Does the motherboard matter?

Kmodo

Kmodo

Kmodo

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I want to build a cheap as possible quad core gaming rig.

Lets say I pick the 955BE, chances are I would only do a very mild OC as it would have the stock cooler. Unlocked multipler using a stock voltage so the motherboard is not doing anything.

Single graphics card, 2 sticks of ram, 1 hard drive.

Am I right in thinking I can pick up a £25 job and not really see any real world difference?

Thanks!
 
NEVER OVERCLOCK USING THE STOCK COOLER!!!

For a cheap Quad build, your looking at around £400 or a little more for a good rig!

Motherboard does matter massively. If you are looking for a slight overclock, get a good 880 or 890 chipset, or even a 790 chipset would be adequate.

The 955BE is an amazing quad and for around £80-90 for one, you won't complain.

RAM wise, 2 x 2gb = 4gb of decent Corsair XMS3 memory (1333mhz) for £31.99 will be fine for a budget rig.

GTX460 or HD5770 or HD5850 would be a great choice for a GPU. Maybe even get the 6850 if you can find one for around £100-120.

Hard Drive - Decent name like Western Digital or equivalent with a 32mb cache 500gb or 1tb sata 2 or sata 3 hdd.

Motherboard: I would go ASUS or GIGABYTE for a budget rig, Asrock are decent in budget systems also.

Hope this helps.
 
You can overclock using the stock cooler. There's nothing wrong with doing that at all. Obviously for extreme overclocks a third party cooler is recommended, (not what you want). If all you want to do is unlock it from a 955BE to a 965BE then the stock cooler is more than adequate to handle this.

Obviously make sure your motherboard has overclocking capabilities, I thought this was a given if you planned on doing that. If not... then don't pay through the nose for one with features you will never use... Xfire etc.

Sata 3 HDD's make no difference over Sata 2... it's a marketing ploy.

Asrock are a part of Asus and are owned by them... so makes no difference (although the asus badge is a bit nicer)
 
Thanks for confirming what I was beginning to suspect. I remember when I used to be 'enthusiast' I would thinking nothing about spending £200 on a mobo :0

Need to watch my money a lot more these days! Also I am a lot more time poor these days so will not be spending ages trying to get maximum performance. I will be happy just to leave it at stock as it will not be my main PC anyway :)
 
Motherboards do matter. Yes they are more about buying different ones for different costs to reflect the features and technologies they bring to the table. However, different motherboards respond and accomodate overclocking much more happily than other ones. Some are more stable for example and during overclocks deliver voltages with minimal voltage drops which can cause crashes and instabilities. Other motherboards can deliver huge front side bus overclocks compared to others. Some may support certain BIOS options that you would want.

So yeah. They matter, but generally just buy the one with the features that you want and just check it does have atleast some basic BIOS control for supporting things like overclocking if thats what you want to do.
 
The 850 is a AthlonII core renamed, it doesn't have any L3 cache memory like a real PhenomII and its lacking the unlocked multiplier.

The motherboard you get should also have 125W+ CPU support and not stop at 95W like cheaper ones do.
 
stulid said:
The 850 is a AthlonII core renamed, it doesn't have any L3 cache memory like a real PhenomII and its lacking the unlocked multiplier.

The motherboard you get should also have 125W+ CPU support and not stop at 95W like cheaper ones do.
Click to expand...

dam that was a close one good job I checked!!! Okay I will look for a *slightly* more expensive mobo
 
Kmodo said:
dam that was a close one good job I checked!!! Okay I will look for a *slightly* more expensive mobo
Click to expand...

Just look at the CPU support list at the manufacturers website.

I had some guy buy my old Phenom 955BE of me a few months ago, he then moaned that it was stuck at 1.3GHZ or something and the multiplier was set to low in the BIOS and couldn't be changed, turned out it was his motherboard in his SFF PC only did 95W CPU's and not a 125W like a 955BE.
 
stulid said:
The 850 is a AthlonII core renamed, it doesn't have any L3 cache memory like a real PhenomII and its lacking the unlocked multiplier.

The motherboard you get should also have 125W+ CPU support and not stop at 95W like cheaper ones do.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I got the Athlon X4 640 over the Phenom 840/850. Just the same CPU but in different clothing!
 
Yea will be fine!

Probably be dumbed down to 1333mhz in bios when you put it in. Just enter the bios and bump it up to 1600mhz... not exactly overclocking it, just making sure windows reads it as 1600mhz xD
 
This likely wont apply to newer boards, well in some ways it will.

Built a cheap core2duo system for someone, was rushed and just ordered what was needed to get it working, ended having so many issues with it! The board (even with updates saying it would take 8gb ram), still didn't like to see more than 3.5 with the bios! Try'd many different types of ram from work etc, it was the board!.. So just be careful you dont shoot yourself in the foot!
 
feck199 said:
This likely wont apply to newer boards, well in some ways it will.

Built a cheap core2duo system for someone, was rushed and just ordered what was needed to get it working, ended having so many issues with it! The board (even with updates saying it would take 8gb ram), still didn't like to see more than 3.5 with the bios! Try'd many different types of ram from work etc, it was the board!.. So just be careful you dont shoot yourself in the foot!
Click to expand...

Sure it wasn't an x86 OS?
 
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