Asus P8H61-M LX3 or P8H77-M ???

[Axonn]

I'm planning to buy a really cheap desktop. But I don't want a very cheap mobo because I don't want to see it break after 2 years.

The H61 board is very cheap. But as far as I see, it has fewer power management chips around the CPU. Wouldn't that cause instability / even break the CPU after some time?

I'm not sure the H77 board is worth it though. I mean yeah it has Virtu and 4 slots of RAM but all that is practically useless for the purposes of this machine.

Look at the layouts:

cheap:
http://www.emag.ro/placa-de-baza-asu.../pd/EMYKKBBBM/

expensive:
http://www.emag.ro/placa-de-baza-asu.../pd/EX0FTBBBM/

Any tips?

Thank you in advance! ;:- ).

[bononos]

There may be less components for power management but each chip may be a higher rated component - I don't know. Another thing is that the mb might not be the B3 revision which addresses a bug in the Intel 6x chipset. You could look up mini H61 Gigabyte boards that I see are often recommended around here. Or the cheaper B75 from Asus/GA/Asrock boards might also work for you.

[Axonn]

Care to share a few of the Gigabyte models which have a good reputation around here? I can't find that by searching ::- D.

[dma0991]

The Asus P8H61-M LX3 isn't cheap because it will be more likely to break, it just has less features than the doubly expensive Asus P8H77-M. If you don't need SATA 6Gbps, 2 additional RAM slots and USB 3.0 front panel header, then that makes the Asus P8H61-M LX3 a very decent choice for a cheap desktop. Be aware that you might have to update the BIOS of the H61 board if you're gonna use IB.

[bononos]

Originally Posted by Axonn

Care to share a few of the Gigabyte models which have a good reputation around here? I can't find that by searching ::- D.

Browse the threads in the general hardware sections, theres $300-500 builds that use the cheaper mbs. Like the above poster said, be careful about older chipsets like the H61 which probably come with bios that only recognize SB cpus and not Ivy. You need a SB to flash to the latest bios that can recognize an Ivy cpu.

I'd direct you a newegg link (not sure if you can get it on the Romanian website) but links are currently not working on AT. So heres an Asrock B75 for $55:
ASRock B75M-DGS LGA 1155 Intel B75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

[Insert_Nickname]

Originally Posted by Axonn

Care to share a few of the Gigabyte models which have a good reputation around here? I can't find that by searching ::- D.

Of course. I can see you're Swedish, so I'll provide a couple of direct links. You can properly find them a little cheaper if you do a little digging...

http://www.proshop.se/Moderkort/GIGA...9-2374384.html
http://www.proshop.se/Moderkort/GIGA...c-2329975.html
http://www.proshop.se/Moderkort/GIGA...9-2332109.html

And finally an alternative ASUS board:
http://www.proshop.se/Moderkort/ASUS...t-2372669.html

You'll notice that all these are B75-based. Do not let the "business" label fool you. The B75 is Intel's low-cost 7x chipset. Whatever you do avoid the H61. There is absolutely no future in such a board. The H61 lacks both USB3 and SATA3.

[Axonn]

Ok. I can clearly see that the B75 is the preferred chipset around here, so I'll go for that one!

Thank you guys. AnandTech Forums rock! .