Motherf...boards

[Ergates]

Seems my mobo (an AsusP8P67) is a bit poorly - refusing to recognise there are any hard drives plugged into it and that kind of tomfoolery.

So, when this one goes off to live on a farm I'll need a replacement. Problem is, since I built this current rig, the market seems to have gone a bit Tonto - there is just too much choice!!

We have Z77, H77, Z68, H61 and then there's LXs, LEs, Deluxes, Pros, Extremes, Supremes, Vandellas etc.

Gah! All I want is a nice stable mobo, with the normal stuff on it - Standard IO ports, some SATA slots, in built LAN. I'd just pick one at random, but the vast differences in prices suggests there is slightly more to it.

I won't be overclocking (I'm lazy and the I5-2500k works fine as it is.) or use it to mind-control lemurs or tunnel through the Earth - Just play some games and everyday normal stuff.

Suggesterinos?

[alms]

Maybe check one of these articles:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/23204
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...-motherboards/

You're totally missing out if you don't mind control lemurs with it, anyway.

[Sakkura]

If you won't be overclocking - EVER - you can ignore the Z77/Z75/Z68 and P67s like your current board. H61 would be an obvious choice, and there are some really cheap boards to be found with that chipset. There's also H67, and H77 if you want the ability to use an SSD as a cache for your HDD.

What RAM do you have? It's best to pick compatible RAM and motherboard - the motherboard vendors compile lists of memory known to work with the various boards (other memory with compatible specs will usually work... but not always).

[Sakkura]

Found an interesting board on Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157236

That's a very affordable H61 motherboard. It only supports up to DDR3-1333 memory in 2 DIMMs (up to 16 GB combined), but it adds a couple SATA3 and USB3.0 connections to the basic feature-set. If you really don't want USB3.0 or SATA3, you can perhaps find a slightly cheaper board... but it's not like 67 dollars is going to ruin you.

[alms]

(other memory with compatible specs will usually work... but not always).

Those lists are limited in scope and generally outdated, the market OTOH is so vast and fast-moving I generally regard them as an exercise in futility. In my experience tested memory modules are hard to find and when you do find them, there's no guarantee the part you buy has the same PCB revision and memory chips as the one they tested. Kinda pointless.

[Ergates]

What RAM do you have? It's best to pick compatible RAM and motherboard - the motherboard vendors compile lists of memory known to work with the various boards (other memory with compatible specs will usually work... but not always).

These https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...odid=MY-290-CS
And 2 more of the same stuff but in 2Gb flavour (so 4 sticks totally 12Gb*)

* I know it's more than I need - I started off with 4Gb and was going to buy another 4Gb, but it turned out that the 8Gb kits were cheaper so I figured "what the hell".

[jinxionghuiur]

there's no guarantee the part you buy has the same PCB revision and memory chips as the one they tested.