Should I buy a cheap MB for i5 2500?

plunger

Gawd
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Messages
730
I'll have a spare i5 2500 cpu after my i7 2600k chip comes from the Intel Retail Edge deal.

I have some spare parts and only need a MB and PSU to complete a desktop build. I'll give it away for free to family members. But it will probably be their main system. I want it to be semi reliable because I don't want to drive over there to fix it all the time.

I seen some cheap 1155 MB on newegg starting at $50. With an under $50 PSU, I can have a full system after spending $100.

Should I spend a little extra and get a better MB or would one of these bottom of the barrel MB's be ok for basic computing task.

All of Newegg's 1155 MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=100007627 600093976&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA 1155
 
Last edited:
Take pride in your work, especially if you're giving it to someone. A little more $$ on the board for that CPU. A sweet/cheap machine.
 
I don't know about $50, but something like the Asus P8Z68-V LE or LX would be a good match.
 
plenty of bargain boards work for a long long time, just research the one you buy, and stick with a decent company with a proven track record of warranty support.

foxconn is a company to be avoided, imo, biostar is a decent company, as is ECS. I never had to return their products, but I never had one fail either.

Zotac is a decent brand I have read, but I have no experience with them.
 
Spend $30 more just to avoid the problem calls from the person you give it to.
 
again, there is no reason to assume failure rates are higher for a less expensive board. I have never seen anything to back that up.

Reputable manufacturer, that uses solid parts, and it should be fine.

It's not a matter of OMG you spent 50 dollars on a mobo, it's gonna break. If that were true there would be no market for 50 dollar mobos.
 
consumers telling you that a more expensive board means a better board.

research it, you will see they don't speak experiences' voice.

I dont honestly care at this point, ignorance is rampant.
 
I don't know about $50, but something like the Asus P8Z68-V LE or LX would be a good match.

Agreed on the LE/LX (I chose the LX for BridgeWalker).

Unless you are looking to do extreme (4.5 GHz+) overclocking of a Sandy/Ivy K, the LX will certainly hold up - I went with the LX because - both from everything I've seen and my experience with a bone-stock Q6600 running the same application/gaming mix I'll be throwing at BridgeWalker, going north of 4 GHz in terms of overclock would be both illy and rather [P]ointless - I'd be GPU-bottlenecked well before then - even with HD6850 or HD6870 - if not just plain *display*-bottlenecked (top resolution is 1920x1080 NI).

Neither SLI *or* CrossFireX is a major necessity - additional PCI (as opposed to PCIe) slots, however, are a must-have, as are slot de-confliction issues; that pair of items eliminated most mATX, and quite a few ATX, motherboards from consideration. (All too many higher-end mATX and ATX boards are targeting, understandably, the multi-GPU crowd - however, given the trend toward dual-slot and even some triple-slot GPUs, that puts usable PCI or PCIe slots at a premium. I have two solid PCI cards - the X-Fi XtremeGamer and ATI HDTV Wonder - that work just fine - I'd rather NOT be forced into replacing one or both if avoidable.) All three motherboards that made the finals - the BIOSTAR TZ68A+RCH, the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-D3H-B3, and the LX that I eventually chose - allow for two PCI slots and a single PCIe x16 up to triple-slot GPU to be in use at once - without conflicts.
 
Back
Top