1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:08,400
Welcome to the second installment of the 100ish dollar Z97 motherboard showdown.

2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:13,200
As you know from the last video, we normally focus on badass top tier

3
00:00:10,559 --> 00:00:16,880
motherboards, which are uncommon in the real world, and as we've demonstrated in

4
00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:21,600
the past, don't really impact performance in a positive or negative

5
00:00:19,039 --> 00:00:27,039
way. So, this series will focus on the more sensible, affordable motherboards,

6
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,960
which most people will actually be

7
00:00:27,039 --> 00:00:33,280
buying. And we're going to explore their pros, cons, and tradeoffs. In this

8
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:37,520
episode, we'll be covering the experience of building a computer with

9
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:41,440
these motherboards. Things like PCI layout, fan header, and plug positioning

10
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:46,399
when installing into a case, accessories, and even color selection

11
00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:51,360
will be covered. And videos for stuff like BIOS usability and finished system

12
00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:58,879
experience will be coming after CES, so stay tuned.

13
00:00:58,879 --> 00:01:05,840
The Cooler Master Neptune 240M features an exclusive pump design and their new

14
00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:09,840
Sencio fans to provide impressive near silent performance. Click now to learn

15
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:14,320
more. One thing on motherboards that gets a

16
00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:18,080
lot of attention is the PCI layout. Even people that I've built for in the past

17
00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:22,880
have been overly worried about the futurep proof aspect of PCI layout

18
00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:28,000
despite them having no real intention of adding more than one GPU or any other

19
00:01:25,759 --> 00:01:31,920
card for that matter to their system. So for most people it is unlikely to make a

20
00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:36,240
difference, but it's still worth considering just in case. The top two

21
00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:40,960
slots and the bottom three slots on these boards are all identical. And

22
00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:44,880
those will be the most used slots anyways because even when someone does

23
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:49,119
decide to add more cards, they're unlikely to use the ones in the middle

24
00:01:46,799 --> 00:01:55,119
that did vary somewhat because of their proximity to the top PCIe 16x slot,

25
00:01:52,799 --> 00:02:00,240
which will render one useless with any dual graphics card setup and the other

26
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:04,719
not recommended to give affforementioned cards some breathing room. The fan

27
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:08,160
headers, however, are of much greater importance if you want to take advantage

28
00:02:06,479 --> 00:02:12,400
of the fan speed control that's built into your motherboards. Many, if not all

29
00:02:10,479 --> 00:02:16,400
of these headers can be used in a normal system, and their position can make or

30
00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:21,040
break the appearance of your cable management. Every board accommodated

31
00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:24,720
having a rear case fan, but after that, they varied quite heavily. Gigabyte had

32
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:28,800
a pretty balanced setup overall, although only having two headers near

33
00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:34,480
the top may limit your selection of AIO coolers slightly if the pump must be

34
00:02:30,959 --> 00:02:36,959
powered by a fan header. As Rock had the

35
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:40,959
most included fan headers at six, but the positioning of them, while quite

36
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:44,640
good for an air cooler, will no doubt be frustrating for anyone who wants to

37
00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:48,879
install a liquid cooling system in the top of their case, as none of the fan

38
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:54,000
headers are at the top of the board, and only some of them were actually four pin

39
00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:56,080
PWM headers. ASUS lacked quantity with

40
00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:01,040
only four available fan headers, but at least the layout was fairly balanced and

41
00:02:58,319 --> 00:03:04,560
MSI had, in my opinion, the best layout of all of them with headers spread out

42
00:03:02,879 --> 00:03:08,000
all around the board, giving you the versatility to play around a little bit

43
00:03:06,319 --> 00:03:13,760
with the placement of your setup. Something to note is that the positioning in general here is the key

44
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:18,560
point, not amount of headers. Don't forget, you can mostly fix availability

45
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:21,760
issues with inexpensive splitters. On to other connectors. Luckily for the PC

46
00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,280
building community, motherboard manufacturers seem to have come to a

47
00:03:23,599 --> 00:03:29,599
good old consensus when it comes to positioning of standard CPU and

48
00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:34,000
motherboard power and standard case headers. We've passed the dark ages of

49
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:39,280
randomly placed headers halfway up your freaking motherboard and 24 pin or 8pin

50
00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:44,799
power plugs randomly placed where they really really shouldn't be for the sake

51
00:03:42,159 --> 00:03:50,000
of system air flow. I like right angle sockets for SATA, but not all cases

52
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:54,239
allow the stiff USB 3.0 no front panel cable to be installed this way. So, I

53
00:03:52,159 --> 00:03:58,400
understand why most boards opt for a non-angled socket, but I must say I

54
00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:03,120
really like MSI's implementation with two sockets, one angled and one normal,

55
00:04:01,519 --> 00:04:07,599
because even though very few cases actually have four USB 3.0 ports, this

56
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:11,840
gives you the flexibility to even either have tidier cable management or better

57
00:04:10,239 --> 00:04:16,160
compatibility. As for the rest of the headers, USB 2.0, know front panel audio

58
00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:20,639
and front switches. ASUS, Gigabyte, and ASRock all had varying degrees of good

59
00:04:17,919 --> 00:04:24,720
enough labeling, but MSI's front panel switches labeling was kind of off in the

60
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:27,759
middle of nowhere, which was a little bit annoying to actually kind of find

61
00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:32,479
and could be frustrating for some people. ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte all

62
00:04:30,479 --> 00:04:36,800
featured some degree of plastic guard around their headers, which can help you

63
00:04:34,639 --> 00:04:41,680
not screw up when tediously plugging in all your various headers, but the ASRock

64
00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:44,720
board did not feature any of these, but not a huge deal. The accessories

65
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:48,880
included with these boards were essentially all the same standard fair

66
00:04:46,639 --> 00:04:53,600
you'd expect on a value board. Exactly what you need with no flashy LED

67
00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:57,600
displays and OC brackets or any of that kind of stuff. Each included a user

68
00:04:55,280 --> 00:05:02,160
guide of some sort, an IO shield, two SATA cables, one driver disc, and every

69
00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:06,160
board except for MSI included a case badge with Gigabyte and ASRock also

70
00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:10,400
giving you an SLI bridge as they support that feature. In terms of colors, every

71
00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:16,080
board had an unfortunate shade of brown for their PCB except for ASRock and

72
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:21,039
ASRock, Gigabyte, and MSI all went with fairly standard blue or red color scheme

73
00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:25,520
with ASUS deciding to be a hero and go with gold. I get it. They're trying to

74
00:05:23,759 --> 00:05:30,240
communicate their whole we are the gold standard motherboards

75
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:35,280
thing. But personally, I would prefer a propaganda sticker on the box instead of

76
00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:38,639
tacky gold on my motherboard. Although, if you want to go for that Iron Man

77
00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:44,479
look, matching it with some red components may work out for you. All one

78
00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:48,560
of you. Who's ever going to do that, Mr. Downey Jr.? In summary, this video is

79
00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:52,639
about the importance of paying attention to how all your components will work

80
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:57,039
together instead of just how many raw features each one of them has

81
00:05:54,479 --> 00:06:00,880
individually. Thanks to standardization, your case will probably determine how

82
00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:04,960
well your cable runs work more than your motherboard. Your cooler will probably

83
00:06:02,639 --> 00:06:08,880
determine what fan header layout is best for you and your desired color scheme.

84
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:12,800
Also, the colors of the rest of your components in all likelihood will

85
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:17,680
probably determine what color you want your motherboard cooling heat sinks to

86
00:06:15,039 --> 00:06:23,520
be. So, the moral of the story is to plan for what you will actually use and

87
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:29,120
not to overspend based on what you think you might possibly use in four to 5

88
00:06:27,039 --> 00:06:33,600
years when you'll probably be replacing this board. Anyways, by the way, the

89
00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:38,000
next video coming in this series will be the BIOS usability rundown of all these

90
00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:41,120
boards, which will also be very important. So, stay tuned for that. All

91
00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,800
right, guys. In the comments down below, let me know what you think is important

92
00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,319
about motherboards. And in the finished system experience and BIOS usability

93
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:52,400
videos, let me know what you guys want to see. Again, comments down below or on

94
00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:55,840
the forum. While you're commenting down below, or before you leave to the forum,

95
00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:59,840
be sure to like or dislike this video depending on how you like the fact that

96
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:03,520
we're doing kind of lowerend motherboards than we normally do. Share

97
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,599
the video if you think it's good and subscribe to the channel if you have not

98
00:07:05,199 --> 00:07:10,560
already over on the forum. And if you don't like the ads on the forum, you can

99
00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:14,479
become a contributor. If you notice that new office campaign banner at the top,

100
00:07:12,639 --> 00:07:17,759
that will soon be going away for those of you that don't like it. For those of

101
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:21,199
you that might be interested, click on that. You'll see how the new office

102
00:07:19,039 --> 00:07:24,400
campaign is doing. Also, in the description below this video, you can

103
00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:27,520
check to see any shirts. If you're interested in buying one of our cool

104
00:07:25,919 --> 00:07:32,960
shirts, like keep on digging. I think that's still going. And if you jump back

105
00:07:30,319 --> 00:07:36,639
over to the forum again one last time, there should be a support us kind of box

106
00:07:35,039 --> 00:07:41,680
chilling there. If you click on that, it'll show you different ways to change your Amazon affiliate codes and stuff

107
00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:47,270
like that, so you can support us in other ways. Thank you guys a ton for

108
00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:57,730
watching and I'll see you next time.