Four LGA-1150 Motherboards Under $60

[RedJaron]

Overclocking update for anyone that cares:

I've got some Z97 boards on the bench right now and wanted to see just how far this particular G3258 could go. I can easily hit 4.3GHz on it at the same 1.25V the boards here wouldn't handle. It can hit 4.4GHz on 1.275V, but that's using a much better cooler so isn't as applicable. So yes, the CPU is close to its limit, but the boards reviewed here were definitely the limiting factor in the 4.2Gz wall.

 

[Wisecracker]

... the boards reviewed here were definitely the limiting factor in the 4.2Gz wall.

For the most part, same deal (not surprising) with the low-budget AM3+ mATX motherboards. Regardless of chip generation or wattage, moving past the 4.2GHz 'ceiling' of the motherboards becomes an 'economic' issue -- best solved by not buying the low-budget motherboard in the first place.

We should be thankful they OC at all

 

[RedJaron]

For the most part, same deal (not surprising) with the low-budget AM3+ mATX motherboards. Regardless of chip generation or wattage, moving past the 4.2GHz 'ceiling' of the motherboards becomes an 'economic' issue -- best solved by not buying the low-budget motherboard in the first place.

We should be thankful they OC at all

Oh, I'm not knocking the boards or their OC potential. You're absolutely right that I'm thankful such an affordable board offers tweak-ability. But since that same 4.2GHz ceiling was encountered on four different boards, the simplest answer dictates the one common feature, the CPU, was the limiting factor. So I just wanted to see if that was the case. Thankfully it wasn't and the OC results and limitations still stand valid.

 

[Calculatron]

Any word from Biostar yet?

 

[Onus]

The only company to have contacted me so far regarding further reviews is ASRock.

 

[Calculatron]

Bummer. Seems silly that a company would lose out on a ton of advertising for only ~$100.

 

[Crashman]

The only company to have contacted me so far regarding further reviews is ASRock.

I'm going to ask Joseph to try his hand at contacting Biostar. Right now it's using a PR firm that seems disinterested, but maybe he can break through. He can even use my name.

Or not. Since he's not using an @tomshardware address, he could contact them on behalf of Tom's Hardware and then they'd probably contact us to say someone is claiming to represent us. And then we can say "Hah! Now that you're finally responding..." lol