Are gaming motherboards a scam?

a scam is being told you're buying something but you get something else entirely. like you're being told you're getting an iphone but in reality you're getting a mandigo party for your wife.

gaming motherboards aren't scams. they're just not worth the money.

the cheaper ones are definitely worth the money.

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simple gaming? yes
GODLIKE GAMING - no

>>58560754
They're a scam in the sense that they have to charge me extra for all those unnecessary ports I will never use when all I simply want is a budget board that can give me stable high end ocing on my Skylake.

>>58560754
Not really.

Just like any purchase, it's up to you to look at the specs, build quality, reviews and features.

I could give less of a fuck if the branding says GAMING or XL SUPER PRO or ARMOUR WAR EDITION as long as it does what I want.

>>58560754
Anything that is marketed to a niche crowd with more money than sense could be considered a scam.

As with all things, there are degrees of scam. In this case you're just paying more than something is practically worth. So I guess in that sense its more capitalism than it is scam.

... I never really considered how closely related the two terms are.

>>58560766
fpbp

>>58560754
May be better to think of them as over locking motherboards. Games run the same on a $50 board if the CPU settings are stock.

In general, if you don't know what it does, you probably don't need it. Not a lot of people have use for a >$150 motherboard.

>>58560754
Are lamborghinis a scam?

>>58561924
lol

>>58560754
What even is a gaming mobo?
All higher end models look riced but that also means more features, ports, newer stuff integrated on the mobo and so on.
Question is do you want a premium board or something more mid-tier?

>>58561924
>>58560766
If you stop to think on it, any luxury product is not worth the cost

You are right in that it can't be considered a scam, so then I would consider it a swindle, or simply just a dirty trick

>why buy their piece of shit, when you can buy mine that has a cool logo on it?

>>58561054
It has a fucking dragon on it. You will never go wrong with a dragon.

>>58562016

Gaming is marketing and not a luxury.

Luxury isn't always marketing.

>>58561054
>dual lan
>gaming

>>58562067
>not having separate lans for internet and nas

>>58561054
h-how m-much does this cost?

>>58562112

$440

>>58560754
No.

They *are* overall pretty damn fast motherboards with a lot of features, and have long been.

Of course having those extra, uh, fancy shaped coolers and covers doesn't really *do* anything extra, but for the most part the technology was solid even as far as computers go.

And ultimately beyond that, it's damn impressive what you already get for your money in "normal" computers. But yea, gaming motherboards actually DID various things more and better in general.

Last bit of information: That doesn't mean most people who used them needed these cool features.

>>58561259
> In this case you're just paying more than something is practically worth
No. It's -as such- usually worth that much.

You do get a whole lot of extra high tech for those $100-200 extra, plus usually software features.

I'm not saying the buyers need or even use this, but the manufacturers usually didn't "scam" for shit.

If anything, it's the buyers buying something way more capable than they actually need for their application.

So, is $200 the maximum that anyone should pay for a motherboard for personal use?

I got the Asus Z170 pro gaming for $100 after mail in rebate a while back, how did I do?

>>58562230
PS: I even think generally, most computer components manufacturers are doing a fine job (customers also look closely, of course).

Even with the large spec sheets these devices have, there are a whole lot of components that could be *utter shit*, but usually they are not.

Oh sure, not everything is perfect, but in general you are far from "getting fucked over" by that omissed spec or otherwise poor design. Yea, the onboard sound card you also got is probably pretty decent and hooked up in a decent fashion. The screw holes are reinforced. The actual speed of your USB ports and controller is at least okay. And so on.

Try that with other $100-300 consumer devices that are a fraction as complex (dunno, law mower perhaps), usually one or another thing (engine, starter, blade maintenance, oil port, who knows what) is a far more major pain for a lot more people.

>>58562265
I'd say so, some mobos offer things that are pretty useful desu like Bluetooth/wifi and other useful little things along with more than usual ports. It really just depends on what you need for the system

>>58562265
I am with the people who don't think so.

But it's realistic to say that most people don't need anything more than a $120 or whatever board offers, even for a pretty generous definition of "need".

>>58562329
You lost the warranty

Gaming gear have unnecessarily many phases for the CPU because muh overclocking.
They also have shielded parts that separates sound from the rest of the board
They have gold plated ports

All these things are mostly useless but in the end it's all making the electricity cleaner through the board.

So inter tingly enough a high end gaming board is perfect for studio machines due to these over the top things that most people wouldn't notice the difference between cheap gamer and expensive gamer gear.

It look gaudy though.

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Well, if you're into flashy aesthetics, gaming motherboards are a must. Every other motherboard will look bland by comparison. Pair this motherboard off with an MSI card that's got that red and black scheme with the dragon and use a red & black Prolimatech Megahalem and you've got yourself a very flashy setup.

>>58562400
> but in the end it's all making the electricity cleaner through the board
You were on head-fi or some crazy place like that and believed their completely uninformed wild theories, didn't you?

>>58562449
Electromagnetic interference is actually a thing when it comes to sound.

>>58561924
yes you don't need to spend that much just to get from point A to point B.

>>58562449
I don't go to head-fi, but you must be quite ignorant if you don't know the reason we use phases around the CPU.

ASUS even said it themselves that they use twice as many phases on their gaming boards than their WS series, because muh numbers.
The more the cleaner, but if you spot 4 phases on the WS board you know that's enough for proper OC, using 8 phases is just going that extra step, that usually doesn't change much but it does make the electricity spike less.

>>58562016
>any luxury product
Poverty and sour grapes strikes again.

This board is so predictable.

Yes because they overclock better.

>>58562465
Also wrapping them in exotic woods and rising the price tag even more would help a lot with that clear studio audio.

Look, the audiophile bullshit doesn't check out in scientific tests and it doesn't check out when you closely look at the respective systems either.

For instance, right until you go from digital back to analogue again it doesn't really matter how "clean" your electricity on "the board" is, if it fully works it just was clean enough.

>>58562495
Not even related to anything "through the board". It's for running CPU with higher power draw.

No shit you use more or bigger VRM/POL if you want more juice with equal load on the individual VRM/POL for electrical / thermal stability.

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>>58560754
I bought it because it had excellent reviews and overclocks really well.

>>58562731
>>58562560

i'm in the market for my first motherboard. when people say 'overclocks well', how does that differ from one that doesn't?

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/2Phj4D/asus-strix-z270-e-gaming-atx-lga1151-motherboard-strix-z270-e-gaming

i'm going to be buying this next week along with an i5-7600k

>>58560754
If it has what you want / need no.

>>58562731
bait

>>58562761
8+ power phases is better for system stability when you run your cpu overclocked and especially when you feed it a fuckload of voltage

>>58562775
(You)

Building my first computer in a couple of months. Is it worth it to pay extra for a Kaby Lake i5 over a 6600K?

>>58562329
You paid too much. The Asus A series boards (e.g. Z170-A) games have all the advanced features for less money. The only thing they don't have is a red color scheme and perhaps built-in WiFi. Arguably you shouldn't even be gaming on WiFi anyway.

>>58562761
Like I said above, the A series boards from Asus have all you need. It's pretty much the same fucking thing.

>>58562876
Of course that depends a bit on how much more expensive it actually is.

If you need a board with things like lots of CPU lanes and shit like that you might want to look at server boards anyway. They're usually a lot cheaper for the same thing. The only con is that they are usually green instead of some gaymer colour.

>>58562265
No because it completely depends on the person needs. What if you run quad SLI Titan X'es and need 12 USB ports?

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>>58560754
>Are gaming motherboards a scam?

Yes

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>>58560754
what are these

>>58563151
PCIe slotlets

>>58560754
>chrome logo
>plastic cover over the PCB
>gaming motherboard
Fucking lol

Choose a motherboard based on the features and reviews, not gimmicky shit.

>>58562016
>luxury
It's not a luxury product. They're literally re-painted motherboards with LEDs thrown all over them, just like gaming mice, keyboards and headphones. They do absolutely nothing different other than waste more electricity.

>>58563151
PCIe x1 slots

>>58562876
>1% difference
of course not

>>58563164
>>58563208
how are they different from the others, aside from size, and what do they/can they do?

>>58563222
Just run at different speeds (slower)

You can connect a x1 card with the tiny connector into a x16 slot if you like but it'll just run at x1 speeds.

>>58563222
they can power pcie x1 devices and nothing else. a pcie x16 slot can power anything up to a 16x device (x1, x2, x4, x8, or x16). a pcie x4 slot would be able to power x1, x2, or x4 devices.

>>58562265
For regular use with a single gpu, 4 ram slots and enough i/o for a lot of stuff, you can get a decent mobo for 60-80$
Sli/crossfire, heavy oc'ing, need for m.2 and nvme ssd's you can can expect to pay alot more

>>58563250
>>58563271
what devices can be powered with pcie x1?

>>58562067
No, it's a fat kid with only one eye and a big chin.

>>58563315
Most things.

Cards that provide 4 ethernet or USB ports. Sound cards. SATA controllers for a few HDD or SSD. And so on.

>>58563367
To make this more clear, on version 4 of the PCI-E standard that x1 can do very close to 2 GByte/s.

Looks puny, but it's ultimately still fast as fuck.

>>58560754
Depends on features.

I'd pay an extra $40 for inbuilt WiFi & Bluetooth and USB 3.1 type-c that does fast charge for my phone.


Would I pay more for LEDs? No I'm not retarded.

Just bought an Asus Prime Z270M-Plus for gaming. Other than the tiny number of USB ports its perfect for my needs and has a second ultra m.2 for expansion in the future.

Guys can I overclock with this motherboard?
It doesn't say anything about Overclocking cpu.

http://ddr4motherboard.com/specs/MSI-Z270-SLI

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>>58562761
Considering saving some money if possible.

>>58561924
Compared to an Audi R8 V10 Plus, yes.

>>58560754
Why computer parts are even decorated? I never understand this. Do moronic neckbeards and coodoty kids really pay more because it looks cool?

>>58563673
People with no friends usually don't care about showing off their awesome aesthetics.

Should I consider a i7 6700k/Z-170 as a first build then?

Is there any difference between a 6700k and a 7700k?

>>58562122
t-that's more than my whole build is worth

Paying more than $150 for a motherboard is borderline retarded. You get 98% of the functions of the $300 board and the same overclocks.

What pisses me off is that you can overclock CPUs with a regular motherboard, but the manufacturers lock it out, same goes for non-K CPUs. I guess its an "exclusive feature",

>>58562727

Actual studio equipment is generally pretty minimalist and devoid of useless features. Audiophile stuff is a whole other market.

>>58563722

Were all friends here.

>>58562352
This is because PC gamers have big mouths and will absolutely shit all over any component online that sucks and do so with much vitriol.

>gamer motherboards
is there anything wrong with these other than the aesthetic? as long as they look acceptable and have a solid build quality, they should be fine

>>58561054
MSI used to have these perfect configurations on their plain old boards and strange, moronic configurations on a lot of their "high end" boards.

>get exactly what you need on a brown PCB
>get what you don't want and missing a few things you need on a black PCB
Why must they do this?

>>58561924
I always wanted one until I saw the crash aftermaths. Tin cans.

Does it have the features you need that other boards don't have? Then, no.

>>58562731
>$1700
>doesn't get red fans

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>>58562465

>>58562112
Sorry, only one text stutter is allowed.

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Judge me.

>>58567525
>red and black meme

>>58562352
>>Try that with other $100-300 consumer devices that are a fraction as complex (dunno, law mower perhaps), usually one or another thing (engine, starter, blade maintenance, oil port, who knows what) is a far more major pain for a lot more people.

That's because those lawnmowers are either made by illiterate mexicans or lazy union workers. PC components are made by hard working asians who consider a bad product to be a personal shame on their family honor. This is the real reason shit like the iphone can never be made here.

>>58567629
Those Asians also get chucked out of windows if they fuck up the assembly and everyone is told it was a suicide.

>>58563492
z270 can overclock

>>58567682
thx, I've never built a pc before so I wasnt sure if I have to buy specific motherboards with oc software or whatever.

>>58561054
wow... it even has 1/4" audio jack. I wonder if it could drive 600Ohm cans...

I know soundblaster Fx can drive 600Ohm cans...

If you are really really pushing for Overclocking your CPU, yes.

Extra power phases mean a "cleaner" voltage to the CPU(less variance), which can either mean a higher overall clockspeed or you'll be able to hit higher clocks at comparably lower voltages.

If you lose the silicon lottery with your CPU, it doesn't matter.

>>58564353
As far as chipsets go part of Z170 (and I'd assume Z270) include compliance for power management, this because Intel offers warranties now if you plan on pushing high Clocks on K and X cpus.

So basically Intel taketh away openness and replaced it with replacement, meh overall.

>>58560754
buy something based on what is has stop worrying about memes

aesthetics could matter to you too

>>58562085
so thats what I do with this shitty port

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>>58563222
pcie is redundant.
The bigger the slot the faster it runs. x16 is the fastest and they are the big ones in the pic.
x1 is the slowest and they are the circled ones.

There are more traces, read up on lanes, to the bigger ones.
The cool thing is pcie is compatible wtih all of them, you can cut the end of a x1 slot out and put a 16 card in there and it will just run at 1x speed. Alternatively you can cut the fucking contacts off of an x16 card and put it in the x1 slot and it will function the same. But the second way is retarded.

>>58568352
jesus

It's not even a perfect cut.

>>58560754
I'm starting to believe all motherboards are a scam. I'm convinced they are essentially consumer garbage designed to last a few years and nothing more. Nothing really special about the construction or parts used in any of them, really. It always seems the ones with the most "features" or options have the most issues; like: the more there is the more there is to break.
It's definitely a scam to pay as much or more for your mobo as your cpu. Insane spending $200+ to run a 4 core chip.

>>58568585
yea, I got it from google.
They actually cut up into the board and past the fingers, that is actually horrifying.

>>58568999
>>58568585
>>58568352
Jesus Christ, why would you cut the card and not the slot?

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>>58568352
>not just using Magic tape

>>58560754
I found "gamer" boards to be of higher quality, but I buy whatever has the best reviews.

>>58569208
some older boards (iirc) didn't have an x16 slot, they had pci legacy and x1 and people didn't want to cut up their mobo

>>58569643
But it's so much easier and safer to cut (or even melt with a soldering iron) a tiny piece of plastic, to make it fit any card instead of making the card permanently x1 only.

>>58560754
No.

>>58560766
>a scam is being told you're buying something but you get something else entirely. like you're being told you're getting an iphone but in reality you're getting a mandigo party for your wife.

kek

>>58563194
Ya try overclocking on a 50 dollars board from Asus or or quad SLI, and then try it on a ROG board. The way electricle components and many other features are greatly expanded on gaming boards.

>all these retards ITT
I specifically look for features, not branding

>z170
>top of the line Realtek dac with a shield over top to prevent noise from the gpu
>gold audio connectors
>fan connectors
>dual bios
>at least 2 m.2 slots
>shit load of sata ports
>shit load of I/O
>matte black pcb
>braced pcie slots
>not ugly

Are supermicro boards really superior?

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I was going to buy pic related but they stopped selling it other than online after a while. Shame because it has everything I want and now people are price gouging.

Anyhow, gamer boards are over priced and 99% of the time, extremely tacky. I own the Asus ROG ranger Z170 board and I'll be the first to tell you, it's edgy red/black with unnecessary LEDs, and the ROG logo slapped onto the south bridge sink. But it's the least edgy of the ROG z170 line and when I was building my new system, there was no motherboard within the price range that even touched the features it came with. Not in house at Microcenter at least.

GODLIKE gaming from MSI is just embarrassing. When they ditched their old twin frozr silver cooler to go to the black/red dragon covered abominations, I lost hope in them.

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>>58569929
For servers and workstations? Yes. They're plain looking. Come in even more plain looking boxes, but are some of the most stable boards out there.

They make Z series boards too. Just not nearly as advertised as the other brands. Pic related is their Z170 offering.

>>58560766
/thread

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>>58560754
"gaming" motherboards tend to have beefier power delivery for overclocking.

Guys, is it worth getting a Gigabyte Gaming K3 (Z170)?
Like, I've been looking for a decent mobo for an affordable price and I ended up picking this one, but reading the reviews on German amazon gave me an idea that Gigabyte ships their mobos unchecked WAY too often. Any good mobos for 110-130 euros? Italy

>>58567629
>Chinese
>honor

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>>58560754
depends, like mentioned if it hasnt what it was adwetised its scam
i got my(pic releted) for his specs so far works fine - has 8x USB3,USB2,sata3 and so

>>58560766
This is very true.
>>58560754
Going back to OP's question...not *entirely*. I got a MSI gaymen motherboard a couple years ago for my build and to me it wasn't a scam for a couple reasons.

1. it has all the necessary ports I need and more.
2. it's reliable
3. The integrated soundcard is great. One of the things I specifically looked for was a good soundcard with good amperage. It's enough to drive my hd650 so I don't need to clutter my desk with a bigass setup.

>>58567787
Most likely yes. It probably has a soundblaster Fx built in.

>>58574672
*3 reasons

I can't into simple counting apparently

>>58560754

>Is gaming __________ a scam?

Yes.

>>58560754
>>58561054
>>58562442

Is you are not a retarded sperg you do not look at the label "gaming". You look at components strictly. Does it have the right VRM? Does it have the right Audio (if you're not going external), does it have the right quality in other venues.

>>58563673
Keep in mind that building a gaming pc can be just as much as a hobby as playing games on it. There are gearheads that work religiously on their cars, including things that don't affect performance. Same goes for PCs. On the other hand, if you buy a heavily decorated motherboard over a plain one with the same features and reliability with no intentions of getting a windowed, you're an idiot.

>>58567629

But mexicans are mostly asiatics.

>>58576604
This. I don't even care if it has a gun shapped south bridge and a fag parade worth of RGB lights that dance to your music like obnoxious christmas decorations.

I plan on getting a very plain case with no window, so as long as the motherboard has quality components and a quality design with the features I want in my budget.

Unfortunately that means I'm probably going to end up with a GAYMAN mobo.

>>58576604
fucking retard
there are many decent looking mobos without gaymen "aesthetics" and branding
but yeah, you should buy that K1LLER PREDATOR FATAL1TY X666 CARBON

>>58562112
If that's the model Newegg promoted a couple days ago, like $500.

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>>58560754

>take motherboard
>add tacky plastic shit made by good friend Mr. Gook
>double the price

jewpreparingtofap.jpg

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>ITT morons who don't even have a proper UPS

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>>58560754
What I don't like is the retarded fucking vrm and chipset "coolers" nowadays on every damn board.
They just slap a chunk of aluminium in some fancy shapes and colors, then lets your vrm cook if you overclock.

What happend to fucking copper heatpipes and real fins, designed to COOL the components that needs cooling?

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>>58579154

These boards go in to systems with high airflow and/or water cooling not a cramped atx case full of ribbon cables and dust with no air flow not to mention the increased efficiency of the parts themselves.

north bridge, bus / memory throughput, number of controllers

no

>>58579185
ALL the fucking boards now has the alu chunks tho, not only the gamer ones

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Yep. Any of those edgy and special snowflake faggot designs on heatsinks and such shit are a waste of fabrication processes, energy, time, and most importantly money, that could all be better diverted into making the boards actually better in quality.

This faggotry needs to stop.

>>58560754
It depends.

Some gaming motherboards may have features that you want:

More power phases for better system stability and longevity
More expansion slots / PCIE lanes
More SATA connectors
More RAM capacity / compatability with faster RAM
More USB slots
More fan connectors
More flexible/customizable BIOS / easy CPU overclocking
Higher quality / shielded audio
Higher quality / lower latency networking

The "gaming" label is just marketing, but that doesn't mean they don't necessarily offer any benefits over other products.

>>58567458
what anime this is from!?

My B150A GAMING PRO has some pretty useful features, although now I would opt for a cheaper board (it was one of few feature-packed Skylake boards at the time)

>>58569767
Yes, Im aware of this.

They have higher quality components and are better for overclocking. Also they look good if you're building in a windowed case. It's not like gaming Mobo's are significantly more expensive so I don't see what the problem is. More no fun allowed from /g/.

I will never buy a cheap mobo again

the few quid I pay extra gets me some dumb ricer shit yes but on the side I also get a motherfucking two-character screen that gives me hex codes of what's wrong instead of having me listen to some retarded beeping, and power and reset buttons that stop me from fucking around with a wire shorting the pins before I put things in a case.

If I didn't build my computers myslef I wouldn't give a fuck though

>>58579154
>have Al chunk VRM heatsink
>4.7GHz 4790K
>VRM temp is 30-50C under load
Yeah, I'm sure these devices rated up to 120C are going to positively explode because they don't have 1.2kg of copper and heatpipes on top.

>>58581543
what mb?

>>58581608
Asus Z87 PRO

>>58569889
and what board did you go with?

>>58569949
There are two versions of that board,
Also its always been expensive as fuck.

>>58569949
Just double checked it, looks to have a slight markup to it. iirc it was always about 500 though

>>58581639
>Asus Z87 PRO
Well, with a 12 phase cpu power mb its not as much a problem, that sink isn't too bad either. Try a 4-6 phase matx.. that shit will glow.

>>58581819
>Try a 4-6 phase matx.. that shit will glow
I'm sure you can find board with shit VRMs, but that was always the case. It's just one of the things you need to looks out for when picking a board if you're OCing.

Plan on building pc son. What is x99? What's the difference between an x99 motherboard and a regular (?) one?

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>>58581855
Yes, but my point is all the boards have those chunks.. when on a budget blowing $200 on a board isn't first priority, and a 4 phase board can go along way with some cooling.

Part of the fun when oc'ing is getting more for less, I see no reason to defend shitty cooling solutions.

I have a 4790k aswell with a asrock z97m anniversity, a 3 phase board WITHOUT vrm sinks (what were they thinking?).. I have thermal glued on some small sinks (the layout prevents me from getting a bigger block on there) to them but they still get 90c+ and throttles, so i'm limited to 4.2ghz, 4.4ghz runs but I cant stress test it as the vrms are temp cucked.

But thats sort of my fault as you said tho, when I get Zen i'll make sure to get a better design.

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>>58581861
Its intel's chipset for specific 6th gen core i7s and xeon processors. It uses the LGA 2011-v3 socket.

>dem 40 lanes

>>58582248
(((up to)))

>>58561054
is the triple sli?
most cards required two pci e slots...

>>58582160
>I bought a shitty asrock board with shitty VRM design for overclocking
>companies should spend more on gigantic copper VRM heatsinks that reduce air cooler selection so they can use expensive low phase designs

The entire point of more phases is spreading out the load over many components. At this point almost all z170 and z270 boards have 10+phases and high quality mosfets as well as more capable voltage regulator chipsets to improve efficiency. It's a more clever approach that requires less active cooling.
Aluminium isn't significantly less conductive of heat than copper, by the way, but it is significantly cheaper by weight and significantly easier to work with.

>>58561924
> t. James May