Motherboards, what does you money buy you?

Killerkebab

Killerkebab

Killerkebab

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Sorry if this question sounds stupid, but I'm having trouble getting my head around it.

If you're someone like me and you have no real interest in overclocking (it would be nice if it was free performance with no possibility of screwing up the parts but, alas :p), and you can't afford super high end CPU/RAM combinations, is there any point getting the expensive motherboards?

I was thinking of getting an i5-2500k and a decent mid range card like a GTX460 or HD5850 for BF3/MW2/etc (I'm assuming this will be sufficient, right? :p). However I don't know what I should be looking for in a motherboard.

As long as it supports SATA3 and USB3 with a LAN port and can boot up without exploding, why should a casual user get an expensive board?

I know I'm probably missing the point, but please, humour me :)
 
Killerkebab said:
Sorry if this question sounds stupid, but I'm having trouble getting my head around it.

If you're someone like me and you have no real interest in overclocking (it would be nice if it was free performance with no possibility of screwing up the parts but, alas :p), and you can't afford super high end CPU/RAM combinations, is there any point getting the expensive motherboards?

I was thinking of getting an i5-2500k and a decent mid range card like a GTX460 or HD5850 for BF3/MW2/etc (I'm assuming this will be sufficient, right? :p). However I don't know what I should be looking for in a motherboard.

As long as it supports SATA3 and USB3 with a LAN port and can boot up without exploding, why should a casual user get an expensive board?

I know I'm probably missing the point, but please, humour me :)
Click to expand...

Firstly, there is no point getting a 2500K as it is a chip designed for overclocking so it is a waste putting it in a motherboard that cant overclock

In budget boards, you can sometimes get only two ram slots rather than 4 which means you cant upgrade as much

Similarly, Budget boards wont have crossfire support and so the possibility of later expansion is gone

I am gaming with 5850's and they can handle anything i;ve thrown at them on a 1080p screen

There are different ways of looking at this:

1) buy for the here and now and go for a budget board that can accommodate the components you are using in the build - this is better for a build you dont intend to have for more than a couple of years

2) buy for the future and get a more expensive board with more expansion slots so that you can just add to it - this is better for computers that are designed to last more years

personally i like to keep refreshing my stuff and selling on the older parts before they lose too much value, i;d rather do a new build every 18 months - i build for the moment and dont worry about the future - ill have a new build by then

But if you going to build a machine that you want for the next 5 years, go for one with more ports/expansions and more possibilities later in the life of the machine
 
more expensive boards:

are made of better quality components (more reliable)
have a better warranty
look better (matters to some people)
have more RAM slots
have more pci and pci-express slots
have more USB, SATA ports
have more options in the bios to support overclocking

if you're not gonna need more than 2 sticks of average-speed RAM, don't care about appearance or warranty, know you'll never go sli/crossfire, dont need more than a couple of USB ports and hard drives, and don't want to overclock, then by all means get the cheapest board you can find

i tend to over-invest in motherboards, as i can't afford regular new builds therefore each one i do has to last a long time (4-6 years). i need to be able to upgrade gradually as new tech comes down in price and games become more demanding, hence i need a future proofed motherboard.

spending an extra £50 - £100 now can save hundreds down the line.
 
I was thinking that SheepBeast, but then when I want to upgrade, the bloody CPU socket has changed - buying a £200 motherboard rather than a £100 does nothing to help against this :(
 
lol yeah that's true, but if for example you were to get a 1155 board with ivy bridge support, that offers a good upgrade path down the line.

same goes for AM3+ assuming the recent rumours are true (that 2012 bulldozer is also AM3+ compatable). AMD have had a very nice thing going over the last few years with backwards compatibility, something i wish intel would emulate.

it's a good tactic for me because i never buy very high end cpus anyway. so a few years down the line i can pick up the best CPU that my mobo can run for a knock down price. it may not be up to date tech but it should extend my pc for another year or two at least.
 
So your advice for me would be to buy the cheapest motherboard that isn't micro-ATX and has Socket 1155, 4 RAM slots and a few SATA ports? :p

I've had this E6600 for just over five years now, and the HD4870 for about two years. I wish I could just upgrade the graphics card and call it quits but it probably won't hack it with this CPU :/
 
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