Question Mid range MB to pair with a i5-10600KF?

[bbhaag]

So I picked up a used i5-10600KF at a pretty good price and was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for a decent mainboard to pair with it. The ASRock B460 STEEL LEGEND is an option I'm looking at but if anyone else has some suggestions I would appreciate it. Budget is around $100-140 so keep that in mind.

The other components I've got so far are Crucial Ballistix 3000 MHz DDR4 RAM 16GB, Team Group MP33 M.2 2280 1TB, EVGA 750 PS, and a RX580 8GB gpu.

This is going to be a mid range gaming machine and I have plans to upgrade the gpu once prices normalize.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sounds good to me, but I would strongly investigate B560 mobos for their support of memory overclocking, vis-a-via the B460, which does not.

Also, one spec that I'm willing to pay a little extra for on a mobo (say up to $20 more), is for Realtek 8125BG 2.5GbE-T LAN. I figure that 2.5 gbe is set to become the defacto standard within five (or less!) years, and Comcast is already offering 1400Mbit/sec down on their upgraded "DOCSIS gigabit" product. (I don't doubt that FIOS might have 2Gbit/sec within a few years as well.) Might as well spend the money now to be "future-proof" is the networking dept., rather than having to add a bulky card that might interfere with GPU slots depending on mobo layout in the future. Or just get a USB3.0 to 2.5 gbe when the time comes for $30. Though I much prefer PCI-E for LAN.

 

[bbhaag]

Thanks for the input. Memory and cpu OC aren't to much of a concern. The current system in use that this one is replacing is an i7-3770K on a Z77 chipset...I think. Anyway, even though the option to OC is there it has always ran at stock settings and that has been fine. No plans to OC the new system either.

Also I thought the ASROCK B460 Steel Legend has the Realtek 2.5gbe your are referring to built into it? While not to big of a deal because that would require an entire home network overhaul it might give me the excuse I need to replace the aging EdgeRouterX and Trendnet switch currently in use. Can Cat5e even do 2.5gbe speeds?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Can Cat5e even do 2.5gbe speeds?

Oh yes, yes it can. That's probably the reason 'd etre that NBase-T exists, that you can continue to utilize Cat5e cable, to run 2.5Gbit/sec or 5Gbit//sec (less popular at this moment) over existing cable.

And thankfully, just last month or so, both TrendNet and TP-Link released some metal-casing fanless 8-port and 5-port 2.5GbE-T unmanaged switches for under $200. (I bought the TrendNet ones last week, because they were cheaper than the TP-Link ones. I paid $170 for the 8-port, and $130 for the 5-port, on Amazon.)

I think that for "mass adoption", we'll need to see switch prices drop to half that, but with COVID and shortages, I don't know how long that will take. Perhaps more people will notice that their shiny new mobo came with 2.5GbE, and upgrade because of that.

As well, as I mentioned, Comcast is now offering service that exceeds the capability of a standard 1GbE port and router.

I've been scouring the interwebs for routers that have BOTH faster than 1GbE WAN AND LAN ports on them. There are very few right now.

Edit: One thing that confounds me. Asus makes a 2.5GbE-T USB3.0 dongle, that was originally designed for their NAS units to upgrade them, and also to work with Windows PCs (and Mac?). Why can't Asus just add the RealTek Linux driver into their firmware, such that you could plug that dongle into their routers, and instantly get a 2.5GbE WAN or LAN port, additionally, for that router? It would make things so much easier for existing router customers. (*) They probably don't want to do that, though, because they would prefer to sell you a whole new shiny all-singing all-dancing Wifi 6 (or 6E, as their newest ROG router is) router with 2.5GbE or 10GbE capabilities.

(*) I'm waiting for 3rd-party firmware to do that for the AC68U-family routers. That would make those routers EVEN MORE popular. Those are basically the modern-day equivalent of the WRT54GL routers, given how many 3rd-party firmwares are available for those routers.

QNAP does have a "QHORA-310W" or something like that,. that has a 10GbE WAN as well as a 10GbE LAN port, and SD-WAN (think, easy VPN) stuff that can be cloud-controlled (think work-from-home, corporate-controlled VPN'ing). Looks really promising (it's Wifi 6 too), but like most things QNAP, it's really obscure, and doesn't seem to get popular.