Best budget mobo for gaming

[leekulet]

Are h81 mobos good for gaming? Im looking for the best budget mobo that is atleast $80 and below. No oc, just gaming at 1080p med to high res using an i5 4460 paired with an r9 380 4g fron sapphire and 8gb of ram. And what about the asus b85 pro gamer is it good? Msi and gigabyte?

 

[Eliasand]

A H81 mobo will do you just fine with the 4460. If you're looking for more USB ports, slightly better audio, better looks, more PCI slots, more SATA ports, then get a B85 one. There's no performance difference between H81/B85/Z97 boards with a non-overclockable CPU like yours.

 

[leekulet]

A H81 mobo will do you just fine with the 4460. If you're looking for more USB ports, slightly better audio, better looks, more PCI slots, more SATA ports, then get a B85 one. There's no performance difference between H81/B85/Z97 boards with a non-overclockable CPU like yours.

how about bios update on the h81 and b85 boards? do i need to update the bios before using the i5 4460 or will it work straight out of the box?

 

[Eliasand]

A H81 mobo will do you just fine with the 4460. If you're looking for more USB ports, slightly better audio, better looks, more PCI slots, more SATA ports, then get a B85 one. There's no performance difference between H81/B85/Z97 boards with a non-overclockable CPU like yours.

how about bios update on the h81 and b85 boards? do i need to update the bios before using the i5 4460 or will it work straight out of the box?

I believe it's only on H81 boards. Sometimes you have to, sometimes you don't. Some boards still ship with older BIOS versions, and need to be updated to support Haswell refresh chips.

 

[leekulet]

Any suggestions about the best h81 mobo for gaming?

 

[Eliasand]

Anything will do, just pick one that looks nice, and has the features you need.