Which motherboard?

[washburn3]

I hope to be building a gaming build soon but I am unsure what motherboard to get? I'm on a tight budget and I only intend to spend
£60 or under on a motherboard, I will be using an AMD FX-6300 processor and I am likely to overclock this with a Coolermaster hyper 212 evo
aftermarket cooler. I have narrowed it down to 2 motherboards, The "Asus M5A78L-M/USB3" and the "Asus M5A78L-M LX V2" they are both similar
and both support my CPU, but which one should I get?

P.s If it helps here are the links for the two mobo's:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A78L-M-USB3-Motherboard-Socket/dp/B0054U7HIO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357150044&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A78L-M-Motherboard-Socket-Radeon/dp/B0061YE97Y/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1357150078&sr=8-18

- Thanks

 

[EzioAs]

Well one of them has USB 3.0 so if you want, get that one

or why not get this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-970-EXTREME3-Extreme3-Motherboard/dp/B005POPRG8/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1357150747&sr=1-6

or this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A97-R2-0-Motherboard-PCI-Express/dp/B008RPZ5SC/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1357150747&sr=1-2

 

[washburn3]

Im still unsure, with the m/usb3 does size matter at all? Based on the aftermarket cooler, RAM, and GPU will there be enough room?

 

[EzioAs]

Motherboards all follow certain standards, there's no problem with them. You have no problem fitting tall RAMs as long as you have enough clearance with the cpu cooler. You'll also need to make sure your cooler and video card fits into the case.

So you see, it's not actually an issue of the motherboard size, it's mostly about the case.

 

[washburn3]

I beleive it should, Im going to be using a "Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case" and a XFX 6870 GPU, you think it will fit ok?

 

[EzioAs]

Yes, they'll fit well. You'll have no problem

 

[washburn3]

Do you think the Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 would be a good choice?

 

[EzioAs]

To be honest, I would get the Asrock board. (The link I gave you earlier)

 

[washburn3]

What would make you get the asrock over the asus one?

 

[EzioAs]

Better chipset, more expansion slots.

 

[groundrat]

Overclocking potential and overall compatibility. They are both ASUS boards. ASRock is ASUS 2nd tier brand and is marketed at enthusiasts. ASRock is usually much more affordable for what you get.

 

[washburn3]

I only intend to be using the following:

Processor: AMD FX 6300 (6 core)
GPU: XFX 6870
PSU: 550w XFX
HDD: 1TB Seagate 7200rpm
Cooler: Coolermaster hyper 212 evo
RAM: Corsair 1600mhz 8GB DDR3 Vengeance
Drive: LG GH24NS90.AUAA50B 24x SATA Bare Internal DVD Rewriter

And perhaps a SSD to load windows 7 OS on, I dont know if I really need more expansion slots as this is all I will be using?

 

[EzioAs]

The expansion slots you might not need but it has a better chipset and as groundrat said Overclocking potential and overall compatibility. That price is actually really low for what you get. One of the reasons why people choose asrock

 

[DarkSable]

Asus makes very good high-end boards. Extreme quality at extreme price. Their low-end boards have never met that, so they started AsRock as a subsidiary company.

Asrock is now beating its parent company at their own game, and producing very good quality parts with considerably better features at budget board prices.

Basically what it comes down to is that Asus is like Rolls-Royce. They don't care about selling to the mass market, and don't bother spending as much time on that side of things as they perhaps should.

 

[washburn3]

I read a review on it that it does not support ram 1600, but only in overclocked state?

 

[washburn3]

The expansion slots you might not need but it has a better chipset and as groundrat said Overclocking potential and overall compatibility. That price is actually really low for what you get. One of the reasons why people choose asrock

Do you think the Asrock 970 extreme 3 motherboard that you listed will be compatible with the parts that I am using?

 

[EzioAs]

Do you think the Asrock 970 extreme 3 motherboard that you listed will be compatible with the parts that I am using?

Yes