Budget motherboard for gaming?

[Jamie Thomas]

I'm going to be getting an i5 3570k cpu, an amd radeon 7950 and maybe getting a second one down the line, I want to buy a motherboard in the £100 to £130 area but I'm just really confused, I'm leaning towards msi, I've seen a z77 gd65 for £125, a g43 for £100 and a g45 for £115. What sets these motherboards apart? I also like the the look of the maximus v gene and have managed to find it for £130.

 

[braber95]

Definitely try and look at other brands, because MSI is very hit and miss :/ However they do offer lower prices. The gd65, g43, and g45 all use the same exact intel chipset, amount of ram (4 slots), and type of ram. However, the gd65 offers a coaxial sou8nd port and looks a bit better than the g43. G45 and gd65 both have 6 USB ports, inlcuding 2 usb 3.0's while the g43 has 8 ports total. Also the gd65 and g45 have 3 PCIe X16 expansion slots while the g43 only has one. Basically you could pay more for the gd65 if you want a cooler look, but it appears they will all operate exactly the same. If you want to stay with these three options, just go with the g43. Check out ASUS or ASRock for better reliability

 

[ARJAN SINGH]

Go for gigabyte H61M-DS2 its very cheap and awesome for gaming