• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Best I7 Motherboard under 200$?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

some1butu

Registered
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
I have been looking around for a while to find a good i7 motherboard for under 200$ but I just can't find any. Any help would be appreciated. :)

The only thing I'm picky about is that it should be able to support ati crossfire, sli doesn't matter. ( I plan to use this PC for gaming)

The current motherboard I was looking at was the Asus P6T SE Motherboard. Any opinions on it would be great.

Thanks in advance =]
 
Just looking on Newegg.com I found about 20 boards under $200.00 half of those are open box so its looking like you have about 8 - 10 choices if you want new. I had an MSI X58 Pro-E board and it worked great for me. Limited OC features though. There is a newer version out with USB 3.0 it looks like also. There is an EVGA board on there with around 250 reviews and its getting an average 4 out of 5 eggs.. The Asus board you mentioned also gets 4 out 5 eggs. No idea on the overclocking ability of either of those boards personally. Hope this helps somewhat! :)

Here is the search..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...26 600007887 4017&IsNodeId=1&name=$100 - $200
 
Just looking on Newegg.com I found about 20 boards under $200.00 half of those are open box so its looking like you have about 8 - 10 choices. I have an MSI X58 Pro-E board and it worked great for me. Limited OC features though... There is an EVGA board on there with around 250 reviews and its getting an average 4 out of 5 eggs..

Here is the search..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...26 600007887 4017&IsNodeId=1&name=$100 - $200

Thanks :) are there any brands that are better than others (or ones that i should keep away from)? I'm hoping to be able to overclock this motherboard
 
Sorry I edited my post and you responded before it was reposted! If you read up on the reviews for the Asus and the EVGA for example, I am sure some users have mentioned the overclocking abilities of each one.
 
I have the giga x58a-ud3 and love it to death. have been all the way to 257 bclk with it. just flat out screams, I am sure that not all of them will but have been very pleased with every aspect of the board for the money
 
I have the giga x58a-ud3 and love it to death. have been all the way to 257 bclk with it. just flat out screams, I am sure that not all of them will but have been very pleased with every aspect of the board for the money


I like that board. Do you know if it could fit two larger x16 video cards? (im planning on buying 2 Radeon HD 4890 SAPPHIRE Vapor-x)


Oh and 2 side questions:
Can i connect a sata3 cable to a "normal" sata hdd?
Will USB 3.0 be of any use to me as I only have 2.0 devices and that won't most likely change for a while?

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
the board will support even 3 video cards, I personally have ran 2 5870's on mine. you cand use the usb3 ports for usb2 devices with no ill affect. tht board has pretty much all you could want, is from a reputable company, performs superbly, and as far as value I dont see it being beat. many dont care for giga boards, you will find that with any company. there will always be fanboys and haters.

what I will say is that if you arent looking to oc to max clocks, it would prolly come down to features, looks or absolute price as to what is the best value. I have had several asus x58 boards and out of 3 only 1 comes close the the abitlity of the giga that i have to oc. But every one of them will make 4.3ghz or better. the asus boards are a little more user friendly, may be a tiny bit easier to get going in bios. thats just where you have to decide what you want from your new board
 
the board will support even 3 video cards, I personally have ran 2 5870's on mine. you cand use the usb3 ports for usb2 devices with no ill affect. tht board has pretty much all you could want, is from a reputable company, performs superbly, and as far as value I dont see it being beat. many dont care for giga boards, you will find that with any company. there will always be fanboys and haters.

what I will say is that if you arent looking to oc to max clocks, it would prolly come down to features, looks or absolute price as to what is the best value. I have had several asus x58 boards and out of 3 only 1 comes close the the abitlity of the giga that i have to oc. But every one of them will make 4.3ghz or better. the asus boards are a little more user friendly, may be a tiny bit easier to get going in bios. thats just where you have to decide what you want from your new board

That's awesome :) I'm starting to really like this board. It would be my first OC but if it's not all that much different to an ASUS board I think there wouldn't be any problems, or?
 
a lot of bioses have different names for the same setting, if you are used to asus it will be a bit different but not so that you cant figure it out. I have had an asus p6t (max bclk of 215) an asus p6t deluxe (max bclk of 216) another asus p6t deluxe (max bclk of 250) and the giga ud3 (max blck of 257) and all with the same chip and memory.
 
a lot of bioses have different names for the same setting, if you are used to asus it will be a bit different but not so that you cant figure it out. I have had an asus p6t (max bclk of 215) an asus p6t deluxe (max bclk of 216) another asus p6t deluxe (max bclk of 250) and the giga ud3 (max blck of 257) and all with the same chip and memory.

I just noticed, that the giga ud3 doesn't state that it supports i7 930 cores. I believe I read that the 920 and the 930 are compatible with each other, so can i use my 930 chip with that motherboard?
 
I am sure that you can, if you end up with an older bios it may have to be updated
 
I am sure that you can, if you end up with an older bios it may have to be updated

I just read the update BIOS guide that's stickied and it mentioned the need of a floppy drive (I don't have one, also didn't plan on buying one :p) or did I misunderstand something there? :-/ I'm such a newby.
 
if you can get to windows there is a windows utility that will do it for you, I dont think you will have an issue at all with the x58a version, if it was just the x58 version that one is old enough that it may not want to boot with it. I bet it wont be an issue
 
if you can get to windows there is a windows utility that will do it for you, I dont think you will have an issue at all with the x58a version, if it was just the x58 version that one is old enough that it may not want to boot with it. I bet it wont be an issue

ok thanks a lot for clearing that up :) I'm gonna be buying this board within the next few days :santa: Thank you for all the help =]
 
Back