Would it be nice to have 'barebones' overclocking board?

[ps3ud0]

Just wondered if anyone else felt the same?

I used to love the fact that motherboards were getting feature-rich and so potentially saved you money instead of having to fork out for additional components.

Now I realise that you still end up having to buy a sound card etc. if you want the best and its now slightly annoying having to pay for features you dont really want.

In particular its the sound features which no doubt do add quite a bit to the cost of the motherboard and if youve got a X-Fi or Xonar its something you dont need...

Be nice to hear other opinions and what youd consider is not 'needed' on mobos. Id love if a variant was brought out that had just had the main motherboard features and no additional multimedia features - no doubt losing features would somehow mean an increase in overall price though ...

Wonder if ASUS should do that with their ROG boards, DFI with their Lanparty UT or Foxconn with their high-end boards...

ps3ud0

 

[Colossus]

I thought of this too.

I'd take say a DFI LT X48, strip of the audio, IDE and floppy connectors and use the space saved for a better layout (whoever designed the P5Q-Deluxe needs shot) and a better stock cooling solution. Maybe even a decent SATA-RAID controler or better developed basic features (like using a USB pen to flash the BIOS).

Although you can be certain any cost saved would not be passed onto the customer being classed as 'enthusiast' boards and all.

'Enthusiast' = pay through the nose for it.

 

[Monkeynut]

It would be nice if you could get a cheaper version of some of the ASUS boards without the SupremeFX audio solution bundled. On another note, does the SupremeFX card only work in certain chipsets/motherboards?

 

[Elric]

I'd love a decent barebones board.

No onboard IDE or SATA
No onboard sound
No floppy
No PCI interfaces
ONE network interface only
12+ USB interfaces on the backplane
Two PCI-e 2.0 16x connectors
Two PCI-e 4x connectors
Two PCI-e 1x connector


Maybe double up the mem controller and have double the memory slots, giving something like 32GB ram options.

There, how much is that going to cost me.

 

[inactionman]

I've thought about this as well. It annoys me that I'm paying for on-board audio, when have my Xonar!

Don't see it happening though, it's all about the bells and whistles these days.

 

[ps3ud0]

I've thought about this as well. It annoys me that I'm paying for on-board audio, when have my Xonar!

Don't see it happening though, it's all about the bells and whistles these days.

But mobo manus make IGP versions of them, surely they could also make an 'IAP' version. Considering how many variants of a single board they tend to produce its not an impossible thought.

Id rather have better quality components for the high-end than expensive unused system features.

I'd love a decent barebones board.

No onboard IDE or SATA
No onboard sound
No floppy
No PCI interfaces
ONE network interface only
12+ USB interfaces on the backplane
Two PCI-e 2.0 16x connectors
Two PCI-e 4x connectors
Two PCI-e 1x connector


Maybe double up the mem controller and have double the memory slots, giving something like 32GB ram options.

There, how much is that going to cost me.

Wow that really is barebones - dno if I could live without onboard SATA or a single PCI slot, but youve made me think - decent SATA controllers arent that expensive and do allow you to move RAID setups without much issue between mobos...

ps3ud0

 

[bledd]

abit used to do this, they made a point of not putting onboard sound on some boards, and i remember the first abit board that had no ps2 ports or parallel / com ports

floppy controllers should've been ditched ages ago

 

[mdjmcnally]

Personally would like to see a board with

No Floppy
No IDE
No Audio
2 port SATA (for optical drives)
1 x PCI-E x16 Dual Slot usable (GPU)
2 x PCI-E x8 Dual Slot usable (Physics Card and RAID Card)
PCI-Ex1 slot for Audio
4DIMM Slots (more sticks seems less happy with tight timings, also more power draw)
PCI-E based Gigabit Ethernet x 1

Nearest can get at the moment is an 790i based board and would rather have an Intel Chipset personally.

 

[Elric]

...Wow that really is barebones - dno if I could live without onboard SATA or a single PCI slot, but youve made me think - decent SATA controllers arent that expensive and do allow you to move RAID setups without much issue between mobos...

ps3ud0

Yup, less resources to worry about and stuff I dont need, then just whack in my SAS card and bingo.

Oh, the Firewire can go in the bin too... No need to make my PC think it's a Mac.

 

[ps3ud0]

LOL I dont think most of us can afford SAS cards atm . Agree with Firewire - never used it once...

ps3ud0

 

[Elric]

Well, they could fit a properSAS controller on a board instead of the Sata ports, that would be acceptable.