So what is the big difference between all these motherboards anyway

[Stern]

I've been using the comparison feature on Newegg to try and see where the big price difference between boards like the Striker II Extreme and the P5Q3 is.

I just can't see it, they have virtually identical statistics in terms of what they support, what onboard parts they have, the P5Q3 actually has Wifi and supports 16GB of ram as opposed to the strike supporting only 8GB and no wifi.

I know it must be better somehow. But how? Someone please clue me in

 

[Quiksilver]

Differences I noticed...

Different board layout - Extreme has the better layout with the angled SATA connectors and the Power/IDE Connectors Flipped Around.
Onboard Sound - Extreme has the PCI-Express add-in card so if you want to remove it you can.
Northbridge - Extreme has Built In Waterblock but can still function as a normal air cooler if you don't plan to WC.
LCD Poster - Extreme has it for the diagnosing issues.
ROG - Extreme is a ROG board, so expect it to have a more advanced BIOS with IIRC a Linux OS built in(or something like that, I can't recall exactly what).
WIFI - As you said the extreme lacks it, but to some that can be a better thing (eg. wireless lag sucks).
SLI/Tri-SLI - Extreme supports it... P5Q3 is Crossfire only.

I dunno how much of it would make up for the price difference though.

 

[Stern]

Thanks for the info! I just haven't built a new rig in a long time, and now I'm trying to put one together and trying to balance my costs. I just want to know what I need and what is just fanciness. I want a fast solid board with easy/simply overclocking options and plenty of stuff on the backplate (USB/eSATA etc).

I also don't get the difference between PCI/PCIe slots that are around now

 

[Foxery]

PCI slots are the ones that have been around since 486/Pentium 1 days, and mainly stick around for backwards compatibility with old cards. PCI Express is the replacement technology.

 

[Stern]

Yeah but I've read about PCIe 2.0 aswell. And how does the whole 16x 8x 4x 1x stuff work with graphics cards and dual graphics cards, and normal expansion slots.