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WOF: How much did your motherboard cost?
[Weekend Open Forum] Computer enthusiasts and gamers, we're not the type to skimp on a motherboard that will house an uber-fast processor, GPU and other peripherals. But while recently upgrading my workstation to a new Core i7, I noticed that for daily use I don't really need SLI or Crossfire support (I often upgrade to the next generation's fastest single GPU model). Nor do I need dual gigabit LAN or USB 3.0 for the time being. Instead, for about $100 I can get a motherboard with the same chipset, basic cooling, same number of expansion slots, plenty of USB ports, and more than enough SATA ports to get me going (eSATA rocks for external backups). Sure, you will receive additional bells and whistles with a $200 motherboard, but just a few years ago $100 barely got you a functioning board from an obscure Taiwanese manufacturer. Today you can get by with that budget and find plenty of quality options from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and most other major manufacturers.
On that same note, I must applaud AMD for not forcing users to unnecessary motherboard upgrades over the last few years. As far as I can tell, the same is true for the upcoming Bulldozer, which is still months away. As good as Intel CPUs have been since the first Core series CPU was launched, they have required more extensive system overhauls every step of the way.
Put simply, in this Weekend Open Forum we want to know how much did you spend in your current motherboard, and what brand and model of board you are running. While you're at it, tell us about the rest of your core PC components. Bring it on!
User Comments: 86
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phenom II x6 running on 60$ ATX ASROCK... :P
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I got myself about a year ago an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe just because, EVEN NOW, is one of the few boards with 4 Pci Express slots. back then in Nov 2009 I paid for it $249 bucks. So the whole deal was to populate those beautiful PCI Express slots, and that's why I got myself two ATi's 4830 and one 4850 in a 3-way Crossfire configuration. The other components are:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Blk Edition
2x2Gb G.SKILL RIPJAW 4gb 2X 2GB DDR3 1333 MHZ 10666 RAM
2x Western Digital Black Caviar 500gb
OCZ GameXtreme 750 W Power Supply
23' LG W2353V Full HD LCD
Thermaltake V9 Black Edition Mid Tower Case
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V cooler
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TitoBXNY said:
I've had a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UDP3 for about 2 years that cost $114.99 on New Egg. Have a Q6600 at 3.4GHz on air. I've gone up to 3.5 but toned it down a little. Dual Radeon 4870s. Ready to invest in an NVIDIA 4870.
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Asus p7p55d-e. $165 aud
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$200 (Aussie) Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H. First time going AMD/ATI
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Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 I bought at the beginning of June for $122. Considered a budget high-end board, but does everything I need it to do. Mated with a Core i7-860, OCZ Vertex 2 SSD, and the HIS 4670 I bought last Black Friday.
HTPC has a Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L, purchased for ~$55. Great budget board.
Only other board brand I have experience with is Biostar: A G31M7-TE I found for $40 and an A785GE I got basically for free with purchase of an AMD CPU. The former would never boot up with the P4 Prescott chip I purchased it for despite the CPU being listed as supported on their website), and I just got done diagnosing the latter for boot failures (turns out it didn't like my Corsair memory). Biostar works fine eventually, but I have wasted a lot of time diagnosing things that just worked without hassle on Gigabyte boards.
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Crossfire on P45? Works well?
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It is taking me more than a year to decide the which is the best motherboard in market that suits my requirement. I have constantly repeating to these motherboard companies that neither me and nor most of us are fan of or intend to use SLI config or more than 1 graphics card on my mother board. I dont any one will do that. I dont intend to use overclocking, not atleast now dude. But yes i will use the last most powerful graphics card in town on my motherboard. I want all the ports and connectivity on my motherboard for sure.
I want only one pci-e slot for my graphics card, i require atleast 7 expansion slots while more are appreciablen, 3pci slot & 3 pcie x1 slot. latest driver for audio, atleast dual lan and what not dude.. I want all the advance features on my mother board but the only thing i dont want to see is dual graphics pcie slot
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I believe it's a P5KPLCM Asus and I got it on sale in the Chicago Tribune for $150 including the Intel processor at Frys.
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princeton said:
Only $120. I'm saving up for a Donkey Kong arcade machine so I can't afford those expensive $300 boards.
Way to go !?!!?
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Paid around 120 U.S. for a Biostar MCP6P-M2+combo, with amd 64x2 cpu, and fan. Supports 4gb ddr2 5800mhz mem. 4 sata conectors .nvidea chipset, blah blah blah blah. Windows 7 installed, 250 gb hdd sata dvd-rw, 430 antec ps. Just installed the 460 nvidea graphics card. Ststem is holding its own while deployed in final fantasy beta.
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Using a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R that I paid ~$85 for about a year ago. I have it running an E8500 at 4.2 Ghz @1.28v.
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kpo6969 said:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P that I traded a MSI 250GTS for.
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Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 Motherboard for holesale prices a cool $619Au
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Was weighing up between AM3 and X58 but ended up going AM3 (was foolishly hoping for bulldozer compatibility) with a Gigabyte 790gpt-ud3h for $155 (AUD) about 11 months ago.
Feel like a total noob now as Bulldozer is non AM3, possibly up to 12 months away and will probably just exceed the performance an overclocked X58 would have given me 11 months ago.
Anyway learnt my lesson now so i'll save my pennies and eargerly await bulldozer and socket 2011.
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Evga p55 sli - $140 usd
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A couple of years ago I bought a Core2duo E6850 which was a great processor at the time. I wasn't going to put this nice CPU on a crappy motherboard, so I dug deep in my wallet and spent a whopping $327 on a Asus Striker Extreme Republic of Gamers (the title is probably longer but I can't remember it)! It's got an age old nForce 680sli chipset btw. And I haven't used a fraction of its features and the faulty onboard LAN adapters have been replaced by a Linksys PCI card :S Needless to say but I will never spend that much money on my ego again!
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Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R; I got it for about $175 or so almost two years back.
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only 80usd for intel board. then it fails and another 70usd for gigabyte replacement.
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Asus P7P55D-E, 108 euros plus VAT.
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I bought a 200 dollar Gigabyte board a few months ago. It has ALL the bells and whistles. I don't have a single USB 3 device, but when I do, I'll be able to use it.
You notice the difference when you buy an expensive board. Like my motherboard for example is easily twice as thick as any other motherboard I've worked with. The capacitors on it are huge and high quality.
This board has features that I don't know if I'll ever utilize. But I'm glad they're there. This board should last me a solid 5 years, and it won't be obsolete any time soon. I love it.
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I payed around 880 american dollars for an EVGA Classified in Brazil. Unfortunately computer parts are over expensive over here...
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Spent $95 for my Gigabyte P55M-UD2 around this time last year.
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around 50 USD, it's a Gigabyte g31m s2l (from 2008), very stable and full of adjustments for OC, for many years now I'm always buying this kind of MB, I used to buy more expensive MBs some 5-10 years ago, but the time showed me that cheaps mbs are the best choice for me, most of the features they lack I never use anyway, and they will normally last forever (will be useless before they fail to work)
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360 usd I think, not sure.
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