Looking for budget motherboard

ComputerGamer160

Honorable
Mar 25, 2013
1
0
10,510
I've been searching for the right motherboard till I see them in my sleep so I thought the best place to get advice was here from the experts.

I'm on a budget but when I got a private seller selling a 2500k for $180 opposed to the $150 3470 I had picked out I decided it was worth getting it and a water cooler for it for overclocking.

This is my first build but I've been working on finding the parts as budget efficient as possible for over 5 months now but the main part I haven't nailed down is a mother board.

What would be nice if the motherboard had 3+ system fans ,some usb 2 and 3 ports not really needing more than 8gb ram no more than 1600mhz ram.

I don't need a fancy one but I would like to have fan connectors for my water cooling fan and at least 2 other fans for cooling the system.

I could really use advice and if possible keep it bellow $100 as Im going over budget with the 2500k and its cooler so I want to keep the mother board in check.

Any suggestions or advice will be VERY greatly appreciated
 

imaurer269

Distinguished
Sep 16, 2010
392
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18,860
Get a decent air cooler imo water cooling is more for extreme overclocks or gpu & cpu cooling. Most closed loop cpu coolers don't perform any better the a nice 120mm air cooler and you don't have to worry about leaks frying parts.

Here are a few nice budget coolers and the king of the 120mm air coolers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

I just got this mobo and am very happy with it: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5727271 A nice deal at 80-90 bucks got a good review from toms: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254-35.html