Asus Intros Gamer Line With B85-Pro Gamer Motherboard

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Asus has announced its B85-Pro Gamer motherboard.

Asus Intros Gamer Line With B85-Pro Gamer Motherboard : Read more

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

a gaming motherboard that cant overclock? what is next, a eatx motherboard with only pcie 1.0 slots? most gamers, if they are spending big bucks, would probably rather go for the k series for overclocking.....

 

[Dan Beck]

You know, there's a few days left till april!

 

[Morbus]

If this is like 80USD, then it kind of justifies the purchase, but I'd still go for a H-series motherboard, at that price-range.

 

[jimmysmitty]

So it is like the poor mans RoG?

 

[pills161]

So it is like the poor mans RoG?

I was going to say the same thing, looks similar to the Hero sans the overclocking, but who buys a "gamer" board just to run everything at stock?

 

[lunyone]

Sell it for $80 or less and you have a winner! We should call it the "WannaBE" gaming Mobo "I think it can, I think it can, etc.". Besides no OC'ing, the theme is the same as the ROG style, but with limited options.

 

[ferooxidan]

this is how to sell things a lil bit pricier. Just like MSI

 

[KosherGrimace]

This would've been acceptable for a smaller form factor, but not ATX. Not enough value for hardware real estate.

 

[tinmann]

The two PCIe x16 ports, one of which operates with only four lanes is the real deal breaker for me.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

a gaming motherboard that cant overclock? what is next, a eatx motherboard with only pcie 1.0 slots? most gamers, if they are spending big bucks, would probably rather go for the k series for overclocking.....

Cut them some slack. Overclocking is overrated, mostly a marketing gimmick these days. No real performance game in games between running your CPU at 3 or 4 GHz. What matters is GPU, RAM and SSD. As long as you've got a decent i5, you're set and can forget about the whole OC BS and save money by getting non-OC-capable chipsets and CPUs.

 

[Lutfij]

Hang on a minute!

it's likely that you won't be able to overclock your CPU if you get a K-series processor

Does anyone remember the Asrock Fatal1ty B85 Killer board? That was capable of overclocking. There's an overview video on Teksyndicate by Wendell and in it he mentions that you can overclock on it.

If you need to take a closer look,
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/B85PRO_GAMER/

With that being said, what good will a company be by digging its own grave? The board clearly has VRM circuitry and heatsinks meant for overclocking. Furthermore there are budget builders, aside from boutique builders, who would like a piece of the action.

Lastly;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-gwNLEibvo
^ go down to 3:50 and you can check out the BIOS features.

 

[de5_Roy]

^^ iirc gigabyte had a g1.sniper b5 mobo with b85 chipset that could o.c. the cpu.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_g1_sniper_b5_review,1.html
unless intel has forced motherboard vendors to lock cpu o.c. in all non-z chipset motherboards, vendors should be able to enable cpu o.c. as they choose.

 

[rolli59]

Jumping on the marketing bandwagon with MSI putting gamer in the name for higher sales.I wonder how many people today Know where Fatal1ty name came from that has been used by many companies for marketing?

 

[dragonfang18]

According to this reviewer it is OC-able http://www.pc-help.cz/viewtopic.php?f=94&t=129279&start=12#p1015698

 

[lp231]

The B85 can be OC, but it's not officially supported by Intel. Motherboards that can are done by the board maker themselves. It's like AMD pre-FX CPUs, AMD does not officially unlocking, but that hasn't stop board makers from finding a way to unlock it via the bios. Being Asus, I doubt this board will sell for less than $100, probably around $120-$150.If it's less than $100, then it's a okay board just for the sake of having the word "gaming" in it. But if it's at $150, you can get a well featured Asus non ROG Z87 board.Also this board isn't part of their ROG line up. Their ROG boards never uses chipset numbering as their names.CrossHair = AMDMaximus = Intel mainstreamRampage = Intel high-end

 

[jasonelmore]

a gaming motherboard that cant overclock? what is next, a eatx motherboard with only pcie 1.0 slots? most gamers, if they are spending big bucks, would probably rather go for the k series for overclocking.....

Overclocking the CPU gives very minimal gains these days. Consider this, Mantle and DX12 are all pushing low level support, reducing the need for a fast CPU. Besides, today's i5's (non K versions) are 3.4 Ghz, 3.9 Turbo, which is pretty damn fast in itself.Overclocking boards are for the enthusiast and competitor. As long as it has SLI Support and a ton of SATA6, USB 3.0, and Wifi built in, then gamers are happy.

 

[AGTDenton]

All those slating it, this is perfect when a friend asks you for a good system who doesn't know much about computers and is unlikely to want to overclock. I often build for friends and this is perfect when they don't want/need the best.Its a great looking board and one that fits this bracket nicely. I can see this board being attractive to the independent system builders.So continue to slate if you can't think of a use.

 

[Lutfij]

^ This, soon enough after a build you'll understand that they will want a piece of the action...and sure enough a small bump in frequency usually ends up satisfying them.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Don't need more clocks? Depends on the game - if you're playing BF4 you certainly need an overclocked CPU to get the most out of it. A stock 3570 will stay pegged at 100% on all four cores on a large multiplayer map. If you are stuck at 100% there are tasks in a wait state and things are being held up. I'm at 4.2GHz on four cores because that's what it takes to get any headroom on a 3570K. On the other hand, if you run a 3770 it makes use of the hyperthreading and will hang around 60% utilization. Four cores is coming up on being insufficient faster than I would have expected.

 

[lp231]

All those slating it, this is perfect when a friend asks you for a good system who doesn't know much about computers and is unlikely to want to overclock. I often build for friends and this is perfect when they don't want/need the best.Its a great looking board and one that fits this bracket nicely. I can see this board being attractive to the independent system builders.So continue to slate if you can't think of a use.

If your building a gaming system for your friend, he might ask you the difference and also ask the same question to his other friends as well who also happens to know a thing or two about computers, but these so called "experts" will most likely think all "gaming" computers must have top of the line parts. Like some of us here, who thinks that a "gaming computer" must have a K series CPU.
It's better off to tell them the difference and the price it might cost for each build. If they're willing to spend a bit more then get the better board. If they don't plan to OC then this board is a good choice, but if they're on a tight budget and would like OC in the future, then find them a decent Z87 board so they can practice on it.
You don't want to be in a position where you build for a friend, he asked others and they say your build is not good, and your friend thinks you build him a crap system.

 

[RedJaron]

Don't need more clocks? Depends on the game - if you're playing BF4 you certainly need an overclocked CPU to get the most out of it. A stock 3570 will stay pegged at 100% on all four cores on a large multiplayer map. If you are stuck at 100% there are tasks in a wait state and things are being held up. I'm at 4.2GHz on four cores because that's what it takes to get any headroom on a 3570K. On the other hand, if you run a 3770 it makes use of the hyperthreading and will hang around 60% utilization. Four cores is coming up on being insufficient faster than I would have expected.

If you're just playing the game and you're not experiencing stutter or poor performance, then what's the problem having your CPU at 90% load or more? What background tasks do you have that need a constant 5% - 10% of your CPU? This is a budget board for a budget gamer. I'm fairly certain those people using it aren't expecting to max-out BF4, stream their gameplay, and watch Netflix all at the same time.

Your statement that quad-cores are becoming insufficient is backed by a single cherry-picked game. Yes, BF4, particularly in large multi-player maps, will chew up CPU resources. But you're ignoring the very many other titles that still run fine on dual-cores. Look at the recent $750 SBM machine. It used an i3 and still kept up with two i7 machines. If anything it shows that low-end CPUs are actually hanging around longer than a lot of people expected.

If your building a gaming system for your friend, he might ask you the difference and also ask the same question to his other friends as well who also happens to know a thing or two about computers, but these so called "experts" will most likely think all "gaming" computers must have top of the line parts. Like some of us here, who thinks that a "gaming computer" must have a K series CPU.
It's better off to tell them the difference and the price it might cost for each build. If they're willing to spend a bit more then get the better board. If they don't plan to OC then this board is a good choice, but if they're on a tight budget and would like OC in the future, then find them a decent Z87 board so they can practice on it.
You don't want to be in a position where you build for a friend, he asked others and they say your build is not good, and your friend thinks you build him a crap system.

Decent point. Those who are asking me for part lists generally don't even know about overclocking in the first place. I agree that I try to lay out info and pros/cons and then let them make a choice on what they want to do. There is a point at which you're just adding extra info that they don't need, want, or will just confuse them though.

And really, if someone is coming to me for computer advice, it usually means I'm their most tech savvy friend. If others question what I told them, I have no problem explaining what I did.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Jumping on the marketing bandwagon with MSI putting gamer in the name for higher sales.I wonder how many people today Know where Fatal1ty name came from that has been used by many companies for marketing?

You mean Jonathan "Fata1ity" Wendel?

I will give him credit, he was pretty good for his time. I remember watching a XPlay that had him on and he did a 1v1 against Adam Sessler and he only used the flashlight and did not die once.

But I doubt any of the newer kids know who he is.

 

[Rukz]

http://rog.asus.com/251652013/news/asus-bios-update-enables-h87-and-b85-overclocking-motherboards/