Are "gaming" motherboards a meme? What do they actually offer other than looking edgy?

Are "gaming" motherboards a meme? What do they actually offer other than looking edgy?

Usually they're fairly good motherboards with a marked up price because of the "gamer aesthetic"

I haven't really noticed much of a price premium on them. They're about the same price as non-flashy ones. The only difference is that you don't get so many simple-looking boards at the high end, with everything becoming gaymer-focused.

They do tend to offer better gaming performance compared to non-gaming motherboards because that's what they're optimised for, usually at the expense of encoding speed. You are definitely still overpaying for the aesthetics of it, but there are definite advantages.

Historically speaking, high performance "enthusiast" motherboards accommodate extreme edition cpus which usually share the same socket as that generation of Xeons. So. What this means for you is years down the road you can buy a xeon for pennies on the dollar and upgrade your system, increasing the total lifespan which also increases the long term value of the board, making it retain its retail price for YEARS. long story short, it's actually a decent investment. LGA boards break easier so they get rare as time goes on.

Never wasted my money on one and I've built many, many rigs. The difference in performance is negligible when compared to a similar motherboard of good build quality with the same chipset. I highly recommend doing your research because stability with overclocking and performance benchmarks can sometimes vary wildly with certain boards.

Kek

Why do people even bother over clocking? It's complicated, risky, unstable and voids your warranty. If you want an extra 500 mhz of clock speed that bad, just dish out the extra $50. Processor speed rarely bottlenecks PCs anymore.

tell that to my Pentium G3258 I OC'D over 4GHz the stock clock

you're usually paying for extra features that are utterly worthless unless you're certain you need them.

>warranty

>complicated
kek
>risky, unstable
kek
>extra 500mhz
toppest of keks

If you have no clue over the matter, you should just remain silent.

Like any motherboard you buy them based on their features.
If you don't know how to look them up you should kill yourself.

usually more connectivity
better onboard audio designs
better power designs
more flexible PCI arrangements
better EFI support
better diagnostics (onboard buttons, LCD readouts)

overall not bad, gives a lot of workstation features at a consumer pricepoint.

It's literally just for hobby purposes. Anybody who claims overclocking is in any way an economical decision, is an idiot. It's not, you usually spend more for the motherboard, cooling and electricity than the price difference to a better CPU.

>easy as fuck
>very low risk
>gives a lot more performance
that's why.

I bought an i5 6600k and OC'd to 4.5k ghz it's better than an i7 6700k that costs 50% more.

>voids your warranty
technically yes, but i've returned stuff to ebuyer, aria and they don't give a shit if you've overclocked.

features

OCing
ram conficurations
PCIe configurations
SLI/crossfire ready
etc

this

like the pic you posted op, the z170x-gaming 7 also include a creative recon3d sound chip. its a step up over the normal realtek in both audio quality and feature set. i had the gaming 7 myself and the mic quality was much better over the realtek one on my maximus gene. audio positioning was also better in cs:go with my akg q701's.

the reinforced pci-express slots are also nice. they do give them extra strength. helps when using the behemoth tri slot cards.

there really isn't much "gimmick" on the boards.

its not complicated.

>up voltate
>up multi
>run bench

thats it.

Just stick to buying Compaq Presarios at Best Buy, gramps. Let the kids have their overclocking.

What? He's totally right.

>encoding speed
the fuck?

Max ram speed and CPU overclocking may determine encoding speed and FPS but they are not really exclusive features of "gaming" motherboards.

The one I got had a segregated DAC which is good for not having shitty audio output with background noise. They're also well-made so they don't die quickly like cheap stuff.

I never said to overclock, read my post again... The key word was stability. By stressing a board through overclocking inherent instabilities may be revealed that may otherwise go unnoticed, which is very important in selecting a non-gaming board for a gaming rig. Choosing to actually overclock is a personal choice, but wouldn't you prefer a stable platform regardless? Now piss off.

How is your 6600k? I need to know since I'm planning to start on a new build this month.

Some are for show sure

But some offer high quality components and more overclocking features.

Personally, I fell for the "Asrock aren't shit" meme. Bought their z170 Fatal1ty Gaming K4 motherboard.

Put two sticks of RAM in slots A2 and B2 (as recommended in their own documentation), didn't want to boot. Moved them to A1 and B1 and it booted fine. Seemed stable. Updated BIOS, added two more sticks of RAM. Bluescreens shortly after boot, probably when it tries to touch the RAM in those slots.

Workstation-grade ASUS only for me from now on.

>Complicated
No, There's two sliders in AMD overdrive
>Risky
It'll shut off if it gets too hot
>Unstable
lower the clock
>Voids Warranty
Already expired

And instead my shitty x4 750k can run at 4.2Ghz instead of 3.4hz.

it's a solid CPU. easy to OC and powerful enough to do anything I need.

if it doesn't die on me I can see it lasting 4-5 years like my 2500k did.

is there a record on the CPU so they'll know it was overclocked?
everyone says it voids warranty but it's not really relevant if they can't find out, is it?

I've acquired a 4690k on the cheap, but only have a b85 chipset so I can't OC it.

I also have a shitty 550W corsair PSU (it's gold but bad caps, or so I've heard).

I'm wondering if I should keep it at stock with the b85 chipset, or get a Z97 board and OC it.

Don't have a GPU yet, but I'd get a 480 or 1070 depending on how bad the 480 will suck.

>Literally adding 4 GHz to your CPU clock

Well, unlees your cooler is an actual compressor system, enjoy the 2 months your computer has left before it fries. At least you'll have enjoyed some smooth Facebook browsing time.

>What do they actually offer other than looking edgy?

Always up to date bios support
Massive community
Tons of help if you need support, from hardware issues to getting shit like Linux and osx working

Sadly the "gamer" parts are more or less standard in mid/high-end parts now and the non-gamer versions often cost more.

"gayming" motherboards, especially ones designed for overclocking will have better passive cooling and better quality components on things like the VRMs.

Pretty much aesthetic and some more advanced features for things like overclocking

>extra 500Mhz
More like 1Ghz+

>tfw i bought a '58 just to overclock it til it dies
>tfw its been 4 months and its still going at 4.5ghz

intel did a gud for once

more reliable capacitors
better vrm
better cooling

there isn't really a difference between "gamer" and "high end"
you don't want low end
low end has shitty bios (fan control, ram issues, clocks, everything) and shitty components, avoid it


people always say don't cheap out on your psu
well don't cheap out on your motherboard either, it's not worth the headaches unless it's a closet computer

They're more expensive because of better components/high bin, higher OC potential, and some extra features which you may or may not need. Also aesthetics. Mostly it's because they're more capable of a good OC (assuming the chips is decent).

So what exactly CAN I cheap out on. Ram? Seriously.

Probably not even RAM these days, since faster DDR4 is starting to make a difference even in gaymes. There's no point buying some killer components and then crippling them with a single cheap one. I'd rather pair a cheap motherboard with a cheap CPU/RAM/PSU/whatever than buy a bunch of expensive shit and run it off a $20 PSU from eBay.

What brand has usually better vrms in their mid range mobos?

Non shitty Ethernet

Not a fan of Asus generally, but their motherboards are well-built. Gigabyte are also pretty good in terms of build quality, though their UEFI is absolute trash. The worst on the market bar none. ASRock make good boards too, despite their undeserved reputation of being the "budget" brand. EVGA also use very good components, but their boards are overpriced and lacking in features.

MSI is the one I'd avoid. The tackiest gamer trash there is and cheap components below the very high end stuff.