How important is a high quality/expensive MOBO for gaming?

Back in the day, Boards made more of a difference because they had the AGP/PCI-E controller and memory controller on the board it self. The newer Intel setups have the memory and PCI-E controller in the cpu. This means the performance from board to board is almost always due to slight bios tweaks from the maker.

Now this is not to say more expensive boards do not have more features(extra or better network/data controllers controllers ect) or better parts. If you are going to overclock or want better sound, you will be paying for a better power delivery system and audio system.

I see no reason why a 100-150 dollar board would be unsuitable for a modern gaming system.

Many games still do not use the extra threads from an I7 vs and I5.

Going overly cheap can cause some issues down the line if they cheap out of the power system because gaming systems tend to run med-high loads for long periods of time. At some point you go into overkill.

You can always start a thread in the Systems forum following this format to get lots of idea's of what parts to use.

Some of the more expensive boards also have some durability features that you might not find on a potentially flimsier sub-$100 board. As an example. My z87 sabertooth board has a metal backplate screwed into the back of the board and in general, in all of the reivews I've read people take about how it is a fairly solidly made board (although I never tested this myself. The maximus vi formula also has this backplate.
As part of ASUS' TUF line of boards the sabertooth also comes with a 5 year warranty, which is more than I've seen on just about any board. The sabertooth is in the $200 range (or it was when I got it, probably on sale) while the formula is closer to the $300 range.

I'm not saying that all of these things are worth spending the high prices for those boards (the sabertooth's thermal armor is a bit gimmicky and the formula just seemed overpriced), but to a certain extent you get what you pay for

Get the best motherboard you can that supports what you want. Low priced boards usually have less options and
cheaper parts as well as disabled functions on them. The board is the foundation of your computer. Start with the
best one you can.

More than enough probably. It might have better integrated sound or give slightly more stable overclocks, but for the most part something along the lines of z87-a, -plus, or -pro would probably suit you just fine.

*Looking at it now it looks like the big thing is integrated sound capabilities and, because it's a ROG board, probably better overclocking. There might be more PCIe slots than lower end boards as well if sli/crossfire is your thing.
Other than that, I would recommend ASUS boards because I've had good experiences with them. But in the end with a lot of boards at a certain price point ($150+) it's more about "what features do I get?" and "what features do I NEED?"

Google mostly, this site also probably has some good articles lying around.
If your board has all the features you need then there is no need for more unless you want to pay for that potential for more. But part of my philosophy was that chances are there will be less bad boards in the $150-200 range than in the lower range, because companies wouldnt want the bad press for making people spend $200 on a faulty board. You definitely probably don't need the features of the $300ish maximus vi formula (unless you want the looks), but a case could be made for the sabertooth for its 5 year warranty, and maybe some other expensive board has something you want. You just have to pay for it if you really want it.

One other thing to keep in mind. A lot of times from what I have seen micro atx boards are cheaper than their atx counterparts. The main difference is often less slots, but if you only use 1 gpu you won't need so many anyway. The z87 gryphon is one such example

Some people need 10+ sata ports and a bunch of I/O ports like esata, a pile of usb 3, etc. For me, I don't have any usb or esata devices, and I doubt I will ever get above 5 sata devices, ever. Number of pci slots is important. You want enough of the faster pci slots to be able to support multiple gpu if you want sli. You might also want even more slots for things like a wireless card since many boards don't come with wireless capabilities.

It doesnt sound like you are looking for much in terms of what goes on the board, and, even though I made the argument for it you probably don't need the 5 year warranty. I was just trying to present a different angle.

I'd definitely recommend the z87 gryphon. I have it's larger atx sized cousin and it works great. And Asus in general seems to make good products. Plus you get some decent extra software and a nicely organized BIOS. *Just keep in mind that it does not come with the thermal armor that you might see on it and the sabertooth. However, for me I was more interested in the backplate than the armor


**Since the gryphon is a micro atx board, I don't know if space might be an issue if you have some fat gpu sitting on there (I never worried since I have an atx with a relatively thin gpu). Something you should look into if that's a consideration for you

The size of the board does not effect the video card you can use, but does open up most slots for expansion, If you are getting an ATX case, get and ATX board if you are getting a mATX case, get an mATX board. and so on.

The small end of the board spectrum mitx


Idea of size, that is a 120mm fan and notebook hard drive.


The bios is the basic input/output system. It startup the system and tells it to load the OS. It is used for pre OS configuration. This includes memory/cpu and other speed settings.

Most systems are fine with the Default settings, but for overclockers, the more features/settings the better.

EDIT haha, read thermal paste not thermal plate

The thermal paste is what helps aid the heat transfer from a heat generating component to its heatsink. While some are better than others, many are within a few degrees of one another, for overclocking you want the best you can get, but at stock speeds, it does not matter as much.

It might be a bit more cramped with a small case and stuff. But not to the point where stuff doesnt get (assuming you don't have some massive cooler. My board was probably around $220 when i got it I think, but it was on sale/part of a combo pack. If you don't need the extra space and still want the type of board I suggested then I would probably say get the gryphon.

The backplate ,from what I heard, in theory helps with transferring heat, but I liked it because of the added rigidity to the board and it left places for my hands during building

$30 would be a waste. I bought a tube for $8 and some even consider that high. I believe the stuff that comes with hyper 212 evo (if you get that cooler) is sufficient, and noctua gives some good stuff with their coolers. Havent heard great things about the stuff that comes with the stock coolers.

The components are fragile, and yet, surprisingly durable. My psu has an extremely annoying design for the ends of its cables where the half the time you have to practically jump on it to make it go in all the way. I'm still surprised putting in the 24 pin power didnt just snap off that chunk of the board. That is another reason why I could see having more durability as a plus. Hard drives are fairly durable if you don't drop it and same with gpu cards and ram as long as you don't scratch the gold ends. Cpu is pretty hard to damage as long as you don't scratch the gold numbs on the bottom. The most fragile bit is probably the board itself (and that is probably because there are just so many little things that can snap off). However I have dropped a screwdriver point down right on a board before and everything worked fine, so they arent quite as fragile as you might think.

ATX is most common probably because that is the size that a lot of people like to get so they can fit all their stuff comfortably. I'm sure there is some other complex reason but in the end the main difference is just how space and ports you get.


A good thing about ASUS BIOS is that they have an easy and advanced mode. The easy mode lets you adjust the really basic stuff like date/time, as well as changing the boot order for your peripherals (needed when installing the OS). The advanced mode lets you do the tinkering. But you can play with the easy mode and get a feel for things before getting lost in the advanced mode. *I would recommend you have a usb mouse and keyboard available at first start up because they don't always work the first time in BIOS (I was fortunate enough that windows had a screen keyboard that I could use my mouse with to activate until I got the driver installed).

The question asked in the title of this post says how important is a high quality expensive motherboard for gaming? The answer to the first part (high quality) is quite important. You want it to last.
An H81 ASUS board is 'high quality' in that respect. Low on Frills with only 2X SATA 6g/s ports, but it will Game just fine.
The second part says 'expensive'; Also not required. I have an ASUS
H87m-plus. I guarantee it scores the same bench marks as an H81 board with my locked i5 cpu.
Save the money if building a games and email pc; buy the cheap asus board.

It was also mentioned that a k cpu would be purchased, assuming overclocking then a z87 board would be appropriate (although I will admit I don't remember seeing overclocking mentioned). Personally I need at least 3 sata ports for the peripherals and drives I wanted (1 ssd, 1 HDD, 1 DVD drive)