What are price points for gaming motherboards?

[Zak Browning]

If I had $120 for a mobo what would be worth buying? Would it really be any better than a $70 mobo?

 

[weberdarren97]

What socket and chipset are you looking for in a MOBO?

 

[weberdarren97]

To answer the question in its simplest form... The more expensive boards usually come with a lot of proprietary "bells and whistles" or special functions that you'll probably never actually use. As long as you're getting the chipset that you want on the socket that you need and you have a good BIOS, then you should be good in the $90 and up range. Just stay away from boards that have insufficient cooling on the power delivery system to the processor and make sure your case is well ventilated.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

Unless you are overclocking, there isn't much point in an expensive motherboard, but the really cheap ones aren't good unless you are on an extreme budget. Really, $75-100 is the sweet spot for motherboards unless you are overclocking.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Depends on your processor and chipset, as well as your goals (overclocking). While the bells and whistles argument many times is correct, there are sometimes some serious deficiencies or incompatibilities we deal with daily here due to folks cheaping out on the motherboard due to that advice.

What processor do you want to get, and what motherboards are you considering?

 

[weberdarren97]

Depends on your processor and chipset, as well as your goals (overclocking). While the bells and whistles argument many times is correct, there are sometimes some serious deficiencies or incompatibilities we deal with daily here due to folks cheaping out on the motherboard due to that advice.

What processor do you want to get, and what motherboards are you considering?

Good point. I also would like to know what CPU(s) and MOBO(s) he's looking at, but I'd also like to know which chipset(s) he's considering as some will be able to take better advantage of the CPU OC. I would also like to know what RAM models/kits he's considering. Sometimes your RAM timings will slow down the system when you get to a CPU OC that's not an even number of MHz.

 

[deadalewives]

I'd say 120 bucks is about the right amount for a good non-OC intel mobo. You could be able to get an H170 model (assuming you want to go with Skylake) and have features like DDR4 RAM, M.2 and USB 3.1, depending on what brand and model you're looking at. Probably the only feature you'll miss out on at that price range is built in wifi/bluetooth, but I could be wrong. I'm not familiar with EVERY mobo out there.

 

[Zak Browning]

I dont have a specific mobo or cpu in mind currently. I was looking at http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Motherboard-B150-GAMING-M3/dp/B014YN6732/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459781696&sr=1-2&keywords=gaming+motherboard as a mobo, and maybe something like the i5-4690k cpu.

 

[deadalewives]

I dont have a specific mobo or cpu in mind currently. I was looking at http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Motherboard-B150-GAMING-M3/dp/B014YN6732/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459781696&sr=1-2&keywords=gaming+motherboard as a mobo, and maybe something like the i5-4690k cpu.

That CPU isn't compatible with that mobo. DIfferent socket types. That's a skylake mobo, made for the 6th gen intel chips (6000 series, ie: i5 6500.)

 

[weberdarren97]

I have seen many MSI boards fail, so I've lost faith in the company. I recommend Asus. Maybe something like this http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97EUSB31/ or anything else on this page here http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Intel-platform-Products/ just select socket 1150 and chipset z97 (I recommend z97, but feel free to make your own decision) on the left-hand side before you start looking at models. And I don't have anything against the i5-4690k personally.

 

[Rogue Leader]

See its a good thing we asked. B150 is Intel's lowest end Skylake chipset. First off the 4690k won't work with it, you need a SKylake processor such as the i5-6600k, or i7-6700k (k if you want to overclock, you can get the non-k processors if you don't). Secondly you get a lot of limitations (you can't SLI with this board, limited PCIe lanes so if you crossfire AMD cards you can't really use any of the other slots for a Sound card or and M.2 drive in PCIe or whatever).

What happens is companies offer a board like this with more features than the chipset can support, by disabling things as you use them. Like you'll find with some if you use all the PCIe slots it disables some SATA ports, or USB3.1 ports, stuff like that. In the case of this particular board, you can get a non-Gaming Z170 based board that is maybe a few bucks more and supports SO MUCH more that negates any "Gaming" features. TBH a Gaming B150 board is a low end workstation board dressed up to try to sell for more than its worth to people who don't know better.

For example, this is $10 more, and so much better in every way except it doesn't have the fancy sound card built in.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Z170M-PLUS-Micro-DDR4-Motherboards/dp/B012VOOI64/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459791088&sr=1-1&keywords=asus+z170m