OEM motherboards?

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MrEUser

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May 3, 2001
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So, in trying to build a super cheap machine, and with no experience with 1150 chips, would I see a huge difference between a $15 OEM board and a $50 MSI or Asus board? These are used prices, of course. I'd be pairing it with a cheap video card, something like 2gb, around $50.

I have an i5 4590 that was given to me. I just want to get something going to play CS since it's been a very long time.

But would there be any restrictions that would severely hinder me? Not going to be overclocking. Would there be compatibility issues with RAM? My impression is that it's usually OEM RAM that won't work in other boards, not OEM boards not taking other RAM?

I'm not looking to build a super gaming machine, just something that's better than my tablet.

Thanks in advance.
 
An OEM board is fine. Just don't expect it to fit properly in a tower. Some do, some don't. Investigate the board type before buying as quite a few are proprietary.

Otherwise, for an i5, a $50 2gb video card and some ram, I would go OEM, no questions.

The only reason I might suggest a name brand board for your scenario would be the potential to want to upgrade later on. That cpu is more than capable, but a cheap OEM board might keep you from upgrading the video card and ram later on when the gaming itch hits you.
 
Upgrading video cards via OEM motherboards is usually fine. The biggest problem you run into with OEM machines is the power supplies. They tend to be inefficient, poor quality, Chinese garbage that has a rating slapped on the side which is more indicative of wishful thinking than actual output capability. You can barely power the system in its stock form with those cut rate pieces of crap. The motherboard is the least of your worries.

There are a few other things I can think of about OEM motherboards not covered in the post above. The first is the fact that OEM motherboards do not typically have overclocking capabilities to speak of. Second, RAM compatibility is generally good with OEM machines, but tuning options are limited. Lastly, it really depends on the kind of OEM machine we are talking about here. Some OEM motherboards are budget versions of DIY market motherboards with fewer features on them. They may have blank areas on the PCB where some features were never installed. They are usually missing some internal headers and connectivity options. Some OEM motherboards are in fact, standard DIY market motherboards with a custom BIOS which disables some of their functionality. You can also encounter combinations of both. The hardware will be similar, with one or two hardware features missing and a custom BIOS which locks down the overclocking capabilities of the motherboard and hides most of the UEFI BIOS options preventing you from accessing those features. Or, a custom BIOS may simply include OEM branding but otherwise be the same as the DIY version.

In more extreme, but no less common are OEM motherboards which are unique to a specific OEM chassis. These do not have analogs to DIY market motherboards and lack advanced features such as RAID support and have few onboard expansion options. In these cases the UEFI BIOS is limited in terms of functionality. Not by design, but because the hardware simply lacks the features which would necessitate a more robust UEFI implementation.

I don't know how they are now, but HP's done plenty of both over the years. Dell has as well. Companies like Alienware often use lower end DIY type motherboards with custom BIOS ROMs. Unless I was sure of what I was getting, I'd typically avoid the OEM options.
 
I have messed around with a few Dell Optiplex boards in the past that used a funky smaller 6'ish pin connector that was the power switch + power LED.
 
I'd just make sure that whatever board you end up with at one time supported the CPU you're putting in there if you go with an OEM board. Less chance of random bios issues.
 
Thank you for the input. ir0nwolf, since you mention that, I'll look closely at the images and see if there is anything like that. Imagine, even a cheap ass system I could build now would be the most advanced gaming system I've used. The last system I built was Athlon-based. I think I had 512MB RAM, not DDR, close to 1TB between all my drives. I suppose the only thing that would have still been to have now would be the full-tower Lian-Li case that I had. That thing was a beast. I have sticks of RAM now just piled up in a drawer that are larger than what I had on my gaming rig back in the day.
 
Yes, look closely at the board before you buy. Check out this one. As far as I can tell, nary an 20/24 pin connector in sight:

s-l1600.jpg
 
I noticed that. A lot of them have proprietary connectors and power supplies. I found a couple. I'm just deciding which route to go. I have plenty of DDR3, and an i5 1150 chip. But I also have an i7 1151, which would necessitate new DDR4. I suppose it's not that big of a deal. I may just wait a bit and see when I get some more extra cash in. Because I apparently need to get a new PSU as well. Fucking sucks not having money.
 
Should be fine. Just make sure it's not a crazy form factor like BTX which is completely flipped of ATX and requires a different type of case.
 
For the Dell motherboards, there are adapters that allow you to use normal power supply. One problem is the front panel connectors are usually proprietary, so you may have some trouble getting those working outside of the Dell case. I've ran into this with HP's as well. Can't speak for other OEM's like Lenovo.
 
MrEUser said:
I noticed that. A lot of them have proprietary connectors and power supplies. I found a couple. I'm just deciding which route to go. I have plenty of DDR3, and an i5 1150 chip. But I also have an i7 1151, which would necessitate new DDR4. I suppose it's not that big of a deal. I may just wait a bit and see when I get some more extra cash in. Because I apparently need to get a new PSU as well. Fucking sucks not having money.
Click to expand...

I ended up buying a refurbished Gigabyte motherboard from China for about $40-$50 shipped. This is for a Intel Core i5-4690K that I use and the SATA ports were going dead 1 by 1 on the previous board. They had tons of the same boards on eBay, so I don't know what the deal is, but it works fine.

Also, look at eBay for Windows and Office licenses. Great prices and they have all worked for me so far....not sure on the long term success of the Office 365 key, but a one time charge of $8 and I have updated office if I need it, plus the OneDrive, though I'm hesitant to put any personal files on those (just the eBay account ones).
 
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