which mobo for i3 2100?

[gogoman123]

hi all, iam getting an i3 2100 for average gaming for my 1st build i DONT need any of the following:
Overclocking, USB3.0 or SATA III
SLI/Crossfire, SSD or RAID
integrated graphics

so I have decided that H61 is best for my needs/budget (around £50-£60 for mobo).
now iam new to all this and not an expert. what iam confused about is the following:

1).brand, which one would u recommend

2).BIOS features, the stuff that i dont know anything about (e.g. @BIOS, 2 x 32 Mbit flash, Support for DualBIOS, PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4) and which brand has the best BIOS features (gigabyte has their own features same for ASUS)

3).form factor, is it just the size and number of slots or is this going to affect the air flow, psu or anything else

iam not asking u to explain what every single thing of those means, i just wanna know which things i need to look out for according to my needs
thanks for taking the time to help me.

is there anything else i need to watch out for? like pins? i dont know

a few mobos iam considering
http://www.ebuyer.com/275979-gigabyt...ga-h61m-s2v-b3
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=44288
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...1155-DDR3-mATX
http://www.ebuyer.com/261406-asus-p8...8h61-m-le-r3-0

from the pictures in the links above, it seems that the PCIex16 slot is too close to the DIMM slots, do u think this will restrict adding a long graphics card (or am i being paranoid)?

 

[Zap]

1) If not tweaking/overclocking and getting a cheap board, probably any brand/model will work.

2) If not tweaking/overclocking, why would BIOS features even matter?

3) It is purely size. Micro ATX has three fewer possible slots than ATX.

 

[Kristijonas]

gogoman, just take the lowest price ASUS H61 mATX. It will be good quality with no features you don't need. Actually since you don't need any of those features (neither do I) any LGA1155 motherboard will be good for you. So choose only by manufacturer and price.

 

[God Mode]

I like http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...-LGA1155-m-ATX for £55. Although you said you don't need usb3, sata3 etc, it doesn't hurt to have a superior chipset with raid capability for a few bucks than the choices you listed. I've had good luck with this board and the itx version. It has UEFI if you want a newer graphical bios.

 

[gogoman123]

thanks everyone. so basically any of them will do. ok iam just worried about graphics cards. can i fit a long graphics card in a uATX board or do i have to get an ATX one for that. so for example can i fit this GTX 560 http://www.ebuyer.com/267865-gigabyt...-gv-n56goc-1gi in any uATX board?

 

[Kristijonas]

Look into my signature. I Have GTX 560Ti in an mATX motherboard. Fits fine.

 

[gogoman123]

thnx Kristijonas, that was the only thing stopping me from buying the board.
lol ur signature is basically what i wana get, good to know all these parts fit together fine. thanks again. one last thing is it the case that dictates what length/type of graphics card i can use?

 

[Kristijonas]

Yes. Some cases are too small for some of the bigger video cards. Always a good idea to check. I recommend Aerocool. They make quality cases and they don't take money just for the name.

 

[gogoman123]

thnx again Kristijonas. that was helpful. thnx zap and godmode

 

[sdurant]

I was looking for hardware as I am going to build my own pc and chose i3 2100 as well. I went with the asus h67 motherboard though you have a lot of options for you to choose from. Just be sure that you get something with either h61 or h67. But if there is no available h model, you could make do with a p. Aside from the built in functions in the back panel, motherboards do basically the same thing. You can choose from ecs, intel, asus, gigabyte among others.