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-2527595/motherboards-money-october-2014.html

 

[terion]

SLI is niche in budget gaming.
Is ASRock Z97 Extreme4 really best choice for someone who doesn't want advanced features as M2, SLI, CrossFire, Wifi? Is there anything that provides decent stability, but with minimal feature set (and small price)?

 

[Nossy]

Why even bother with Z97 if you dont want M.2, SLI, or Xfire? I think many people who frequent this website had, at one point or another, used it or contemplated on trying it (SLI/Xfire)...It's an enthusiast class chipset.

 

[tsnor]

Still hoping you will add low cost intel MBs you'd choose for some of your BEST CPU winners:
"Best Gaming CPU for $120:" is an i3-4160. Hint, none of your MBs is a really good choice for an i3 based system.
"Best Gaming CPU for $190:" is an i5-4460. What MB from your list would you pair this with ?

 

[Onus]

The AM1 boards you've listed only have two SATA ports on them (like most). This makes the ASRock offerings that have FOUR SATA ports worthy of mention, if not an award. They'd be suitable for tasks for which the others are not.

 

[terion]

"Why even bother with Z97 if you dont want M.2, SLI, or Xfire? I think many people who frequent this website had, at one point or another, used it or contemplated on trying it (SLI/Xfire)...It's an enthusiast class chipset."

And this is my problem exactly. In GPU and CPU guide there is full range of products: basic, enthusiasts, mainstream. But for motherboards we have only narrow range of "enthusiast grade" products.

 

[ComputerOtter]

If you upgrade your mother board, do you have to reinstall windows?

 

[dstarr3]

I've always been buying ASUS boards, never been disappointed. And I'm really curious about trying a Gigabyte board for once, but every time I'm doing a build, ASUS always has a similar board for the same cost, and I can't help but stick with the brand I know and trust. First-world problem, I guess.

 

[DookieDraws]

The ASUS Z97-Pro (Wi-Fi ac) should also be listed as having a 12 phase voltage regulator. You're showing it as having 10.

 

[rolli59]

Useless format! Why not put the boards in performance class and recommend 1 of each. Extreme 4/6/9 from Asrock represent every class except a none SLI supported Z97 board.

 

[AeroWB]

I would definitely look at Asus for a Z97 Mainboard, as far as I know they are the only ones that are able to drive all 4 pin fan headers with PWM or voltage (for 3 pin fans). My current favorite pick is the Z97-E as it has much less crap (ASMedia chips) on it then the Pro which is mentioned above. It also has an Intel NIC, M2 slot and the option for 2 GPU's. As far as I know Gigabyte and ASRock still have only one real PWM controlled fan header for the CPU fan while all other fan headers are essentially driven as 3 pin headers (so voltage mode) This crap really surprises me as the are adding all kinds of BS but have not fixed the stupid fan control. Now you could buy an extra fancontroller but this is really stupid if you think about the fact that all the required hard- and software is already there, they just did not wire it and write software for it. So big thumps up to Asus for finally fixing this with fan Xpert 3 on the Z97 series. I hope the other manufacturers will follow soon. We could really just stop with 3 pin fans and voltage control altogether just like its done in all modern servers for over 7 years already if you ask mem as 4 pin is just better in every way.

 

[balister]

In all seriousness, you guys need to be looking at boards for other uses, not just something that is mainly going to gaming oriented. You should be looking at boards that would work well as HTPCs, Workstations (where a dual socket board would be nice), and potential low level Office systems/Web browsing (where power is not necessary).

 

[mikenygmail]

Avoid Asrock, I've used many different brands of motherboard and this is the only brand that I've had problems with, in less than 2 years. Get ASUS or Gigabyte instead whenever possible.

 

[mapesdhs]

I bought an ASUS Z97I-Plus for HTPC, very nice board, fitted with a G3258 and GTX 750 Ti. Pretty good
at general gaming aswell, about the same speed as a GTX 580.

There seem to be a number of ASUS boards not mentioned here, eg. where is the Maximus VII Ranger?

Ian.

 

[Crashman]

BTW, the original text mentioned upcoming articles scheduled for publication this month, but it looks like management decided to keep you in suspense. I can tell you guys that RedJaron is working on stuff so cheap it will make you rethink your existence

 

[mapesdhs]

Bet it ain't as cheap as all the used stuff I keep buying. ;D Try beating a new ARC 100 240GB for 45 UKP, hehe...

Ian.

 

[Onus]

Avoid Asrock, I've used many different brands of motherboard and this is the only brand that I've had problems with, in less than 2 years. Get ASUS or Gigabyte instead whenever possible.

I have had great results with ASRock, although I've found occasional minor glitches (e.g. with fan control). In any case, our combined sample size is not likely to be statistically significant. In general, my overall impression is that ASRock enjoys a decent reputation, but is a step below Asus. They typically include more features for the money than competitors, and offer excellent component choices (e.g. all solid Japanese capacitors and ferrite core chokes), although the boards themselves are often very thin and uncomfortably "bendy."

 

[mapesdhs]

Indeed, I have some good Asrock boards, inparticular numerous P55 Deluxes and an X58 Extreme6 (tri-slot spacing
for 3-way SLI FTW! ), though I've not obtained anything newer (contemplated the X79 Extreme11, but was put off
by the lack of cache for the SAS controller).

Ian.

 

[atheus]

Is it just a coincidence that all the motherboards in this review except one are ATX? What is this fascination with enormous motherboards? Few people need that many PCI-E slots. Heck, for current gen systems that aren't used for gaming even the 1 slot on a mini-itx goes unused. Gamers who fills more than one PCI-E slot are also incredibly rare. At the end of the day, mini-itx can fit the needs of 99% of users. Of the remaining 1%, microATX suits 9/10 of them. So why is it that when I look at these motherboard reviews I'm looking at a pile of monster-size ATX boards with more slots than are needed by 99.9% of users?

 

[Crashman]

Is it just a coincidence that all the motherboards in this review except one are ATX? What is this fascination with enormous motherboards? Few people need that many PCI-E slots. Heck, for current gen systems that aren't used for gaming even the 1 slot on a mini-itx goes unused. Gamers who fills more than one PCI-E slot are also incredibly rare. At the end of the day, mini-itx can fit the needs of 99% of users. Of the remaining 1%, microATX suits 9/10 of them. So why is it that when I look at these motherboard reviews I'm looking at a pile of monster-size ATX boards with more slots than are needed by 99.9% of users?

Popularity. When a high-end platform gets reviewed, the big boards go first. More reviews means more awards.

But I count FIVE boards that are NOT full ATX. Three of them are Micro ATX, one is Flex ATX, and one is Mini ITX.

 

[mapesdhs]

I also can't help but laugh at the notion of ATX being 'monster' sized.
To me they seem kinda small, working as I do with so many boards like
the M4E, R4E, P9X79 WS, etc. ATX is just 'normal' in my mind. Ancient,
get hold of an EATX or larger board, you'll see what I mean.

Ian.

 

[timmyshard9times]

I just bought Asus Maximus 7 Hero
and I don't even like the colour scheme..

 

[atheus]

Popularity. When a high-end platform gets reviewed, the big boards go first. More reviews means more awards.

But I count FIVE boards that are NOT full ATX. Three of them are Micro ATX, one is Flex ATX, and one is Mini ITX.

Ah, I stand corrected. I just did a Ctrl+F on the term "ATX" and the only review snippet that snagged was the ASRock X99M Extreme4. I actually scrolled past all the photos of the boards looking for small ones too, but somehow I completely failed to detect the 5 boards you mentioned. Big fail on my part! Although I find it a bit peculiar that the charts left out the form factors of the motherboards. Seems like a fairly important piece of data when shopping motherboards.

Looking more closely now, it's a bit ironic to me that most of the smaller-than-atx boards are in the X99 section — where you would expect the appeal of larger boards to grow, not shrink. There are none in the Z97 section where about 75% of interest would be directed. I wonder if this "big boards first" review phenomenon you speak of is having some sort of effect on the slow migration to more reasonably sized motherboards. People make purchasing decisions based on articles like this, and the reviews that serve as the data pool. If the Z97 mini-itx and micro ATX boards aren't on a list like this, anyone using this as a reference would have their attention directed away from them right off the bat.

I also can't help but laugh at the notion of ATX being 'monster' sized.
To me they seem kinda small, working as I do with so many boards like
the M4E, R4E, P9X79 WS, etc. ATX is just 'normal' in my mind. Ancient,
get hold of an EATX or larger board, you'll see what I mean.

Ian.

My first Dell Precision Workstation back in ~2000 was an EATX. It had 2 Xeons on it. Unless you've got several CPU's on the board or you're trying to do quad SLI, I really have no idea what use an EATX board would be to any but the most extreme system builder today. Just like SLI in general, though, this is such a rare need that I don't see why something this size would be a standard that catches much attention from builders or reviewers.

 

[Onus]

For myself, I cannot imagine ever needing more expansion slots than a mATX offers. I'll have a graphics card, but that could be it. Rarely, I'll need a wireless NIC. I don't remember when I last needed a modem (my Brother AIO has fax capability)