Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Do you get what you pay for with MOBO's?

Do you get what you pay for with MOBO's?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Do you get what you pay for with MOBO's?

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glcm1961   01-16-2009 at 04:51:05 AM

I'm a first time builder and have become kinda confused with all the choices for motherboards that are out there. I have done research and have settled on a P45 LGA 775 mobo, and from the reviews I've read, I want to go with either Gigabyte or Asus. I am building a mid-level gaming rig and may someday want to add a second GPU. I have decided to go with either a 4870 or 4850. I may also want to overclock in the future if I get brave enough.

Here is my question: Will an Asus P5Q Pro or Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R (both going for $119) be all I need or should I spend an extra $50 - $150 and get the high end models of these cards with the thought that the extra money spent will be worth it should I decide to add a second GPU, more RAM, overclocking, or some other future expandability? I don't want to waste money on an expensive motherboard if the basic models will do the trick.

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swifty_morgan   01-16-2009 at 06:34:21 AM
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If you've narrowed your decision to 2 mother boards and they both have all that you would need I would say no. And I would also say....... is that extra money going to be worth the 5 or 6 extra FPS you MIGHT get ? For MYSELF I only ever bought 1 expensive mother board. Was it worth it........... I have $80 boards that give near the same performance and longevity.

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zipzoomflyhigh   01-16-2009 at 08:42:28 PM
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I'm a budget board kinda guy. I buy what I need and nothing extra. You cant go wrong with a gigabyte and you cant go wrong with a P45.

Not sure what the diff is between the UD3R and the UD3P, this is the UD3P. Its a customer choice winner. Ive had my eye on this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128358


Message edited by zipzoomflyhigh on 01-16-2009 at 08:43:50 PM
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MMclachlan   01-19-2009 at 12:25:04 PM
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In my experience with my last two Nvidia boards I would say you do. I killed a P5N32-E SLI with a bad BIOS update and had 2x 8800GT so I needed a temporary SLi board. Thought I'd go with Asus' P5N-D 750i board as it was cheap but had everything I needed. With exactly the same other components as I had on the 680i I got 13k in 3dmark - 2k less than on the old board! I then was able to get a P5N-T Deluxe 780i board off Ebay cheap (for the same price as I sold the P5N-D actually!) and my score again will exactly the same components went back up to 15k.
I'm not sure of the difference with the Intel chipsets, a P45 vs X48 for instance - you would have to try and find some benchies, but with the Nvidia 750/780i budget vs premium chipsets I found a noteable difference in performance - 15% in 3Dmark06.

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merlinbadman   01-19-2009 at 01:15:03 PM
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"Do you get what you pay for with MOBO's"

I think you do.

But it dipends if you like to squeeze the most out of your setup (not neccissarily by overclocking), or just throw it together and let it run.

If you are the latter, get any mobo that fills your basic requirements.

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zipzoomflyhigh   01-19-2009 at 02:36:32 PM
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I paid $84 for my Giga P965 2 years ago and still running a 1200mhz overclock on it. Its also still upgradeable to quad core. So if you do your research, you can get a budget board that overclocks like a champ and lasts.

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