I am trying to build new computer but im overwhelmed by motherboards.

[Aladinsane77]

I am building my first pc, and i am gonna use the i5 3570k cpu, so i have been looking at these z77 motherboards, but there are so many i just dont know what to do.

All i want is a board with good audio, bluetooth, and good for gaming. I was looking through the z77 boards at amazon And when i read the audo part for one of them it says "Audio: VIA VT2021 codec. LAN: Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)." when i read that i just dont know what that means, if it is good or not.

Also, i dont think i plan on overclocking anything since im new to this and dont wanna break anything. So, any suggestions for Z77 boards?

 

[azeem40]

Yes, 10/100/1000 just means it accepts those speeds depending on the cable you get, i.e: cat3 for 10Mbps, cat 5 for 100 mbps, and cat5e/6 for 1000mbps, with cat6 having a better chance to achieve 1000mbps speeds.

 

[niknovacain]

From what I know all onboard audio is essentially the same and probably shouldn't be a huge deciding factor even if there is differences. I heard realtek does not have good onboard sound. Asus Z77 boards have wireless capability with mobile hotspot technology but I don't think any bluetooth. I actually do not know of any boards with blue tooth, but I do know they make ad on cards. I like ASUS the brand personally. Other good brands seem to be Gigabyte and ASRock. Intel boards are good too, but if you are not overclocking then you probably don't need one.

I went with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131819

got it on sale for $215, kind of pricey but I bought anyways.

 

[Blazefade]

The only issue I have with that driver is if you plan on running Linux on it(especially arch linux) as it doesn't make it very compatible in that sense