Asus p8h61-m le or p8h61-m pro

ILauta

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Jun 14, 2012
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For an intel i3 2120 processor and an hdd wd sata 3, what mother should i get p8h61-m le or a p8h61-m pro??? what is the diference between thats mothers?
 

clutchc

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The Pro has 2 of the SATA ports in a position that will make them unusable when a large graphic card is installed, the LE doesn't have that issue. The Pro's 2nd PCIex16 slot is only x1 electrically, so it is useless for a 2nd card.
On the other hand, the Pro has USB 3.0 if that is important to you, plus 3rd party SATA III (Asmedia). The LE does not. Go to the web sites for the 2 boards and compare the specs. Then you can judge for yourself what you feel is a necessity and what isn't.

LE: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LE/#specifications
PRO: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_PRO/#specifications
 

ILauta

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Jun 14, 2012
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i wont put a large graphic card, so i wont have that problem with the sata ports. But i dont understand some diferences in the specifications in the asus website.

The Pro has 2 SATA III,so if i put my HDD wd caviar black sata 3 there it will run at 6 gb/s? and if i use it in the LE it will run at 3gb/s? or i am mistaken?

In the specifications LE has "ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution : - ASUS Fan Xpert " and PRO doesnt? is that important?

And talking about Overclocking,can i clock something in the i3 procesor,memories or the mother with that tools?

Thanks dude for your help! i have a real trouble with this =P
 

clutchc

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SATA III (6Mbps) is mainly for Solid Disk Drives (SSD) because they need all the throughput speed they can get. Mechanical HDDs are limited by their RPM and moving parts. 7200 RPM HDDs rated at 6Mbps speeds, can't even saturate the SATA II interface. So there's really no reason to connect a 7200 RPM HDD to a SATAII header... although there's no harm in doing so.

The 'ASUS Fan Expert' feature is usually supported by some other name in all motherboards. It is just an automatic speed controller to lower fan RPMs (and noise) when the fans don't need to run at full speed. But it only works with the fans plugged into the fan headers on the board.

The i3 Sandy Bridge can't be overclocked (easily). Its freq multiplier is locked. And it's memory controller tops out at 1333MHZ. If you buy faster RAM, it wouldn't run any faster than 1333MHZ. You would have to O/C it with setting changes in BIOS. But moving from 1333MHZ to say 1600MHZ RAM provides very little gain in performance, anyway.
 

ILauta

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Jun 14, 2012
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Thanks dude you really help me. Now i know what i have to buy :)

And i read in other page the diferences (in asus mobos) witin h61,h67,p67,z77,etc. So i can buy the cheap h61 for my configuration and just only OC the gpu if i need.