7 Mainstream Motherboards Reviewed. Base tested by
Feature set: The extra functionality a motherboard offers is one way to assess what kind of computer can be built around it. If you've spent good money on fast RAM and your board only has support for 1333MHz memory, that's an issue.
CPU performance: A poor board design can drastically affect the speed your processor can function at. The top processor for each platform was used to avoid bottlenecks.
Gaming: Motherboards can impact framerates through CPU speed and the connection between board and GPU. The CPU-sensitive.
#1. ASUS H87-Plus
"A great budget gamer's board, with an impressive feature-set, only missing a little stock CPU performance."
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| ASUS H87-Plus |
SPEC: Chipset Intel H87, Socket Intel LGA 1150, Memory slots 4x DIMM, Max memory Up to 32GB DDR3 1600MHz, Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1, 3x PCI, Multi-GPU AMD CrossFireX, Storage 6x SATA 6Gbps, Rear I/O 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, Display 1x VGA, 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, Size ATX
Asus has been getting better and better at bringing value and performance to the lower end of the market. Even under its Republic of Gamers brand it's brought out the excellent Maximus Hero, which comes at a great price for a Z87 board. But this H87-Plus is considerably cheaper than that black and red beast and still more than capable of giving you great gaming performance.
So what's the difference between the Z87 chipset and the H87 that makes this board so much cheaper? You don't get support for highfrequency RAM, there are fewer possible configurations of the PCIe slots, and Intel don't support the overclocking of their K-series CPUs.
So, no overclocking and limited multi-GPU functionality on the H87 boards then? Not quite. You can still get dual-GPU configurations running on an H87 board—this Asus H87-Plus, for example, will let you have a pair of AMD cards linked up. Overclocking is a more interesting issue. Intel doesn't officially support CPU overclocking outside of the Z87 chipset, but that doesn't mean motherboard manufacturers feel the same way. Starting with this generation of Intel processors possibly because of a manufacturer backlash against the artificial marketing restrictions Intel places on its chipsets the motherboard makers have begun enabling K-series overclocking on their H87 and B85 chipset boards.
The Asus H87-Plus is a great example of this and of Asus's general expertise at designing boards to take advantage of Intel processors. I was able to push the i7 4770K all the way up to 4.7GHz with this board, and it was both stable and relatively cool. That's the top speed I've ever been able to get out of my reference CPU. ASRock's B85 Killer also managed to reach those dizzying frequency heights, but aside from that only the Z87 boards have shown such overclocking ability.
This H87 is also a great example of the way Asus boards always offer more gaming performance than other manufacturers. The average framerate in Rome II of 46fps is only a single frame ahead of the next fastest Gigabyte board, but it's the minimum framerate that really impresses. It's over a third faster than the nearest Intel motherboard and thus much smoother.
What isn't quite so impressive is the straight CPU performance. Unlike its overclocking support, Asus has rigidly stuck to Intel guidelines on stock CPU speed, limiting the 4770K to 3.7GHz with all cores running. The rest of the Intel boards here all go up to the standard single core turbo speed of 3.9GHz. While that did nothing bad for the Plus's gaming performance, it does mean more general productivity tasks will be a touch slower. But we're gamers, not dedicated number-crunchers, so that should be of little concern. The Asus H87-Plus is a serious, fullyfeatured ATX Intel board at a great price and will offer great overclocking and gaming prowess into the bargain.
#2. ASRock Fatal1ty B85 Killer
"A very well-specced B85 board, but the gaming performance of its Asus rival puts the ASRock into second place."
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| ASRock Fatal1ty B85 Killer |
SPEC: Chipset Intel B85, Socket Intel LGA 1150, Memory slots 4x DIMM, Max memory support Up to 32GB DDR 1600MHz, Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1, 3x PCI, Multi-GPU support AMD CrossFireX, Storage 4x SATA 6Gbps, 2x SATA 3Gbps, Rear I/O 2x USB 3.0, 3x USB 2.0, 1x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0), Display 1x VGA, 1x DVI-D, 1x HDMI, Size ATX
Because it is now open to K-series overclocking, the budget B85 chipset is not a bad choice for a gaming motherboard. Indeed, looking at this one it's hard to even see those budget roots. It's styled exactly like ASRock's higher-end Fatal1ty gaming boards, and has a host of gaming features too, like the Purity Sound audio, Fatal1ty Mouse Port and the Qualcomm Killer network interface chip. Good sound is always a bonus, but I'm less convinced about either the branded mouse port or Killer networking. A good gaming mouse ought to let you change its polling rate anyway, and as for the lag reduction the Killer chip is designed to provide, I've never been able to feel the difference.
The actual performance of the board is excellent. My 4770K ran at the full 3.9GHz when installed and even overclocked to the same 4.7GHz as the Asus board. It did get a fair bit hotter doing so, and I'm not sure I'd be confident running it at that speed and temperature for its lifetime. It's also a touch slower in my gaming tests than the Asus. And because it's only $15 cheaper I'd still be more tempted to go with the H87-Plus if it was my money.
#3. Gigabyte B85M-D2V
"Astoundingly cheap and surprisingly effective. This little Gigabyte board is really pushing the two big boys in this test."
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| Gigabyte B85M-D2V |
SPEC: Chipset Intel B85, Socket Intel LGA 1150, Memory slots 2x DIMM, Max memory support Up to 16GB DDR3 1600MHz, Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1, Multi-GPU support No, Storage 4x SATA 6Gbps, 2x SATA 3Gbps, Rear I/O 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, Display 1x VGA, 1x DVI-D, Size Micro-ATX
An Intel motherboard with decent performance and processor overclocking, for $58? Strange but true. Gigabyte has made a budget motherboard with seriously competitive benchmark numbers and a very functional feature-set, all in a micro-ATX package.
It's always worth checking out smaller form-factor boards for a budget build, even if you're not putting together a micro machine. A budget builder is better off buying the best single-GPU card they can afford rather than splitting the same money over a pair of cards, and that means you don't need the extra space for more PCIe slots or the extra expense of having them included on your motherboard.
And memory? It makes no difference to gaming to go beyond the 1600MHz DDR3 that these H87 and B85 boards offer. Having only a pair of memory slots, and a speed limit enforced upon them, isn't going to be a problem.
So, what's not to like about this incredibly cheap Gigabyte board? I'm struggling here. I could say that the lack of DisplayPort or HDMI on the back panel was a disappointment, but then in a gaming build you'll be using a graphics card anyway you're not going to be touching the integrated graphics.
While it doesn't have the maximum overclocking speed of either of the previous two boards, and did start to show a little throttling-back at 4.6GHz, it handles stock CPU performance well. It doesn't have the same sort of minimum framerates as the awesome Asus, but its gaming performance isn't bad. The SATA speeds are impressive too, indicating a stutter free Windows experience.
It might not have the same level of features as the two ATX boards on these pages, and it is a little behind in terms of overall performance, but it stands up well considering it's getting on for half the price.
#4. ASRock H87M-ITX
"A useful board when used as the basis for a smaller gaming PC, but in this budget context it can't match the big boys."
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| ASRock H87M-ITX |
SPEC: Chipset Intel H87, Processor support Intel 4th Gen CPUs, Socket Intel LGA 1150, Memory slots 2x DIMM, Max memory support Up to 16GB DDR3 1600MHz, Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, Multi-GPU support No, Storage 4x SATA 6Gbps, Rear I/O 4x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA, Display 1x VGA, 1x DVI-D, 1x HDMI, Size Mini-ITX
In terms of straight performance, this mini-ATX motherboard lags slightly behind the other Intel boards here. It still beats my favorite, the H87-Plus, on the CPU score because of Asus's 3.7GHz speed limit on the stock CPU, but in gaming and the overclocking stakes it remains a little off the pace. Its framerate scores in Rome II are the weakest of the four Intel boards tested. They're only behind the others by a couple frames per second on average, but those are the margins we're judging by here.
The overclocking was also a bit of a disappointment compared with the other H87 and the two B85 motherboards. I would've hoped for a little more than the 4.2GHz this offers.
So in the context of trying to find a well-performing budget board, rather than specifically a seriously small form factor board, the ASRock H87M-ITX finds itself far lower down the leaderboard compared with the cheaper, larger options out there.
It's not a bad board in itself and is actually a pretty great board for the small form factor crowd it simply doesn't have the pricetag and performance to compete with the larger boards in the budget arena.
#5. ASRock 970 Extreme3
"A quality budget motherboard for AMD's FX CPUs, only really lacking in today's storage performance prowess"
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| ASRock 970 Extreme3 |
SPEC: Chipset AMD 970, AMD SB950, Processor support AMD AM3/AM3+ CPUs, Socket AMD AM3+, Memory slots 4x DIMM, Max memory support Up to 64GB DDR3 2100MHz, Expansion slots 2x PCIe 2.0 x16, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2x PCI, Multi-GPU support AMD CrossFireX, Storage 5x SATA 6Gbps, Rear I/O 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA, Display None, Size ATX
In the interest of fairness, I've included this quality budget board to cater for AMD's FX range of processors. The FX line is designed solely to deal with processing and doesn't waste any die space on integrated graphics; gamers use graphics cards, and so I still believe the FX range has a place in our PCs. Especially when you take into account the price.
ASRock's 970 Extreme3 offers a great platform for you to plug a decent CPU/GPU combo into for impressive all-round performance on a budget. In this test I've used the top processor for each platform to ensure there are no bottlenecks aside
from the motherboard itself, and the numbers from the AMD setup are very competitive even against the might of Intel's top Haswell CPU.
This board with an FX-8350 CPU is considerably cheaper than the cheapest Intel board with the i7 4770K, and yet it's only 6fps slower. It has the same high minimum framerate of the Asus H87 board. The CPU benchmarks aren't so good, but for multi-threaded apps they're still competitive with Intel and far superior to the best APU.
Unfortunately, because the FX range hasn't been updated in a long while, neither have their chipsets. So while the 970, the second-tier AMD FX chipset, does have both USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps support, it's not the fastest of implementations. My SSD tests show that its old school storage performance is well behind the latest chipsets.
Still, I think for gamers on a budget this 970 offers a lot. I'd maybe recommend the $135, six-core FX-6300 instead of the pricey eight-core FX-8350, as it will still deliver the same level of gaming performance. And it's a robust board too: where other review units don't stand up to repeated testing this ASRock 970 has lasted for years of Dave benchmarking.
#6. Asus A88X-Pro
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| Asus A88X-Pro |
SPEC: Chipset AMD A88X, Socket AMD Socket FM2+, Memory slots 4x DIMM, Max memory Up to 64GB DDR3 2400MHz, Expansion slots 2x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2x PCI, Size ATX
This is one of the most fullyspecced of all the APUcompatible FM2+ motherboads. It's a full ATX spec board, so it can house four memory sticks, leading to crazy numbers such as support for up to 64GB of RAM and speeds of up to 2400MHz. On an APU board that high memory frequency will actually come in useful: memory is shared with the graphics card and the higher speed
gives a boost to integrated graphics performance. The integrated graphics of a Kaveri APU, for example, can have you running
Battlefield 4 at full HD on medium settings without the need for a graphics card.
However, with a graphics card in the system, half the APU die is rendered redundant, leaving its weak processing performance as a bottleneck for the attached GPU. That's borne out by the low gaming performance numbers.
Much of the A88X-Pro's superficially impressive specs become expensive irrelevances in that context, which means you're paying a lot of money for functionality that you won't, or at least shouldn't, be using.
#7. Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2
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| Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 |
SPEC: Chipset AMD A88X, Socket AMD Socket FM2+, Memory slots 2x DIMM, Max memory Up to 64GB DDR3 2400MHz, Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe x1, 1x PCI, Size Micro-ATX
Gigabyte's F2A88X-DS2 is another of its ridiculously cheap motherboards. Half the price of Asus's premier A88X-Pro, but a lot more sensible about its specs-list. That's a function of both its low price and its micro-ATX form factor.
It offers the same level of memory support, but with just two memory slots instead of the Asus's four. It's also a little lighter on its SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 connections, but it still has four of the former, and an extra couple of USB 2.0 ports, so you're not missing out that much.
You are missing out on display connections, however. Not a problem with a board you'd install a graphics card in, but on an APU board it is. With only a single DVI-D and a legacy VGA connection on the backplate I'm sorely missing a proper digital media connection. HDMI at least is a must, particularly when small APU machines are so suited to plugging into TVs.
That niggle aside, this is still a very capable budget motherboard. Its benchmarks stand socket-to-socket with the Asus board, even eclipsing it in the storage performance tests. It can't handle overclocking quite as well though: the A88X-Pro just has superior power components.
As a motherboard for an APU processor, and not even merely as a budget board, Gigabyte's F2A88XM-DS2 makes a compelling case for itself. The straight performance is good, the feature-set is more than functional.
BENCHMARKS: MOTHERBOARDS BY THE NUMBERS
Budget motherboards, but not necessarily delivering budget performance.
Original writer by Dave James at PC Gamers
