Is it wise to get Intel motherboard

Peter Tsang · 25 Jul 2011 at 10:04

I know Intel does manufacture motherboard.

They have less USB ports, less built in audio chip..etc

Does that mean they are stable than other brands?

gazzaman2k · 25 Jul 2011 at 12:03

they are all more or less the same they have to keep to the same specs as eveyone else or sales woul drop for them if they were rubbish

reflux · 25 Jul 2011 at 19:08

Intel's boards tend to be your basic offering. They're usually pretty no frills and the price usually reflects that.

burned695 · 25 Jul 2011 at 19:12

Intel is one of the best computer parts manufacturer so there motherboards are slightly higher quality than others although a different one should do the job fine

Peter Tsang · 26 Jul 2011 at 07:28

But then they are not supposed to do CPU overclocking is that right or that's just a rumour?

betaspin · 26 Jul 2011 at 09:45

As a rule, Intel motherboards come without VRM heatsinks, and the number of phases is usually mininal. So, unless one plans on using a downward-blowing cooler or some other form of VRM cooling, these should be avoided for systems that put a lot of current through the VRMs over prolonged periods of time.

Peter Tsang · 26 Jul 2011 at 09:49

I have just noticed what you mentioned. Check out this official photo of the DZ68DB

There are no heat sinks around the CPU socket, looks like the heat dissipation facilities are not built-in for kinda ultimate protection.

Look at any other brands, you can easily find one which has some kind of heat sink fancy or modest that built around the CPU socket and also the North Bridge chipset.

Hm...looks like I have to consider seriously whether I should get an ASUS or Gigabyte rather...

By the way, apart from ASUS, Gigabyte what other choices are there for me to choose from?

panyan · 26 Jul 2011 at 09:57

Peter Tsang said:
By the way, apart from ASUS, Gigabyte what other choices are there for me to choose from?

MSI and ASRock are some really fantastic stable boards - i'd steer you away from Asus with Sandybridge as they seem to be having more problems than most

betaspin · 26 Jul 2011 at 10:27

Asus seem to be fine in Z68 guise, so it is between Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and Asrock. The fact is that one has to spend some time online reading reviews, including the user ones at the big US retailers.

Peter Tsang · 26 Jul 2011 at 10:58

One of the main considerations is the overclockability of the motherboard. Throughout the years, Asus supports good overclocking, meaning that it does not restrict the overclock range yet maintains stability.

I used GigaByte many many years ago, it overclocks but not stable.

I don't know about MSI.

As to Asrock, they are cheap and their manuals are far too simple and basically contains less information which is required for basic reference.

So it leaves me with Asus.

Can you tell me more about what sort of problem that Asus has with Sandy Bridge?

By the way have you heard about i5 2405S?

ewarwoowar · 27 Jul 2011 at 12:36

Peter Tsang said:
I used GigaByte many many years ago, it overclocks but not stable.

Gigabyte's boards are absolutely incredible to OC on.
They even have one of the best Overclockers in the world working for them making the boards better at overclocking.

Peter Tsang · 27 Jul 2011 at 14:18

Have you heard of AOpen? AOpen is also very good overclock motherboard.

I think there are a wide range of Z68 boards out there. There are so many brands that I really don't know what to choose from.

Well...

Martini1991 · 27 Jul 2011 at 14:25

Peter Tsang said:
Have you heard of AOpen? AOpen is also very good overclock motherboard.

I think there are a wide range of Z68 boards out there. There are so many brands that I really don't know what to choose from.

Well...

AOpen?

reflux · 27 Jul 2011 at 14:31

Not seen AOpen in these parts for a good while, ya.