Which motherboard is the best for the money

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

michael112

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
92
0
10,630
Hi everyone I'm planning to build a new gaming computer and the last part I need is a motherboard and I'm not sure which one I need. I have an i5-3570k (I'll probably overlock it to 4ghz at the most when I do). My video card is a 7870xt, 2x4gb of ram and a single Hdd. This is a list of my choices. I will be buying from ncix since they will either price match it or have it less and they offer a rebate for most of them.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007626%20600093976%20600315497%20600009016&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=280%7C13-157-330%5E13-157-330-TS%2C13-130-645%5E13-130-645-TS%2C13-157-297%5E13-157-297-TS%2C13-157-293%5E13-157-293-TS%2C13-131-837%5E13-131-837-02%23&percm=13-157-330%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B13-130-645%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B13-157-297%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B13-157-293%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B13-131-837%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24
 
Solution
R
Extreme 3 gives you the x8/x8 PCIe3 config you'd need for dual video cards, so all good there.
You just give up a couple of SATA3 and USB3 ports and power phases over the Extreme4. The power phases only matter if you want to push a serious overclock. For me, the USB3 and SATA aren't a big deal... but that's something only you can really answer. Note that SATA3 over SATA2 won't make any difference for HDDs, so it's only if you want to run more than 2 SSDs to their full potential that the extra SATA3 ports matter.
You need to decide whether those extra features are worth the extra $17 to you.
Sort by date Sort by votes
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990
The Pro3 is fine, but you give up a few things. You have less USB3 and SATA3 ports. Perhaps most importantly, the second PCIe is limited to x4 at PCIe 2.0. That means that you don't really have the option of adding a second video card in the future as it'd be pretty hamstrung on a PCIe 2.0 interface with only 4 lanes.
You might also have a little less overclocking ability with the Pro3, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. If you're only looking to go to 4ish Ghz, you'd be fine with either though.
The main question is whether you want the option of a second GPU in future. The choice is really whether it's worth the extra $$s for you now to give you that future upgrade path.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

michael112

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
92
0
10,630
Ok so I went through the prices, I just used neweggs or ncix prices whichever is lower and the mail in rebate from ncix. The extreme 4 is actually a lot cheaper than I expected.
Pro3 $70
extreme3 $93
extreme4 $110
msi $118
asus $130

But the extreme3 is most appealing to me, is it worth the extra money to upgrade?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990
Extreme 3 gives you the x8/x8 PCIe3 config you'd need for dual video cards, so all good there.
You just give up a couple of SATA3 and USB3 ports and power phases over the Extreme4. The power phases only matter if you want to push a serious overclock. For me, the USB3 and SATA aren't a big deal... but that's something only you can really answer. Note that SATA3 over SATA2 won't make any difference for HDDs, so it's only if you want to run more than 2 SSDs to their full potential that the extra SATA3 ports matter.
You need to decide whether those extra features are worth the extra $17 to you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
M

michael112

Honorable
Mar 29, 2013
92
0
10,630
My build doesn't have any ssd at the moment so no loss there with the sata3 ports. My case has 1 USB 3.0 port on the front, I'm guessing it will work. So the extreme3 seems like the best option for me. Thanks for clarifying everything for me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom