What to look for when buying mobo ?

[sumik]

I've been out of the desktop game for around 6 years now, running gaming laptops with Sager being my current.
I wanna put together a desktop again with a budget of $2000 focusing on gaming.

However looking how many motherboards are available for Ivy is simply overwhelming, and I don't even know which ones are worth to look at and which ones are not.

All I know is that I'm looking for a mobo that will be good enough for my simple needs.

-single gpu
-no OC'ing

 

[Plec]

What external devices will you be using as this will dictate price sometimes even with simple internal needs?

If your needs are basic: single gpu and no OCing is required then the H77 boards are great value - plus you have onboard gfx to make troubleshooting easier if you develop any issues in the future (although so does the z77 chipset using the CPU).

But even with your simple needs i would be looking at bottom end Z77 motherboards - MSI or Gigabyte are great bang for buck - plus if you buy a K series CPU you could consider tinkering in overclocking at a later date. It's a very simple process and very safe - epsecially if only going to 4GHz...