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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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$299 just to be defective, then $599 which my **** of a friend ruined by breaking the Liquid cooling system.
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LOL@ Kyosuke. Someone paid too much. My trusty ole' EVGA 680i LT cost me a mere $120 3 years ago.
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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.
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Just got a ASUS Rampage III Formula for $299 @ NewEgg
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My current motherboard set me back me back $60. Although, local dealers have recently lowered the price to $50. The reason for the board being so cheap, is because the FSB is choked almost like a nuclear core; always bottlenecking. But the PC itself was used as an N64-emulator platform, so we didn't notice any difference.
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Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R for $100, well worth it
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$88 on a ASRock P45DE after an older 775 Asus board got fried. When i'll be moving to Core i ore Core i 2nd gen i'll think about what to invest into.
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St1ckM4n said:
ASUS S1366 P6T. Cost $240 AUD ($218USD) January 2010. Has three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, so pretty future-proof. Rest of specs are in profile.
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MSI G31TM-P21 = U$S80 aprox. $310 argentinian pesos that time... now it should be cheaper. Pretty good deal. It's enough for me, since I've not expand the RAM yet. I'm buying +2gb to dual-channel and a 5850 or 5830 when my financial situation gets back to normal, pretty soon indeed. I'll keep my system spects up to date
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Gigabyte EP45-DS4P -about half retail price ($NZ150/$US100) bought from a business that was halfway through an IT upgrade when the recession showed it's teeth w/ Q9400 (after 8 or 9 Q9400/9550/9650's managed to find one that that would OC 30% on stock VID )
Primary system (presently on loan) Gigabyte EX58-UD4P- received as a gift, but at the time of purchase would have cost around $NZ470 (w/ Core i7 950 and 6Gb Crucial DDR3-1600).
Both excellent boards.
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Asus M2N-E ~$120 3 years ago Socket AM2. Just dropped in a Phenom II X4 945 in it. still going strong.
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HaMsTeYr said:
Gigabyte P55A-UD4P, about 215 AUD. Extremely happy with it, helping me push my i5 760 to a good 4.0ghz under 1.3 vcore
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Only 40 euros. I was stupid back then(2 years ago).
Asus M2A-2MX(Mobo); Athlon X2 5000+; Asus DK EAH4870; 2x2 GB DDR2 (some cheap kingston); *very stupid* Sweex 600W PSU; Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
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Leeky said:
I spent £75 on a Gigabyte EP43-UD3L motherboard a couple of days ago... Though had it been replacing my LGA775 for an AMD3/LGA1366 setup I'd have been prepared to spend double that.
That said, its money well spent now my Q8300 is sat at just under 3.3GHz
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Staff
1995 SEK for a Maximus Formula almost 3 years ago
At todays exchange rate that turns out to be $275 or £180
Still got the same GFX card as I bought back then too, 8800GTS 512MB (G92) oced to 850/2075 core/mem
CPU I have gone through Q6600 > Q9450 > Xeon 3230 > Xeon X3370
The move from Q9450 (12MB cache) to Xeon 3230 (8MB cache) was due to a BIOS incompatibility problem, my LSI 8704ELP RAID card would not work with the latest BIOS revisions, I had to use an old BIOS that did not support my CPU
A few months later this was resolved so I again upgraded back to a 12MB CPU (Xeon X3370)
The whole system is watercooled aswell, also houses a nice Auzentech X-Meridian soundcard
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I paid 150€ (190$) for my crosshair III Formula in what was a bargain (for Europe) and I'm extremely satisfied.
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GA-MA770T-UD3P I bought last autumn (september/october), counting in dollars about 100$. A bit less than Athlon X4 I've bought together with. And it's fun, becouse it still costs the same at my country (im from Poland). The only difference, 620 model is replaced by 630. But now my mobo is "an old generation", and isn't cheaper at all
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I have an Asus P5QL PRO which isn't an expensive board at £60 but its at least quality its lacking firewire and esata but those are both things I don't use, but it left me with extra money to spend on better ram and a Core2Duo E8400
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Bought an Asus P55 Pro cost around $190 last year, great mobo no problems so far. But the most expensive thing is my dual XFX 5770 in crossfire which was $320.These are in PCIe x 16 @ 2.0 x8 mode and I also have a Asus GT240 for Physx on PCIex16 @ 2.0 x4.
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my Gigabyte P55 US3L costs 100€ , i prefer to pay more money for cpu(core i5 650) ,ram(ocz 1600mhz ddr3) and GPU(gtx 460 1MB)
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Per Hansson said:
(...)
Still got the same GFX card as I bought back then too, 8800GTS 512MB (G92) oced to 850/2075 core/mem (...)
How you did it? My one is crashing at everything over 750@GPU. Any Voltmod or special version?
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around $160, purchased last tahnksgiving
mobo: ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
at the time (still is a damn good deal actually) it was a steal for a 1366
it works very well (do not plan to overclock though) and was a breeze to set up
used to build this system
coolermaster cm 690 case
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366
OCZ Technology Gold 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333 MH
PNY VCGGTS2501XPB GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2
LG 22x DVD±RW Super Multi Drive - GH22NP20
some big orange zalman cpu cooler
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Every even most crappy mobo works ok without overclocking
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fimbles said:
Asrock n570 esata 2.
Cost me 50 pounds nearly 18 months ago.
I bought this motherboard as a " cheap and cheerful" motherboard with no intention of overclocking at the time. Since then i have managed to overclock my phenom 9850 be from 2.5 gz to 3.0ghz using the multipler and it has ran perfectly stable for the past 12 months!
Hurrah for bargain boards!!
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ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard $79.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s $69.99
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor $95.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop $84.99
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