Thread: Motherboard Value

If we were look at just price, the MSI G43M2 is the cheapest of the bunch at Rs 5,500. If you did want something really cheap and basic, then this would be a decent buy. Using this as a base to build a powerful system is honestly not a bad idea. The board itself is limited in features and the design isn't exciting either. The price of Rs 5,500 is still fairly high for this board. For the same price, it's easy to find motherboards of previous generations from Intel or even NVlDIA.

The best bang for your buck board is the ZOTAC GeForce 9300. For just Rs 500 more than the MSI G43M2, you get a really decent board with good expandibility options. Even though this is a great board for everyone to buy, it's not for hardcore enthusiasts who want to push the board to its limits, and squeeze every bit of performance out of the processor. It makes good sense for an HTPC, where a compact design and good HD playback performance is required. The GeForce 9300's IGP is easily able to handle HD playback as well as on the heatsink will make sure things remain stable and when you feel like playing a few simple games, you can do that too, as this is the best perfoming board for Intel-based, onboard graphic systems.



If performance doesn't bother you, and you have a real graphic card to do that for you, then the Gigabyte EG43M-S2H can be the next best option for you. It has all the features of the ASUS P5QEM, including all the overclockability func¬tions. Unlike the MSI board, the EG43M-S2H is slightly more open and well laid out. The ASUS P5Q EM is a good board bu t the only problem with it is its price. At Rs 8,375, it's the most expensive one. The onboard performance is nowhere close to the 9300 chipsets, and it only makes sense as a board for overclockers who might, for some odd reason, not want a dedicated graphics card.

The ECS GF9300T-A board is a little bit more of an enthuasiast level board. With its three PCI slots, there is loads of space for adding additional cards. This is easily one of those boards you buy for now, and add a dedicated graphics down the line - just don't expect to put in additional cards to SLI them.