5 ms·

Big photo of a motherboard.. What kind of monstrosity of a mobo is that? Please tell me all that shit on it is metal and has some sort of cooling purpose. It lo

Big photo of a motherboard.. What kind of monstrosity of a mobo is that? Please tell me all that shit on it is metal and has some sort of cooling purpose. It looks like a bunch of moulded plastic to make it 'look cool'.

slantyyz 10y ago
Short answer, it's a "gamer" board. Unfortunately, the path to the best hardware on PC is usually with gamer hardware, which means you end up with hardware with pointless bling attached.
- legodt 10y ago
  Try buying a laptop for CAD rendering sometime. So many people where I work didn't want to settle for last gen speeds of "workstation" class (think, AMD firepro and Nvidia Quadro cards) and now pay the shame price of rainbow LEDs, red plastic, and gaudy keyboard fonts. Thanks user persona centered design!
  - slantyyz 10y ago
    Sadly, the PC companies are following the money. I guess it's mainly gamers who are forking out cash for high end hardware these days. The keyboard and mouse on my work desktop are gamer gear, as is my work laptop (my next one might even be an Alienware). And boy, do I hate their radioactive glowing.
    - legodt 10y ago
      If you already live the glowing light life and aren't getting out anytime soon (and why would you? It's not like anyone else is selling high quality computer stuff like this), MSI has been putting out fantastic laptops in terms of performance to dollar recently AND they don't skimp on the port selection, something I love about my workstation type laptop. Some of my co-workers brought these in recently and it only furthers my endless disappointment that good hardware can't come in sensible a package.
      - slantyyz 10y ago
        Because the laptop would be for work, I care about warranty and support. The MSIs are nice (as are Razers, etc), but I'll probably stick to a major vendor like Dell (Alienware), Lenovo or HP - in other words, a company with an established support infrastructure. I've also been super impressed with the physical touchpad buttons, port array and OLED screen on the Alienware 13 R3. The catch is that it's relatively heavy and ugly. BUT, the heaviest I'm willing to go is around the weight of my old 2011 15" MBP (~5 pounds and change), and it comes in around that weight. The new XPS 15 with 1050 also is a top contender for me, although the ports leave me wanting. -- edit - forgot to mention that the lack of touchscreens also put MSI's GS series near the bottom of my list.
        legodt 10y ago
        WOAH the XPS 15 comes with a 1050 now? I might pay the huge price premium to get my hands on that (and then some more to turn that USB c port into all the useful ports I'm losing).
        slantyyz 10y ago
        It got leaked a week or two ago, but I'm guessing it should be on sale in a month or so.
  - HarryHirsch 10y ago
    Try getting the gamer PC past Internal Controls at your university when you are a structural biologist. There's some fast talking to the beancounters involved.
    - PopsiclePete 10y ago
      "No, I swear, I don't care about Call of Duty....no...no..yes, you can use that video card for games but....what? Steam? What's that?"
      - slantyyz 10y ago
        I totally get your point, but there are some serious apps (non-games) on Steam too. I bought my license of DisplayFusion (multiple monitor utility for Windows) [1] on Steam because it was cheaper (during one of those regular Steam sales) and the license allows me to run it on any of my machines with Steam installed. [1] https://www.displayfusion.com/ https://www.displayfusion.com/
- Alupis 10y ago
  > which means you end up with hardware with pointless bling attached Sometimes, yes... but in this case, it appears to be a large heatsink spread out over the mobo. Gamer mobo's are often setup to be overclocked, so larger-than-normal heatsinks are common.
  - sp332 10y ago
    I thought that at first, but it's plastic. It's called "ROG Armor" I think.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - AmVess 10y ago
    Actually, that's just a large dust shield. It is bling, but that's ok. There are people that like to outfit their computers with LED's, glass side panels, illuminated liquid cooling liquid...you name it. This board is made for them.
- AmVess 10y ago
  This is a top-end board...$250+. You can get the same hardware at a much lower price point - $125+. It won't have the giant dust shield, extra power phases, or gamer LAN, or access points on the board for voltage testers, or no thunderbolt, but it'll have quality components and an Intel LAN and a good sound chip. If you aren't overclocking, they are functionally identical.
  - Alupis 10y ago
    > You can get the same hardware at a much lower price point Sometimes yes. A lot of times though, the chipset will be different on the "lower-end" boards, ie. 990FX vs 990 chipset, etc. Just be careful when selecting your board, as it does often determine the maximum performance of your system - and you don't want it to be a bottleneck to your other expensive components.
- djur 10y ago
  I recently bought a lot of parts to build a desktop machine. If you just looked at the product names on the receipt, you'd think I was stocking up for a rampage: Predator Assault this, X1 Sniper Squad that, Elite Raptor DeathKill Xtreme etc.
sp332 10y ago
As far as I can tell, it's not even released yet. https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/press-release-rog-unveils-latest-maximus-ix-and-strix-gaming-motherboards/ https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/press-rel... Aside from protecting the various chips, it's going to look great in a case lit up like a bat-signal. Edit: It comes with two independent LED zones built-in http://rog.asus.com/media/1483473467178.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/1483473467178.jpg , and headers to control 4 meters of LED light strips, not to mention coordination with compatible glowy RAM sticks. http://rog.asus.com/media/148345887868.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/148345887868.jpg . But the PCIe slots are actually steel-reinforced, so it's only about 85% eye-candy. http://rog.asus.com/media/1483459091833.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/1483459091833.jpg "In fact, if you give the Code a home in a tempered glass chassis, it’s practically impossible not to end up with a system that looks rather special." That's a quote from the press release!
- wongarsu 10y ago
  From that announcement: >Thanks to 3D-printing technology, it is now possible. Some of the new motherboards include dedicated mounting points for 3D printable parts, and we’re providing source files that users can download and print using an online 3D-printing service or their own printer. That's a neat feature. I wonder if such things will catch on in the mainstream as 3d-printing becomes more prevalent.

slantyyz 10y ago

Short answer, it's a "gamer" board. Unfortunately, the path to the best hardware on PC is usually with gamer hardware, which means you end up with hardware with pointless bling attached.

legodt 10y ago
Try buying a laptop for CAD rendering sometime. So many people where I work didn't want to settle for last gen speeds of "workstation" class (think, AMD firepro and Nvidia Quadro cards) and now pay the shame price of rainbow LEDs, red plastic, and gaudy keyboard fonts. Thanks user persona centered design!
- slantyyz 10y ago
  Sadly, the PC companies are following the money. I guess it's mainly gamers who are forking out cash for high end hardware these days. The keyboard and mouse on my work desktop are gamer gear, as is my work laptop (my next one might even be an Alienware). And boy, do I hate their radioactive glowing.
  - legodt 10y ago
    If you already live the glowing light life and aren't getting out anytime soon (and why would you? It's not like anyone else is selling high quality computer stuff like this), MSI has been putting out fantastic laptops in terms of performance to dollar recently AND they don't skimp on the port selection, something I love about my workstation type laptop. Some of my co-workers brought these in recently and it only furthers my endless disappointment that good hardware can't come in sensible a package.
    - slantyyz 10y ago
      Because the laptop would be for work, I care about warranty and support. The MSIs are nice (as are Razers, etc), but I'll probably stick to a major vendor like Dell (Alienware), Lenovo or HP - in other words, a company with an established support infrastructure. I've also been super impressed with the physical touchpad buttons, port array and OLED screen on the Alienware 13 R3. The catch is that it's relatively heavy and ugly. BUT, the heaviest I'm willing to go is around the weight of my old 2011 15" MBP (~5 pounds and change), and it comes in around that weight. The new XPS 15 with 1050 also is a top contender for me, although the ports leave me wanting. -- edit - forgot to mention that the lack of touchscreens also put MSI's GS series near the bottom of my list.
      - legodt 10y ago
        WOAH the XPS 15 comes with a 1050 now? I might pay the huge price premium to get my hands on that (and then some more to turn that USB c port into all the useful ports I'm losing).
        slantyyz 10y ago
        It got leaked a week or two ago, but I'm guessing it should be on sale in a month or so.
- HarryHirsch 10y ago
  Try getting the gamer PC past Internal Controls at your university when you are a structural biologist. There's some fast talking to the beancounters involved.
  - PopsiclePete 10y ago
    "No, I swear, I don't care about Call of Duty....no...no..yes, you can use that video card for games but....what? Steam? What's that?"
    - slantyyz 10y ago
      I totally get your point, but there are some serious apps (non-games) on Steam too. I bought my license of DisplayFusion (multiple monitor utility for Windows) [1] on Steam because it was cheaper (during one of those regular Steam sales) and the license allows me to run it on any of my machines with Steam installed. [1] https://www.displayfusion.com/ https://www.displayfusion.com/
Alupis 10y ago
> which means you end up with hardware with pointless bling attached Sometimes, yes... but in this case, it appears to be a large heatsink spread out over the mobo. Gamer mobo's are often setup to be overclocked, so larger-than-normal heatsinks are common.
- sp332 10y ago
  I thought that at first, but it's plastic. It's called "ROG Armor" I think.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- AmVess 10y ago
  Actually, that's just a large dust shield. It is bling, but that's ok. There are people that like to outfit their computers with LED's, glass side panels, illuminated liquid cooling liquid...you name it. This board is made for them.
AmVess 10y ago
This is a top-end board...$250+. You can get the same hardware at a much lower price point - $125+. It won't have the giant dust shield, extra power phases, or gamer LAN, or access points on the board for voltage testers, or no thunderbolt, but it'll have quality components and an Intel LAN and a good sound chip. If you aren't overclocking, they are functionally identical.
- Alupis 10y ago
  > You can get the same hardware at a much lower price point Sometimes yes. A lot of times though, the chipset will be different on the "lower-end" boards, ie. 990FX vs 990 chipset, etc. Just be careful when selecting your board, as it does often determine the maximum performance of your system - and you don't want it to be a bottleneck to your other expensive components.
djur 10y ago
I recently bought a lot of parts to build a desktop machine. If you just looked at the product names on the receipt, you'd think I was stocking up for a rampage: Predator Assault this, X1 Sniper Squad that, Elite Raptor DeathKill Xtreme etc.

sp332 10y ago

As far as I can tell, it's not even released yet. https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/press-release-rog-unveils-latest-maximus-ix-and-strix-gaming-motherboards/ https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/press-rel... Aside from protecting the various chips, it's going to look great in a case lit up like a bat-signal. Edit: It comes with two independent LED zones built-in http://rog.asus.com/media/1483473467178.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/1483473467178.jpg , and headers to control 4 meters of LED light strips, not to mention coordination with compatible glowy RAM sticks. http://rog.asus.com/media/148345887868.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/148345887868.jpg . But the PCIe slots are actually steel-reinforced, so it's only about 85% eye-candy. http://rog.asus.com/media/1483459091833.jpg http://rog.asus.com/media/1483459091833.jpg "In fact, if you give the Code a home in a tempered glass chassis, it’s practically impossible not to end up with a system that looks rather special." That's a quote from the press release!

wongarsu 10y ago
From that announcement: >Thanks to 3D-printing technology, it is now possible. Some of the new motherboards include dedicated mounting points for 3D printable parts, and we’re providing source files that users can download and print using an online 3D-printing service or their own printer. That's a neat feature. I wonder if such things will catch on in the mainstream as 3d-printing becomes more prevalent.