Gaming motherboards

I recently gave a friend a spec for a gaming machine. On it I quoted him a $187 motherboard that had 6xsata3, usb3, dual GBe LAN ports, can run OC memory up to 2800 mhz, was a socket 1150, with an I7-4770K CPU, Z87 chipset.

He took it to a PC shop, where the sale person was "absolutely shocked that anyone would quote anything so shitty, and it was nothing like a gaming motherboard". He sold him one worth $569.

His budget was $2000. He ended up paying $2800.

Other than the motherboard he was sold 1600 mhz memory, instead of the 2133 I quoted him, and a
Samsung SSD (NOT evo) - With only 130MBs write with a 2tb WD hard disk.

What is it that makes a motherboard a gaming motherboard? I have looked around at places like Tom's Hardware, and overclockers.net, but I can't really see what the major differences are...

Eg.. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...therboard.html

thanks
Tanya

Your friend got ripped off by a skilled salesman. What you suggested was better than what they got. No one should -ever- pay more than $250 for a Mobo at the absolute most, and even that is really a little excessive. $200 is usually more than enough.

What your friend was sold isn't horrible, but they got reamed and overcharged.

Pretty much a 'gaming' mobo is something with at least 4 DDR3 Ram slots, multiple PCIe slots with decent spacing between them, a decent chip socket, maybe some onboard cooling, and a decent number of USB 2.0 slots.

More expensive boards also usually allow slightly higher overclocking. It's a marginal difference though, and with something like a 4770k a pretty useless feature. There's no practical application for an overclock that high in any game, nor will there likely ever be before the whole board becomes outdated anyway.

Expensive boards tend to have loads of PCIe slots and USB 3 slots that you don't need. Honestly you don't even actually need 1 USB 3 port right now. It's a fairly useless feature for playing games as no game pad or other input device for playing games uses it. USB 2 is perfectly fine. I've got a couple USB 3 ports, but I don't actually have any USB 3 compatible devices anyway and simply use them for USB 2 devices. USB 3 is new and not widely adopted and I'll probably have a new board before it's a useful feature.

The biggest difference in expensive Mobos with lots of slots is that the chipsets usually specify a certain number of ports for SATA, USB, PCIe, etc. A motherboard maker simply can't increase the number of ports without increasing the number of controllers to allow for more ports. Mobo makers don't make their own controllers so they have to buy from 3rd parties. Extra controllers are pretty expensive and drive up the price of the board.

Even then you're still not looking at anywhere near $500 worth of board.

I spent slightly more than you quoted by about $12 and I've got a board with 3 7970s in crossfire, a 3770k CPU, and 16GB of Ram. That's drastic overkill for any game even not overclocked and I can overclock the GPUs, CPU, and Ram more than enough to get stupid high scores on benchmarking programs, which is about the -only- use for as much horsepower as I have when OCed.

In fact, I've actually removed one of my GPUs to save on power consumption because two of my cards are beyond any games highest specs right now anyway. I'll put the other one back in when something challenges my dual card setup and I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Your friend is an idiot who should have listened to you. They got Pwnt by a shiny object with a big price tag being waved in front of them and totally ripped off. You should laugh at them and point while telling them they should have listened to you and that you told them so.

Contrabardus said:

Your friend got ripped off by a skilled salesman. What you suggested was better than what they got. No one should -ever- pay more than $250 for a Mobo at the absolute most, and even that is really a little excessive. $200 is usually more than enough.

What your friend was sold isn't horrible, but they got reamed and overcharged.

Pretty much a 'gaming' mobo is something with at least 4 DDR3 Ram slots, multiple PCIe slots with decent spacing between them, a decent chip socket, maybe some onboard cooling, and a decent number of USB 2.0 slots.

More expensive boards also usually allow slightly higher overclocking. It's a marginal difference though, and with something like a 4770k a pretty useless feature. There's no practical application for an overclock that high in any game, nor will there likely ever be before the whole board becomes outdated anyway.

Expensive boards tend to have loads of PCIe slots and USB 3 slots that you don't need. Honestly you don't even actually need 1 USB 3 port right now. It's a fairly useless feature for playing games as no game pad or other input device for playing games uses it. USB 2 is perfectly fine. I've got a couple USB 3 ports, but I don't actually have any USB 3 compatible devices anyway and simply use them for USB 2 devices. USB 3 is new and not widely adopted and I'll probably have a new board before it's a useful feature.

The biggest difference in expensive Mobos with lots of slots is that the chipsets usually specify a certain number of ports for SATA, USB, PCIe, etc. A motherboard maker simply can't increase the number of ports without increasing the number of controllers to allow for more ports. Mobo makers don't make their own controllers so they have to buy from 3rd parties. Extra controllers are pretty expensive and drive up the price of the board.

Even then you're still not looking at anywhere near $500 worth of board.

I spent slightly more than you quoted by about $12 and I've got a board with 3 7970s in crossfire, a 3770k CPU, and 16GB of Ram. That's drastic overkill for any game even not overclocked and I can overclock the GPUs, CPU, and Ram more than enough to get stupid high scores on benchmarking programs, which is about the -only- use for as much horsepower as I have when OCed.

In fact, I've actually removed one of my GPUs to save on power consumption because two of my cards are beyond any games highest specs right now anyway. I'll put the other one back in when something challenges my dual card setup and I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Your friend is an idiot who should have listened to you. They got Pwnt by a shiny object with a big price tag being waved in front of them and totally ripped off. You should laugh at them and point while telling them they should have listened to you and that you told them so.

Well he is totally right your friend is a chump that got taken by a smart slick salesman that probably knows less about the damn thing then he does ,I told people long ago you can't trust a shop person to build you a computer because they will always cut a corner to save them money but charge you a mad price for it

There is no reason why your friend couldn't have taken the time to study the subject at hand meaning him being rushful and lazy he could of saved a sweet grand or less from a build he could have researched and put together himself in the end

i hope you show him this post so he will know that he got taken and it's ok but next time he needs to spend some time to understand what he is looking to do it is easy to run a PC cost up but do you really need a bunch of unneeded Bullcrap

You should of asked him what is the most intense game he is going to play and see what GPU they gave bet you your bottom dollar he got a GTX760 or a R7270 and barley a 600w psu those guys will do that to someone

a mother board is a mother board.. "gaming" ones tend to have stupid heat sinks shaped like guns or skulls as thats "oberz cool lolz".. yeah im rubbish at nerd fanboyism.

granted the more you pay the better they get.
however this is normally only benificial to overclockers or people who like to fiddle.

these more expensive mobos not only have a more vast bios but also tend to be more tollerable when pushing the limits giving a more stable performance.

but for someone like your friend who is obviously a mug and know very little about computers he wont need any of that..

fair play to the sales man.. hes done his job well!!

TanyaC said:

What is it that makes a motherboard a gaming motherboard? I have looked around at places like Tom's Hardware, and overclockers.net, but I can't really see what the major differences are...

Eg.. What makes a motherboard a gaming motherboard? - Marketing - Motherboards

thanks
Tanya

Gigabyte's G1.Sniper 5 is an example of a "gaming" motherboard which I built a Haswell system on - Show Us Your Rig [6]. See system specs.

Anyway the board was only $389 before a $50 dollar rebate, 339 after.

Gaming boards are dedicated to gaming performance and may even lack some feature that are deemed to diminish that performance, like extra PCI slots for instance. One the flipside they usually have top of the line components like double 1gig nics, the ability to run quad cards, and higher end integrated soundcard, and in the case of the Gigabyte board, a dedicated Bluetooth/Wi-Fi card. To get an idea, read the specs on the board in the link (G1.Sniper 5).

Still, 569 is WAY too much for a motherboard, even a gaming board.

BTW, what board did he get for 569?

Guys, thanks so much for your replies.

I'm not a "point the finger" type of girl, but I do feel much better after these comments. I was in IT for a long long time before I got "downsized" and forcibly retired, and I was starting to think that i'd lost touch with I.T. reality.

My kids and I all use ASRock Extreme 4 Mobos now, with I7-3770K, 32GB 2400mhz RAM, Liquid cooling, SSD Boot drives with 2TB spinners, GTX660Ti or GTX670 GPUs, 2x27" monitors. The CPU's are overclocked only to 4.1 GHZ. We haven't found a game we can't play.

I asked him what he plays, and uses the machine for, DOTA 2 seems to be about the most intense game he plays, along with Runescape and WOW, none of which are particularly demanding, so I thought the system I'd spec'd for him had plenty of grunt and room to spare.

I told him not to buy from a shop unless they would build to spec, but he was in a hurry it seems.

I will try and share these comments with him, he may not want to know how much he was scammed though.Especially since his mother paid for the PC for him (Which could be why he didn't care too much about the price).

sygnus21 said:

TanyaC said:

Especially since his mother paid for the PC for him (Which could be why he didn't care too much about the price).

I tell my kids, as told to me by my parents.... you only care about it when you have to pay out of your pocket.

Oh, and I need to correct my price... it was 389 minus 50. NOT 289. Sorry

Anyway good luck.

And thanks

That's still too much to pay for a Mobo. The G1 Sniper 5 is a waste of money. It has a large number of essentially useless connectors, and more USB 3 ports than anyone is likely to need before the board is outdated.

It's not junk, just overkill, and not in a 'futureproofing' kind of way. It's got many, many ports that will likely never be used by anyone. Even if you do put 4 GPUs into the thing, those GPUs will have HDMI slots with HDMI audio and video output, making the onboard HDMI out pretty useless. As I said earlier, no one really needs USB 3 and likely won't in the lifespan of the Mobo it's just an unnecessary expense tacked on to the board price.

The board is a waste of money with an overload of unnecessary features. Why would anyone buy it aside from penis points for having a wastefully overloaded board with a high price point? There is some merit to doing that for bragging rights, but it's not something I'd recommend to another person trying to build for themselves. Only if money is no object and they want a hyper overloaded PC to show off like gold chains and a diamond encrusted Rolex or a gold plated sports car.

Even the overclock advantage is minimal and useless for anything more than showboating benchmark scores for bragging rights. No game is going to be able to take advantage of that kind of OCing within the lifespan of the board anyway.

I stand by my earlier statement, any more than $250 for a Mobo is a waste of money better spent in other places on a build.

Why get a $389 G1 Sniper 5 when the Gigabyte X79-UD3 is $225 and will do the same job just as well?

Shop smarter and don't fall for unnecessary useless features, gold plated connectors, and excessive cooling features when a good heat sink and a few fans in a decent case can do the same job just as well without the unnecessary mark up.

sygnus21 said:

Contrabardus;

I've come to expect you to attack anything I post no matter what it is. It's just the way you are with me. You're entitled to your opinion. I just know that It'll never align with whatever I say.

Later.

You shouldn't expect it. I'm not attacking anyone in particular, but I did view your advice in this case as wasteful and explained the reasons why in detail. 'Attack' implies an Ad-Hominem argument was made, and nothing of the sort occurred.

At any rate, no one is 'entitled' to an opinion. Someone is only entitled to what they can argue for. Particularly in what is essentially an open debate and discussion forum. Using the phrase 'entitled to your opinion' is nothing but a tactic to shut down discussion by suggesting that further discourse would be considered offensive and/or unnecessary. The word "entitled" implies that the opinion is deserving of respect regardless of it's content. I do feel I should point out that not respecting an opinion is not the same as not respecting a person.

Others may have opinions of their own, but no one is obligated to respect those opinions and they are not above being criticized. Especially when posted on an open forum like this one. I accept that your opinion is that the G1 Sniper 5 is a good purchase, but I do not respect that position because I see that it is flawed and explained in detail why. Considering the purpose of this forum is to give advice, I would say that I was obligated to provide a counter argument to the suggestion that the G1 Sniper 5 was a smart purchase. It is relevant to the subject at hand as well and was an appropriate response given the thread topic.

At any rate, I have nothing personal against you. I just think that you're wrong here and that someone is better off buying a less expensive board with more practical and useful features than spending $389 for a lot of features and ports that very few, if any, people will ever actually use even with an Uber level build.

I would also point out that my previous post was not a simple opinion. It was a reasoned argument that contained facts and evidence by way of comparisons relevant to the discussion. An opinion would be a statement more along the lines of "I like blue" or "Purple is ugly". Quite different from what I posted previously to this and I would point out that the functionality of hardware and the limits of how useful or excessive a particular piece of hardware can be is something that can be measured and is therefore not really a matter of opinion.

I also noticed that you did not suggest I was incorrect and only implied that I "attacked" based on the individual who posted rather than the content of the post in question, which isn't true.

Try to relax and have fun here and good day to you as well. Giving useful advice, disagreeing, and enjoying one's self on a forum like this are not mutually exclusive.

Edit for ninja edit: "Credibility" does not exclude one from being incorrect or suggest that someone is above criticism. I have made no "personal" attacks against you ever in any thread. Suggesting that you are wrong and that a post you have made might be in error is not a personal attack. I think you got ripped off by paying as much as you did for that Mobo plain and simple, and the fact that it was you who posted it has nothing to do with that. I would have replied the exact same way if anyone else had made that post.