What to look for in a motherboard?

[Zulu]

I have never been sure when choosing which motherboard to buy. What specifically do people look for when making a decision? I am looking to upgrade my current Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard to accommodate a better CPU (currently a Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156)).

Do people buy motherboards with the intention of having a long term plan of continually upgrading the system thus choosing a board which can accommodate hardware increases?

I am on a tight budget for a new motherboard and CPU (is £200-£250 reasonable for better performance?) I am not looking for a super motherboard which can hold X amount of PCI-Express slots, etc. I have always used onboard sound and networking, which I have been happy with.

Should I be switching from Intel to AMD to better meet my budget whilst increasing performance?

 

[Danny75]

Loyalty, good sense of humour, great in be.... no, wait.

Intel Z97 + i5-K is your best bet for that budget, imo.

Either of these two bundles would be ideal (and give better performance than your present 2.8GHz CPU):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £243.58
Total : £505.75 (includes shipping : £8.00).




One of the main differences is that the Asus can only do CrossFire, whilst the Gigabyte can do both CrossFire and SLI.

The Gigabyte looks like it has a better audio codec, but the Asus claims to have accompanying sound features that may or may not make the sound quality even better. So can't really say which would be better, and I wouldn't be worried about it. Either would be fine sound-wise I think.

 

[ShivP]

Do you want an mATX board?

 

[HalfBakedJake]

AMD is not a good place to be currently. You are better off with an Intel board and chip.

Those bundles look good from Danny75 plus the z97 boards and the chip mentioned can be overclocked.

I think both come with Intel NIC's (Ethernet ports) and a built in sound-card that has been separated from the motherboard itself to stop interference.

 

[Resa69]

AMD is not a good place to be currently. You are better off with an Intel board and chip.

Those bundles look good from Danny75 plus the z97 boards and the chip mentioned can be overclocked.

I think both come with Intel NIC's (Ethernet ports) and a built in sound-card that has been separated from the motherboard itself to stop interference.

+1

AMD is pretty dead now.