bit-tech.net

brumgrunt · 20th Nov 2012, 07:16

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...motherboards/1

Parge · 20th Nov 2012, 07:45

I just slapped a £35 Gigabyte 1155 motherboard in my housemates computer. Frankly it's great - room to upgrade to a 2500K and a GTX 680 in future too!

blacko · 20th Nov 2012, 08:18

its so funny seeing an h61 paired with a GTX 680!

you should have stuck an i3 2100 as well just for giggles.

GuilleAcoustic · 20th Nov 2012, 08:23

I made an ITX rig for my wife's parents using the MSI H61I-E35. Great deal for the price

.

On the pics, yours seams to have an opened PCIe-1X slot, while mine is closed. Did you mod it to plug PCIe-4/8/16X cards ?

xaser04 · 20th Nov 2012, 08:37

Hmmm considering the title I thought this review would include a number of budget board from various board manufacturers with specific emphasis being put on the features (or lack there of). Essentially a nice "round-up" if you will.

Instead its just a look at two under featured boards put through the normal tests.

Combatus · 20th Nov 2012, 12:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuilleAcoustic

I made an ITX rig for my wife's parents using the MSI H61I-E35. Great deal for the price

.

On the pics, yours seams to have an opened PCIe-1X slot, while mine is closed. Did you mod it to plug PCIe-4/8/16X cards ?

We did indeed! Well spotted! I was actually going to cover this in a separate article

Jipa · 20th Nov 2012, 16:26

No digital video output? Oh wow... I know cheap stuff is cheap, but that's not the place to save the two bucks in!

rollo · 20th Nov 2012, 17:18

Shows that the difference between even the most expensive board and the cheapest is a mere 300 points. People who don't need bleeding edge performance could save alot of cash it would seem on a low end board.

Awoken · 20th Nov 2012, 20:29

Thank you for the reviews, they were very interesting and thorough. One correction spotted:
"Our personal favourite is the MSI H61I-E35 (B3). Its size and the fact it has an HDMI port, means that it's well-suited to a low-power but capable system if you're prepared to live with your CPU's on-board graphics."

SimonStern · 20th Nov 2012, 22:55

Had to stop at "represent the cheapest examples we we could find at time of writing"

£47.41, roughly $75.50 is the cheapest micro-atx you found? Newegg.com has around 40 listings below that price, nearly all of them with x16 slots, starting at $42.99 or £27. Now THAT's what I'd call super budget

Even the near identical (except for including a dvi port) ASRock H61M-DGS is only $44.99 ex tax.

Or am I missing something and being daft lol.

fluxtatic · 21st Nov 2012, 05:38

Might have been nice if you'd tested with a video card more appropriate to a budget build - 550Ti or the like. I can see the laffs to be had cramming a GTX680 in there, but c'mon.

A nice, realistic sort of setup would have been nice - answering a sort of 'how cheaply can you build a (halfway-decent) PC?'

kenco_uk · 21st Nov 2012, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimonStern

Had to stop at "represent the cheapest examples we we could find at time of writing"

£47.41, roughly $75.50 is the cheapest micro-atx you found? Newegg.com has around 40 listings below that price, nearly all of them with x16 slots, starting at $42.99 or £27. Now THAT's what I'd call super budget

Even the near identical (except for including a dvi port) ASRock H61M-DGS is only $44.99 ex tax.

Or am I missing something and being daft lol.

Yes. Welcome to rip-off Britain with taxes on tax

GuilleAcoustic · 21st Nov 2012, 15:33

so true ... in France we have a lot of 45 - 50€ (Incl. 19.6% VAT) LGA1155 mobo : http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00133317.html

Jipa · 21st Nov 2012, 16:57

Here the MSI seems to cost 66 € (+13 € postage) in the cheapest place (53 £ (or 64 £ with the mandatory shipping)) so stop whining your eyes out. Everyone knows stuff is cheap in the USA, get over it already.

MrSmegz · 25th Nov 2012, 02:39

Granted these boards are super cheap because of their lack of typical basic features. I was hoping to see an answer as to the type of components used on these boards. I usually build computers like this for friends, family, and Co-workers. My main concern with going too 'cheap' is the quality of components. Are these boards more likely to fail than say a Intel DZ77GA-70K that was tested?

20th Nov 2012, 07:16	#1
brumgrunt Administrator bit-tech Staff Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 1,009	Super-budget Intel motherboards http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...motherboards/1

20th Nov 2012, 07:45	#2
Parge Do you even mod, bro? Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: London, UK Posts: 6,993	I just slapped a £35 Gigabyte 1155 motherboard in my housemates computer. Frankly it's great - room to upgrade to a 2500K and a GTX 680 in future too! __________________ Deep Silence 1 - 2500K @4.5Ghz - Gigabyte UD7 - GTX 670 - 16GB 1866mhz Tactical Tracer - 240GB Vertex 3 - Xonar DX - U3011 Pump/MCP 355 - CPU/EK Supreme HF Nickel Plexi - GPU/EK Nickel Acetal Full Cover - Rads/2x EK 240 XTX - Fans/6x Gentle Typhoon 1850s - Controller/BigNG

20th Nov 2012, 08:37	#5
xaser04 Retro Goodness Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Somerset Posts: 1,391	Hmmm considering the title I thought this review would include a number of budget board from various board manufacturers with specific emphasis being put on the features (or lack there of). Essentially a nice "round-up" if you will. Instead its just a look at two under featured boards put through the normal tests. __________________ Not so Mobile - i5 2500K @ 4.4\| VTX HD7970 X @ 1200/6400 \| 3 x LG IPS231P in 3600x1920 P Eyefinity \| Mobile - i7 2670QM \| GT635m (144sp) @ 775/1550/2100 \| 15.6" 1600x900 \| Retro Room / Consoles Got - PS3 \| PS2 (PS1) \| PSP \| Wii U \| Wii (Gamecube) \| Dreamcast \| Xbox \| Mega Drive II \| Retro Room / Consoles Want - Gamecube \| N64 \| SNES \| NES \| Saturn \| Black DC & more \|

20th Nov 2012, 16:26	#7
Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004 Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 6,274	No digital video output? Oh wow... I know cheap stuff is cheap, but that's not the place to save the two bucks in! __________________ Half a dozen operational setups and truckloads of spare parts. AllTheMods - MetkuMods - LedCalc - Flickr - BF:BC2

20th Nov 2012, 20:29	#9
Awoken Gazing at the stars Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Staffordshire Posts: 1,301	Thank you for the reviews, they were very interesting and thorough. One correction spotted: "Our personal favourite is the MSI H61I-E35 (B3). Its size and the fact it has an HDMI port, means that it's well-suited to a low-power but capable system if you're prepared to live with your CPU's on-board graphics." __________________ Exploring the outer atmosphere with Project Horizon

bit-tech.net

Site Links

Our Other Sites

20th Nov 2012, 08:18	#3
blacko Multimodder Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 84	its so funny seeing an h61 paired with a GTX 680! you should have stuck an i3 2100 as well just for giggles.

20th Nov 2012, 08:23	#4
GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook ! Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: France Posts: 2,092	I made an ITX rig for my wife's parents using the MSI H61I-E35. Great deal for the price . On the pics, yours seams to have an opened PCIe-1X slot, while mine is closed. Did you mod it to plug PCIe-4/8/16X cards ?

20th Nov 2012, 17:18	#8
rollo I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 3,553	Shows that the difference between even the most expensive board and the cheapest is a mere 300 points. People who don't need bleeding edge performance could save alot of cash it would seem on a low end board.

20th Nov 2012, 22:55	#10
SimonStern Registered Lurker Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Redlands, California Posts: 113	Had to stop at "represent the cheapest examples we we could find at time of writing" £47.41, roughly $75.50 is the cheapest micro-atx you found? Newegg.com has around 40 listings below that price, nearly all of them with x16 slots, starting at $42.99 or £27. Now THAT's what I'd call super budget Even the near identical (except for including a dvi port) ASRock H61M-DGS is only $44.99 ex tax. Or am I missing something and being daft lol. __________________ I may not be playing with a full deck, but I still deal... Steam: SimonStern PSN: OvaltineJenkins3

21st Nov 2012, 05:38	#11
fluxtatic Supermodder Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Seattle Posts: 401	Might have been nice if you'd tested with a video card more appropriate to a budget build - 550Ti or the like. I can see the laffs to be had cramming a GTX680 in there, but c'mon. A nice, realistic sort of setup would have been nice - answering a sort of 'how cheaply can you build a (halfway-decent) PC?'

21st Nov 2012, 15:33	#13
GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook ! Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: France Posts: 2,092	so true ... in France we have a lot of 45 - 50€ (Incl. 19.6% VAT) LGA1155 mobo : http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00133317.html

21st Nov 2012, 16:57	#14
Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004 Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 6,274	Here the MSI seems to cost 66 € (+13 € postage) in the cheapest place (53 £ (or 64 £ with the mandatory shipping)) so stop whining your eyes out. Everyone knows stuff is cheap in the USA, get over it already. __________________ Half a dozen operational setups and truckloads of spare parts. AllTheMods - MetkuMods - LedCalc - Flickr - BF:BC2

25th Nov 2012, 02:39	#15
MrSmegz What's a Dremel? Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 1	Granted these boards are super cheap because of their lack of typical basic features. I was hoping to see an answer as to the type of components used on these boards. I usually build computers like this for friends, family, and Co-workers. My main concern with going too 'cheap' is the quality of components. Are these boards more likely to fail than say a Intel DZ77GA-70K that was tested?