Micro ATX Motherboard for i3-4170

[ReneTS]

Hi
I am looking to build a budget gaming pc, but have some trouble selecting a cheap motherboard.
I am mostly looking at the H81 chipset, as I dont really need any fancy features. But what is the best board at the moment below $100? I know the MSI H81M-E34 is recommended on this website, but is there some better alternatives?

 

[dis236]

To tell you the truth, if you really want to buy a motherboard with a H81 chipset the I would go with an Asus h81m-k because asus is best motherboard manufacturer IMO and it's well below your budget (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132052). But because you still have a lot of room to expand regarding your budget I would recommend an Asus h87m-plus (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131990) which has more RAM slots, more PCIe slots, more USB slots while still being under a 100 usd.

Hope this helps!

 

[geofelt]

I suggest a Z97 based motherboard to give you future upgrade options.
This ECS is inexpensive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135389

 

[ReneTS]

Thanks. Both the ECS Z97 and Asus h87m is not available where I live. The Asus h81m-k is available, but from what I can read it requires a bios update, which I would like to avoid. But is it all H81 boards that requires a bios update, before they work with the new intel processors?

 

[geofelt]

I would not worry about a bios update.
The i3-4170 bios 1003 was released 12/14
Unless the motherboard is very old stock, it will come with the latest bios.

 

[ReneTS]

Ok thanks. I can see the Asus h81m-plus is just $10 more. Is it worth the extra price?

 

[ReneTS]

On second thoughts I dont want to risk ending up with a board that has to get a bios update. So any recommendations for a H97 or Z97 board that is cheap?

 

[dis236]

On second thoughts I dont want to risk ending up with a board that has to get a bios update. So any recommendations for a H97 or Z97 board that is cheap?

The difference between the Z97 and the H97 chipsets that the Z97 supports overclocking (not really important because your CPU is not unlocked) and it supports crossfire and SLI. However lower end Z97s mostly only support crossfire but not SLI so if you have an nvidia card you probably don't really need a Z97 board so I would recommend an H97. More specifically, if you're on a tighter budget than I would recommend the ASRock H97-Pro4 (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157511&cm_re=asrock_h97-pro4-_-13-157-511-_-Product) which is actually a pretty decent motherboard for the price or a Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128712&cm_re=gigabyte_ga-h97-d3h-_-13-128-712-_-Product) which is a motherboard that I personally am planning to buy.
But if you're willing to spend a bit more than I would recommend an Asus H97-Plus (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132121&cm_re=asus_h97-plus-_-13-132-121-_-Product).

Hope this helps!