What motherboard to get? Is my current choice sufficient?

iceaco

Honorable
Oct 16, 2013
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10,510
Hello,
Initially I went with this configuration, as my initial plan of a budget HTPC slowly change to all-purpose and I upgraded the parts but now I realize that the mobo has only 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports.

This is my first time building a pc so I'm not sure what would each of the SATA port be for.
My question is - is the ASRock H81M sufficient for my purpose, or which mobo should I upgrade to? There's no fixed budget, just trying to find a cheap one..

Usage is HTPC/media server/light gaming, connected to TV.

Thanks!

EDIT: Would a ASRock H87M be better? It would be $20 more than the H81M.
 
Solution


SATA is backwards compatible, meaning a 6 GB/s drive can be used with a 3 GB/s board, but will not be as fast, but the difference will not be noticeable in normal use, just in benchmarks and really heavy...

DComander1x

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Feb 10, 2012
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19,160


SATA is backwards compatible, meaning a 6 GB/s drive can be used with a 3 GB/s board, but will not be as fast, but the difference will not be noticeable in normal use, just in benchmarks and really heavy gaming, so your board is fine, it has a total of 4 SATA ports, so its enough for now.
 
Solution
Sep 21, 2013
157
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10,710
SATA ports are the ports that you connect to your Hard Disk Drive, Solid State drive or Optical Drive(CDROM and Blu Ray)
Seeing as you have a lot of drives, get a different one if you really want the SATA 6gb/s ports.
Your current mobo is a Micro ATX one.
Here are micro atx mobos with more SATA 6gb/s ports - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131975
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157384
 

iceaco

Honorable
Oct 16, 2013
23
0
10,510

So after reading DComander1x's reply, I looked up the difference between SATA 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s and looks like my HD won't benefit much from the 6Gb/s, which I don't mind. So I only have 1 SATA port left for other uses.

The new question is, could I use more SATA ports? Are they only used for hard drives in general? If so I will consider the H87M Pro4 on your second link. I don't see myself playing CDs or BDs anytime soon.. Been discless for the last 4 years..

Thank you for the info!
 
Sep 21, 2013
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10,710


Its not just for hard drives. You can use it for Optical drives or Solid State drives. I saw your build and it has an SSD. So if you want to maximize the capability of these I suggest you use SATA 6GB/s.
Hope this helped
 

iceaco

Honorable
Oct 16, 2013
23
0
10,510
Yup, it helps. Thanks! I won't be using 6 HDDs anytime soon and I should be getting external drives if I really need space. More space on a 24/7 htpc/media server is just asking for trouble for me..