Best Motherboards For The Money: October 2014 (Archive)

[adamovera]

Are you having a hard time keeping track of the best motherboards out there? Our resident motherboard expert helps you pick the right platform with this collection of award-winning boards covering today's top AMD and Intel processors.

Best Motherboards For The Money: October 2014 : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2463728/motherboards-money-october-2014.html

 

[babernet_1]

Very clumsy and buggy windowing system.

 

[dennphill]

I don't understand. If it's not a full size ATX mother board, it's not a motherboard? I guess Tom's not not supportive of mATX or smaller form factors. ???

 

[Crashman]

I don't understand. If it's not a full size ATX mother board, it's not a motherboard? I guess Tom's not not supportive of mATX or smaller form factors. ???

Gigabyte AM1M-S2H is Micro ATX
MSI AM1I is Mini ITX
EVGA X99 Micro is Micro ATX
ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer is Micro ATX
ASRock X99M Extreme4 is Micro ATX

Maybe you're only looking at Z97? We had trouble getting submissions for the Z97 mini ITX, and the Z97 micro ATX is yet to do.

 

[washmc]

Unlike all the other Best articles, the motherboard article is always way weak. Why is it so hard to take some time to give real depth here? I realize there are multiple platforms and multiple options for each but seriously, you're readership are hardcore hardware nerds, we will read it no matter how long. Also just because we are techies, doesn't mean we are loaded with cash. We need the same price considerations given as with cpus and gpus. Even the admittedly weak ssd articles are better in that regard. Step it up please!

 

[Crashman]

I'm trying to convince the powers that be that these should be divided up by CPU interface (one per page) into separate pages, then by price (best for each). It's just such a freaking long page I lose products

 

[washmc]

Yeah no disrespect meant to the author, especially if this is not in their control. Just yeah I think this series needs some work.

 

[vertexx]

Thanks for being the only "best of" writer to respond to comments.

I'm really interested in reviews of MSI X99S SLI Plus and either ASRock X99 OC Formula or ASRock X99 Professional.

 

[James Mason]

Still sad about not getting h97/z87/h87/h81 boards.

Although since motherboards seem to not really matter it's kind of understandable.

 

[Crashman]

Still sad about not getting h97/z87/h87/h81 boards.

Although since motherboards seem to not really matter it's kind of understandable.

Z97 replaced Z87, but the individual reviews are still in the system. I don't think there's a physical different between these two chipsets, it was a rebrand for the Haswell refresh and the "changes" seem to be firmware based.

 

[RedJaron]

Z97 replaced Z87, but the individual reviews are still in the system. I don't think there's a physical different between these two chipsets, it was a rebrand for the Haswell refresh and the "changes" seem to be firmware based.

H97 and Z97 added M.2 support, but otherwise are identical to their earlier versions. Of course it's up to mboard manufacturers to put those interfaces on the boards.

I don't agree with James that mboards don't matter, though. If nothing else, the last few X99 reviews showed how important lane configurations are on mboards. If the manufacturer wants to go cheap, it can mean some serious conflicts for some users.

And Josh, if I may spoil a little something regarding low-budget board reviews . . .

 

[Agera One]

Why there are no Asus boards in Intel ?

 

[Crashman]

Why there are no Asus boards in Intel ?

Asus Z97-Pro(Wi-Fi ac) is there
Really, I keep getting lost reading this thing, there has to be a better way to organize it.

 

[RedJaron]

What about giving it multiple pages like the Best GPU article? Separate it into price ranges and platform. Instead of one massive list you'll only have about five boards each page.

 

[Crashman]

What about giving it multiple pages like the Best GPU article? Separate it into price ranges and platform. Instead of one massive list you'll only have about five boards each page.

I'd rather separate it into platforms first, then graduate the page by price range. After all, I don't think many users are really doing a Socket FM2 to LGA 1150 motherboard comparison, they're picking a platform with the CPU before they nail down the exact motherboard they want.

 

[surphninja]

Seriously. This new format of everything in one page is nearly unreadable. Can't do it.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

The chart needs to add at least two items: CPU socket size/type, and the motherboard size. If I'm looking for a mini-ITX LGA 1150 board, I certainly don't want to have to eyeball every picture or even try to read every review.

 

[undouble]

I agree that this is a VERY confusing article, on an important component. It DOES need to include which CPU/socket each board has-------it does NOONE any good to buy a board and a CPU only to then find out they're incompatible!!

 

[mikeny]

Is it me or why aren't any of the ROG's not here represented? MSI's gaming is better?

 

[Crashman]

Is it me or why aren't any of the ROG's not here represented? MSI's gaming is better?

Asus quit sending ROGs when we started ranking Deluxes and Pros a better value.

I agree that this is a VERY confusing article, on an important component. It DOES need to include which CPU/socket each board has-------it does NOONE any good to buy a board and a CPU only to then find out they're incompatible!!

You could go by the chipset, but I'm trying to get the manager to reformat this as one LGA/Socket per page across multiple pages.

 

[cats_Paw]

This article is pointless.
The standards that toms hardware will set for it by definition make it a subjective article (perhaps to use the article as an ad?).
How about we agree that we must have "at least" 10 USB connectors? Well, that would get rid of many of other mobos.
How about if we say that it has to be the latest chip?
Or only mobos that have SLI/crossifre support? (AKA more than one GPU pci)
Its almost as useless as RAM memory reviews.

 

[vertexx]

This article is pointless.
The standards that toms hardware will set for it by definition make it a subjective article (perhaps to use the article as an ad?).
How about we agree that we must have "at least" 10 USB connectors? Well, that would get rid of many of other mobos.
How about if we say that it has to be the latest chip?
Or only mobos that have SLI/crossifre support? (AKA more than one GPU pci)
Its almost as useless as RAM memory reviews.

I think this is one of the more useful best of articles. How about some constructive feedback on how you would recommend improving it? You can see that, unlike other Best of Articles, Crash is interested in improving it.

 

[Computered]

The chipset breakdown is nice but in the end not all that useful to me. I would love to see a break down by platform and size; ATX, mATX, mITX. I would also love to see a breakdown by usage; overclocking, gaming, general. A lot of companies are starting to take making "real" gaming boards seriously with less focus on overclocking and more on great inboard audio, good networking options and other features that effect the gaming experience.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

I agree that this is a VERY confusing article, on an important component. It DOES need to include which CPU/socket each board has-------it does NOONE any good to buy a board and a CPU only to then find out they're incompatible!!

You could go by the chipset, but I'm trying to get the manager to reformat this as one LGA/Socket per page across multiple pages.[/quotemsg]

Don't forget the board size - mini-ITX, micro-ATX, ATX. The chipset alone doesn't determine the size of the motherboard. It actually makes more sense to organize by major sizes (basically the aforementioned three) and then CPU socket type than it does just by CPU socket type.