The last four I've put in have all been Foxcoon C51XEM2AAs, mainly because I'm building video edit stations and the onboard raid goes like it's jet-propelled. Downside: they're not amazingly cheap and the onboard audio is noisy. I got the first one effectively for free as part of a magazine review and realised how good they are. Unfortunately, with AMD seemingly unable to come up with a half-decent quad core processor, I will probably be moving to Intel next time. Shame. Never built an Intel box before.
I just bought the components for my new sys last week after I got my tax return: Asus Maximus Formula @ $US 260 Q6600 @ $US 265 8800GT 512 @ $US 250 OCZ 2GB Reaper @ $US 100 Basically, I thought long and hard about this build. I thought about a budget sys with a 630i and the new e8400 and maybe an 8600GTS, but it all came down to starting a cycle. I wanted something that would last well until Nehelem, without wishing I had something better in six months, and I could start an upgrade cycle ever two years. A budget sys just requires too much compromise. Generally, I barely pay rent and keep the fridge half full, but I really wanted this, so I just made it happen. I think Bit-tech should focus more on mid to high end, with extreme coverage sprinkled in between for color and zaz, lol. I would consider my sys to be high end, extreme would be QX9650 on Asus Maximus Extreme with ddr3 2000 and Crossfire ATI cards. Those are fun to look at, but the performance gap between a 1000$ sys and a 3000$ sys is not worth the price gap in my opinion, and only the single web-programmer in his mom's basement paying no rent can afford it anyway. I would never buy a mobo more expensive than the cpu, and I would never buy a cpu more than 500$. That said, I hope they continue to cram more features into mobo's that used to be on add-on cards like HD sound, hdmi w/onboard graphics capable of h264 decode, wifi, bluetooth, maybe even ATSC/qam tuner in the future? SAS controller? For a truly feature-packed mobo, I'd pay whatever it was worth if I can come up with the money (worth-- meaning I won't pay $$$ for a super special lime green edition with extra floppy cables or some such, the extra money must provide an equivalent extra feature set). btw, after my current build, I have no food in the fridge and will likely be living off Ramen noodles for the next month. But my new sys is worth it!
I would usualy spend between 120-200 quid. But looking at that chart i hope that you dont go to reviewing the budget boards and miss out on more of the enthusiast boards. After all, i thought these websites where for enthusiasts! lol.
Just relised my sig was out of date. But that has brought another thign to my attenchen. I think that you should do reviews comparing boards and point out some have many issues. i see you have good reviews of the 680i boards but in realitiy they seem to be riddled with problems.
The only computer I built used a $100 (I think someone said £80, which sounds right considering when I bought it the dollar didn't suck quite so hard) NF7-S. IIRC, it was just about the best money could buy, aside from some really unstable gaming boards.
My desktop is running on a Asus A7n8x Deluxe which, in it's time was the top board around and cost in the region of 120 pounds. The reason i went for the best (and most expensive) i could get my hands on was that i knew that i would be using it for quite a long time due to leaving work for university and it has lasted be very very well. I would definitely be thinking of another very high end board as my next one for the same sort of reason.
I used to enjoy being a PC enthusiast in the sense that I would get the ultimate parts, but ever since the AMD64 generation and the X2's, it has become a lot harder to keep up with the absolute top end compared to the early days. A top end PC 5 years back would cost you $3000 USD, including a good monitor and etc - now you can expect to pay at least double! Anyway, before I go further off topic, I only spend less than a hundred UK pounds on a motherboard now. I think the need for some crazy features just make it unnecessary for me, as a university student. Sure, I'd like a C2D and an 8800GTS in my system, but having capabilities for SLi and tons of other parts means that getting said parts will further push my PC budget to sky high amounts. Not an option for now
My new DFI LP 680i board was $260 (131GBP) the DFI LP 925X I had before that was $195 (99GBP) so on average $228 (115GBP)
I spent $75 US on my P5B-Plus, which is about 39GBP, I have spent $90/45GBP on a different motherboard a while back, a higher end 945P board. The rest of the motherboards I've had, I've got used from friends.
Been mostly buying used Mobo's when people by the next new technology and try to get a bargain. My Giga 81955x cost about £40 (running D940 @ 4.0Ghz) and a Giga 965-DS3 for about £50 (running a E6600 @ 3.2Ghz). As people jump on the newer tech, looking to buy a P35 board for about £50 and getting a E8400 ;-) Cheers
My IP35 Pro was 160 bucks when it was brand new and worth every penny. I generally won't spend more then that on a motherboard. I've spent up to 500 dollars on one of my past motherboards, but that was WAY back when the Tyan Thunder K7 came out and dual CPU AMD was a new concept. Other then huge revolutionary jumps like that, never again.
my last board cost £12 off ebay the most expensive I have ever bought was £27 (ABIT NF7) off all my boards the cheapest have been the longest lasting. My Asus has power problems (can't cold boot) and my abit just died on me. I do have a shuttle SN45G which cost £120 i think new which I could count as my most expensive mobo ever. but that also included a very good case and power supply and cooling fan.
My last mobo cost @60 & was a bit behind the 'cooking' boards overall according to Toms Hardware. On the plus side, it's really stable & runs cool. Performance boards are often prone to overheat & can be tricky to set up, plus sometimes you come across weird incompatibilities that take an age to sort, which is less time for gaming. I'd rather go with a cheap, safe board so I have more time to play games.
I am using a $46usd MB in my main system, granted its mATX, it has everything I need, a nice audio chipset, gb lan, a PCIE 16x slot, 4 sata headers, ect, ect... I would say I buy MB's from $40-140 USD. I dont even look at boards much higher than $160 USD. I bought an Epox board that Bit did a review on a long time ago, it was the only SLI socket 754 board out there. I think I paid around $80 USD.
Another vote for mid-range boards here. My concern when buying motherboards is mostly stability and longevity - it's the backbone of the system, so I'd rather make it very stable and get my performance out of the CPU, RAM, and video card. So that rules out both the cheap boards and the 'enthusiast' boards for me. That said, I'd like to see a wide variety of boards reviewed here, from run-of-the-mill to specialty items. It's always good to see what's happening in the industry, even if I'm not going to purchase most of it. Who knows, some of the features may show up in my next mid-range purchase.
What he said. I always follow good reviews, and look for stability and fair performance. Generally a board that costs twice as much isn't twice as good in the day to day tasks we all do. And you only tend to spend all that extra money on things you don't really need. (Or at least, I never do!)
I think mine was around £110, hard to tell exactly as it was a CPU + mobo + RAM bundle usually spent around £80 in the past. I went for the slightly more expensive board for a few things: passive cooling heatpipe thing, dual onboard gigabit, onboard WiFi, and plenty (6) SATA ports Last point is kinda moot, as a few months later i went and brought a PCIe x4 raid card
