What is mainstream for Motherboards? What features do you use?

[Wall Street]

Ian Curtis posted a review of the Gigabyte Z77-HD4 on the front page today. I was suprised that he considered this board to be "aimed at the internet café market in China" because of its lack of feature support.

I always figured that most users didn't use many of the features on high end boards used to justify their cost. I want to have this poll to see if I am completely off base and this motherboard really is low end, or if this motherboard is actually mainstream which I would expect.

So, take this poll of which features you are using on your motherboard. Specifically he cited CMOS reset hardware buttons, LED error indicators and a second PCIe x16 slot running at greater than PCIe 2.0 x4 speeds (for multi-gpu).

Please note that for this poll I am asking what you have been USING on your current setup, not what features you look for when judging a motherboard or may consider.

 

[Soulkeeper]

with gigabyte the ones with U in the name tend to be oriented towards enthusiasts/gamers.
U = ultra durable
The ones without U tend to be budget oriented ie: only 2 dimms, limited features/addons/bios

 

[crashtech]

I love the on-board buttons. For years I used a pocket screwdriver and never had a catastrophe, and lately I bought a pack of switches and LEDs mounted atop jumpers, but with my latest Gigabyte board (Z77-UD3H), none of that is necessary. The big lit up power button is especially cool, I think.

BTW, I voted the 2nd option by mistake. I have two GPUs but only use one for display purposes.

Honestly, I didn't consider the board I bought to be high-end, more midrange, or high side of midrange, maybe. You tell me.

 

[pcunite]

I love LED codes, I don't use them really, but love to see them working. When you have a problem, you at least know where to start.

 

[SPBHM]

my last motherboard with error codes was the Epox 8rda+ more than 10 years ago lol.

I always reset the bios by removing the battery.

 

[Cerb]

None in the poll. More like more USBs, an integrated speaker for beep codes and fan/temp alarm, one PS/2 port, an LPT and COM header, 4 RAM slots, all 4-pin fan headers, and...um...more USBs. Between SATA and USB, my desk stays a mess, but enough fast enough SATAs are easy to come by .

 

[archipelago]

I live in a place with very high charges for electricity, the Philippines -- about 26 cents per KWH. I don't need or have any graphics card. I just use the built in Intel Graphics 4000. My board is a budget model, an Asus P8Z77-V LK. I've never had problems, so no need to decipher the LED. I mainly use the system for Adobe Lightroom. Ambient temps in my office are about 90F/32C. My CPU temps are about 38C.

 

[Charlie98]

I have a bottom end Gigabyte Z68 board... never have had to reset the CMOS.

 

[jkauff]

My only gripe with my Asus P8Z77-V Pro is that I have to clear the CMOS via jumper. How much can it cost to use a button instead?

 

[crashtech]

Once I pressed the clear CMOS button instead of the reset button. They are directly adjacent on my board, which I have come to believe is a bad idea.

 

[Sheep221]

my last motherboard with error codes was the Epox 8rda+ more than 10 years ago lol.

I always reset the bios by removing the battery.

CMOS is normally cleared via jumpers, found near battery.
Although has LED panel and reset CMOS button, it is my first mobo ever to have this. I always had boards without this and even when I have it now there, I still never used it. Funny they name a board without it the one for chinese internet cafes, what a lame opinion.

 

[SPBHM]

CMOS is normally cleared via jumpers, found near battery.
Although has LED panel and reset CMOS button, it is my first mobo ever to have this. I always had boards without this and even when I have it now there, I still never used it. Funny they name a board without it the one for chinese internet cafes, what a lame opinion.

yes, but I normally just take the battery off, it has the same effect.

 

[Meghan54]

My motherboard has both features mentioned in the poll, yet haven't used them in well over 6 months, and why would I? The system is running a very stable OC and haven't had a need to use either. I do like the fact they're there, just in case they're needed.

Just because you have access to a feature doesn't mean you have to use it constantly, and with a Clear CMOS and Reset button on the mb, I'd rather think having to use them constantly indicates a very unstable system or you're just setting up an overclock.

 

[crashtech]

I wonder how many are using the mSATA capability of the higher line Gigabyte boards? I plan to use the slot on mine pretty soon. I like the idea of having fewer cables and connectors to deal with. Anyone planning to use an SSD should look into this, imo.

 

[pcunite]

I wonder how many are using the mSATA capability of the higher line Gigabyte boards? I plan to use the slot on mine pretty soon. I like the idea of having fewer cables and connectors to deal with. Anyone planning to use an SSD should look into this, imo.

My board (Asus V Gene) has one but I did not use it because the mSata port was only Sata II. Also I think mSata drives are not as fast yet?

 

[CakeMonster]

I like my boards simple. The less bogged down with 3rd party addins and their horrible drivers, the better.

The only bad thing is that the simplest boards often have cheaper components which might limit overclocking and increase CPU use if the sound card or network card is low quality (not really sure if this is still a problem?)

 

[Golgatha]

I like my boards simple. The less bogged down with 3rd party addins and their horrible drivers, the better.

The only bad thing is that the simplest boards often have cheaper components which might limit overclocking and increase CPU use if the sound card or network card is low quality (not really sure if this is still a problem?)

I typically disable onboard sound, network, and 3rd party SATA ports. Don't need them using resources and potentially messing things up.

 

[kasakka]

Many boards seem to have a weird set of features these days. Lots of 3rd party chips for things like USB 3 or SATA3 where Intel should just provide controllers that can offer a suitable array of them. My Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H board has half the USBs using a VIA chip that requires drivers so the ports don't even work until you hit the OS.

Personally I'm also a bit miffed that built-in FireWire chips have gone away as they are still the popular connection for any audio interfaces and the only good reason to have PCI slots as PCI-E FireWire cards are mostly just PCI-to-PCI-E bridge + PCI cards or rather expensive if natively PCI-E.

I like a fully featured BIOS/UEFI but really have no need for the CMOS reset buttons or error LEDs.

If you ask me, I'd rather see the budget boards going to the M-ATX format instead of having plenty of rather redundant slots like full size x4 PCI-E (usually with no support for SLI either) and the midrange to high end boards having a sensible layout that takes into account that graphics cards can take more than 1 slot space (meaning that the smaller PCI/PCI-E slots should be located so you can actually plug stuff into them even if you have two GPUs).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Single GPU, simple and solid. I dont wish to pay the bling bling tax and have a system that is either more unstable or/and higher power draw due to useless junk.

 

[dbcoopernz]

Single GPU is fine for me. Motherboard should have an Intel-NIC and good PMW fan control.