Got this motherboard (mobo) for $73 + $10 rebate.
I have 3x of these motherboards and have had no problems with it. If problems develop, I will update this review immediately.
I got this motherboard with my cooler master N200 case. I love how this board comes with a great feature set that completely satisfies my needs for a build, plus has room for expandability if I need it. This is seriously a great budget board - most gamers will be satisfied with the features on this board.
This board is a B85 board. To explain: Bxx signifies a Budget Business board. However, it's feature set and price point mean that B85 boards are well positioned for a budget gaming system. It has much better features than a Hxx board, but at a cheaper price point than a Zxx board. The primary difference being that Zxx boards support overclocking, have more onboard connectivity (more USB headers, fan headers, etc.), and better reliability.
tl;dr: Hxx is budget boards. Zxx is top of the line enthusiast boards. B is placed squarely in the middle.
WARNING: This board will not support multi-GPUs (SLI / Crossfire) and will not support Overclocking (Unless you are overclocking the Pentium G3258). On the subject of SLI / Crossfire: If you want to multi-GPU, make sure you get a board that supports "SLI" - the standards for crossfire are very lax.
Things I like:
The board comes with 3 SYS fan headers - which is useful if you have a case that comes with two or more case fans. Many boards around this price point only comes with only 1 SYS fan header, meaning you might not be able to plug in all of your case fans.
It's also useful that this board comes with 2 PCI-e slots. The extra PCI-e slot is useful for plugging in a sound card / wifi card / etc.
Supports multiple monitors from integrated. I like how this comes with HDMI on the board, makes it really easy to connect to TVs and some monitors, etc.
Comes with a large number of USB 2.0 (USB 3.0 is not supported by windows 7 natively, having plenty of USB 2.0 is useful when you are installing your computer [hint: USB3.0 will not detect your mouse and keyboard if ur are trying to install windows 7].
Plenty of SATA 6gb/s for your SSD.
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Things I don't like:
However, its kind of ridiculous how this board still has PCI slots. Most discrete cards are now made for PCI-e and PCI is essentially a dead dinosaur. Windows 8 doesn't support drivers for many PCI cards anymore - meaning you probably won't be able to get drivers for your PCI-Wifi card. Still, having 2 PCI-e cards is good enough.
Does not come with an optical out. Most boards in this price range do not have an optical out - but there are occasions where an optical out can be useful for connecting your computer with a receiver / tv / etc (assuming you aren't using your hdmi to transmit sound).
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Here is a list of whats on the board:
LGA 1150 (Intel ix-4xxx)
4 DDR3 RAM slots (32GB)
4 SATA3 6GB/s (White, plug your SSD here)
2 SATA2 3Gb/s (Black)
3 System Fan Headers
1 USB 3.0 Header
2 USB 2.0 Header
2 PCI-E
2 PCI
+ More
Back Panel:
1 PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
4 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0
1 DVI
1 VGA
1 HDMI
1 Realtek Ethernet (Good. Not as good as Intel)
Audio Realtek ALC892. Supports 7.1 sound (Good but not as good as ALC889)
| Processor | core_i7 |
|---|---|
| RAM | 32768 MB DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 1600 MHz |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 4 |
