I've been building my own systems for years with mid to high-end MBs (mostly Gigabyte UD models), but it has dawned on me that in all that time, I've never upgraded them. By the time I need a new CPU, there are new sockets, or DDR3 instead of DDR2 memory, or USB3, or *something* that makes me end up buying a whole new motherboard and components, instead of sticking a new CPU on the old MB.
So this time I want to be smart and assume that I just need the thing to work well for two or three years at most, and then it will be too obsolete to bother upgrading. So instead of getting one with all kinds of future-proofing, I just want one that works great now, and will continue to work great until I decide that it's time to get a new MB with DDR6 or USB9 or whatever.
I've decided to go with a Haswell CPU. Looking around Newegg, I see that there are several Haswell (LGA1150) MBs for under $100, so that's what I want to get. But all the reviews I can find seem to concentrate on overclocking and crossfire and other high end stuff that I won't need.
So, can anybody recommend a brand for reliability and ease of installation? I won't be doing any overclocking or gaming or video editing, so I'll probably just use the integrated graphics on the Haswell, so all I need on the MB is decent sound, decent LAN, and easy setup and install. I'll check the details, like how many USB ports and stuff, after I decide on a brand. I'm sure that any MB that supports Haswell will also have UEFI, USB3, etc.
Oh, one thing. I like to hot swap SATA drives in and out using an internal cable and an external power supply. In other words, the SATA cable is coming off the motherboard, through a slot in the backpanel, and then hooked up to a bare drive outside the PC. I have a spare power supply with the pins jumpered so it goes on when I flip its switch. So I plug the external into the external drive on the internal cable, flip the switch, and it shows up in Windows like a USB drive, only with full SATA speed. Then when I'm done, I "safely remove" it by turning off the external power supply, and I can unhook that drive and hook up another drive in about 30 seconds, so I effectively have hot swapping without having to reboot Windows.
My current Gigabyte MB has two different SATA controllers, and this works with one, but not the other, which is fine; I just keep my permanent internal drives on the controller that won't hot swap. But I've never seen any review that tells whether a MB will allow this. Any pointers will be appreciated.
So this time I want to be smart and assume that I just need the thing to work well for two or three years at most, and then it will be too obsolete to bother upgrading. So instead of getting one with all kinds of future-proofing, I just want one that works great now, and will continue to work great until I decide that it's time to get a new MB with DDR6 or USB9 or whatever.
I've decided to go with a Haswell CPU. Looking around Newegg, I see that there are several Haswell (LGA1150) MBs for under $100, so that's what I want to get. But all the reviews I can find seem to concentrate on overclocking and crossfire and other high end stuff that I won't need.
So, can anybody recommend a brand for reliability and ease of installation? I won't be doing any overclocking or gaming or video editing, so I'll probably just use the integrated graphics on the Haswell, so all I need on the MB is decent sound, decent LAN, and easy setup and install. I'll check the details, like how many USB ports and stuff, after I decide on a brand. I'm sure that any MB that supports Haswell will also have UEFI, USB3, etc.
Oh, one thing. I like to hot swap SATA drives in and out using an internal cable and an external power supply. In other words, the SATA cable is coming off the motherboard, through a slot in the backpanel, and then hooked up to a bare drive outside the PC. I have a spare power supply with the pins jumpered so it goes on when I flip its switch. So I plug the external into the external drive on the internal cable, flip the switch, and it shows up in Windows like a USB drive, only with full SATA speed. Then when I'm done, I "safely remove" it by turning off the external power supply, and I can unhook that drive and hook up another drive in about 30 seconds, so I effectively have hot swapping without having to reboot Windows.
My current Gigabyte MB has two different SATA controllers, and this works with one, but not the other, which is fine; I just keep my permanent internal drives on the controller that won't hot swap. But I've never seen any review that tells whether a MB will allow this. Any pointers will be appreciated.