Any good way to compare motherboards?

[turkey3_scratch]

I always have difficulty choosing a motherboard for recommendations because there are so many options. What do you use as a good point to compare motherboards? What are the main quality factors in motherboards of the same chipset?

 

[Gam3r01]

I usually look at power phases, brand quality, price, and necessary expansion options.
For obvious reasons, low power phase boards will not OC well, a pretty simple comparison.
I personally avoid MSI boards, ASUS and Gigabyte are my first choices, with ASRock being a solid follow up.
Expansion is fairly straight forward as well. Number of PCIe slots at given modes for SLI/Xfire, how many headers you need for USB, fans etc, and general board layout.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Just as a random example for instance, here is an MSI board http://www.amazon.com/MSI-DDR3-2600-Motherboards-GAMING/dp/B00K23BYBO where is the power phase specified, and what exactly does it mean?

 

[Gam3r01]

Typically the easiest place to find it is in reviews:
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=181732.0
"Seeing power phase design, Z97 GAMING 3 is 6*power phase and it is better than the same segment of competitors’ product; Hence, the
stability of Z97 GAMING 3 is better than someone else."

Here is an explanation taken from another thread:
http://www.overclock.net/t/891696/a-short-power-phase-design-explanation

 

[DragonRi]

Your Can try this site - http://motherboards.specout.com/ It lets you compare features of motherboards side by side and can atleast help you narrow down to some potential candidates.

My suggestions on choosing motherboards with decreasing priority:
1. Build quality - Its suppose to last for all your upgrades (and overclocking )
2. Features will need you need and may use. (No point in wasting money on something that's obsolete by the time you end up using)
3. Future proofness

Do watch/read the reviews and unboxing videos for the boards your are planning to buy

 

[chrispher]

Depending on how many PCI-E SATAe/SATA3.0 M.2 U.2 USB3.1 you need and Killer/Intel LAN Sound Technology SLI & Crossfire Back repair rate is important and then each brand preferences... I think that most motherboard manufacturers are good, but I prefer MSI.