Question about "M" motherboards.

[changetheworld]

Hello!

I've heard that motherboards ending with "M" are mobile ones and therefore are smaller and generate more heat. So for overclocking CPU they're a bad choice.

Now, my question is, is it a good or bad idea to buy a H87&B85 mobile motherboard, I can't overclock my CPU due it being locked and mobo not being z87 one. Perhaps maybe a full ATX mobo would perform better when overclocking GPU?

I'm thinking of buying something like this: GA-H87M-HD3
Or this: GA-B85-HD3

 

[Madn3ss795]

"M" ones often stand for mATX form ( 24.4*24.4cm ) motherboard. Due to limited space on the board, they don't often get many components for OC-ing like ATX boards, but that doesn't mean that all mATX boards are bad for overclocking. Some like Asrock Z87 Extreme4-M or Asus Maximus VI Gene can handle overclocking nicely. As for GPU overclocking, it depends one the card itself and not the motherboard.

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

The -M suffix just means the board is smaller and has less PCI slots, etc.
- As above it is possible to put 12+ phase VRMs on these boards, and future processors will have half the VRM integrated into the CPU anyway so it won't make much difference in a few months.

They are often an excellent buy and permit more money to be spend where it counts (GPU, CPU, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc. instead).

The GA-H87M-HD3 only has 2 x RAM slots, but other than that it's a very well integrated board for the price.
- Sometimes having only 2 RAM slots helps with overclocking, but the H87 nor B75 support OC'ing anyway...

Finally: Smaller motherboards do not generate more heat, larger ones do!

 

[changetheworld]

The -M suffix just means the board is smaller and has less PCI slots, etc.
- As above it is possible to put 12+ phase VRMs on these boards, and future processors will have half the VRM integrated into the CPU anyway so it won't make much difference in a few months.

They are often an excellent buy and permit more money to be spend where it counts (GPU, CPU, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc. instead).

The GA-H87M-HD3 only has 2 x RAM slots, but other than that it's a very well integrated board for the price.
- Sometimes having only 2 RAM slots helps with overclocking, but the H87 nor B75 support OC'ing anyway...

Finally: Smaller motherboards do not generate more heat, larger ones do!

Now that's interesting 😱. Do they do less heat because the heatsinks/coolers are closer to each other?

 

[Madn3ss795]

- Sometimes having only 2 RAM slots helps with overclocking, but the H87 nor B75 support OC'ing anyway...

Finally: Smaller motherboards do not generate more heat, larger ones do!

Enlight me, please.

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

In many Core i# motherboards the RAM slots to be populated first are meant to be those furthest away from the CPU, and thus the memory controller.

Motherboards with only 2 RAM slots have physically less distance in the circuit, will have less noise, never require registered (or buffered) DIMMs.

The net result is that the command rate, if you can set it in the BIOS if not done automatically, can be 1T lower and/or the RAM can be clocked at a higher speed.

It's the same reason physically huge server boards don't support overclocking and require registered (buffered) DIMMs that add an invisible CAS latency tick. (Which in DDR is bad as it's at least two missed memory transfers on top of everything else).

Light can move 11.8028527 inches in one billionth (10^-9) of a second.

 

[Madn3ss795]

Would be better if you can find a real example of a matx board with just 2 slots doing better than a 4 slot one with other similar components, beside theories. As for server boards, it because they head to durability.