacrificed some features to really focus on overclocking. Also I've seen Gigabyte boards get recommended a lot on here, are they generally superior to other brands?

 

[ShivP]

Well generally it is focused on overclocking, yes. The Ultra Durable series are generally a more rounded feature-set based set of board, so personally I would go for the UD4H which still has excellent overclocking features.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Gigabyte have the best RMA as they are UK based. Quality wise for separate components, it is as good as you can get at those price brackets for Z87 boards.

OC is a great board but yes it does sacrifice on board audio for other features like four x16 slots with the last one powered separately, so it works at x16 2.0 howeverand whichever many slots is populated.

The ideal choice would be one of the G1 sniper boards but it is green. They come with top audio chips and are stunning boards!

 

[Mark A]

How good is the audio on the sniper board? Comparable to a cheap sound card?

 

[atomic7431]

How good is the audio on the sniper board? Comparable to a cheap sound card?

For positional sound the core3d audio chip on the sniper is pants and if you search around others have posted the same else where.
Depending on your budget i would look at this option as i found the audio to be clearer, better positional sound (especially via Headphones) and you have a card to put in any motherboard you wish in the future. Also there are some custom made drivers for the sound card HERE.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £157.99
1 x Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCI-Express Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp £24.95
Total : £192.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).