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I keep seeing the same post over and over again in Buying Advice. It's how can I go even more budget. There are places that you don't want to cheap out, such as the CPU. There are other places, such as the motherboard that you might be able to skimp out if you have specific usage cases.
1. If you use few drives
2. If you have no need for more than 16GB RAM
3. If you use few peripherals
When choosing a motherboard, it’s important to note the chipset. Each year Intel releases a few alternate versions of the consumer chipset in order to cater to different budgets and usages.
The budget H81 chipset has a few big limitations vs. Z87 and H87. First it has 2 slots for a maximum of 16GB of RAM. Second it only has 4 SATA ports, 2 SATA 3gbps and 2 SATA 6gbps. Certain variants of the H81 chipset have support for legacy connectors such as COM, LPT. The B85 chipset motherboards mainly have 2 RAM slots, but double to 4 SATA 6gbps and 2 SATA 2gbps ports. These chipsets both have less USB ports as well.
The mainstream H87 and Z87 chipsets have 6 SATA 6gbps ports. Z87 has more durability and full support for overclocking both unlocked CPUs and the RAM.
Mainstream Chipsets
H87 - 6 SATA 6gbps, 32GB RAM support, Crossfire/SLI support
Z87 - 6 SATA 6gbps, 32GB RAM support, Support for Overclocking
Budget Chipsets
B85 4 SATA 6gbps, 2 SATA 3gbps, 32GB/16GB RAM support (depends on model)
H81 2 SATA 6gbps, 2 SATA 3gbps, 16GB RAM support
Specialty Chipsets
Q85/Q87- support for Intel vPRO technology
Even if you fall into these categories, know that by saving some money now you're limiting future expandability of the motherboard. Hence, our recommendation for 8-series motherboards is to choose H87/Z87. These are going to be the most future proof. You can find a selection in the latest Buyer's Guide.
For fun, we spec'd out the following "CheapoMac" build on the latest Haswell and 8-series bits. This is not a recommended build, however you may be able to save up to $200 by cheaping out on the motherboard, case, and ram.
Unbelievably this build comes out to about $350 as of the time of this posting.
You may ask, why not go with a cheaper CPU? The answer is, the lower end CPU graphics don't work in OS X; you need to buy a graphics card in addition to the above components if you use a Haswell CPU without Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics. We priced out using the cheapest $60 Pentium CPU and a $30 graphics card. When the dust settles, you can shave about $60 off of the price, making the CheapoMac less than $300. However, you get an inferior graphics solution such as the Fermi-based NVIDIA GeForce 610. In the end, using the integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics with the low end Core i3-4330 is the best bang for the buck.
Can you spec out an even cheaper compatible Haswell Build? Post your build here.
1. If you use few drives
2. If you have no need for more than 16GB RAM
3. If you use few peripherals
When choosing a motherboard, it’s important to note the chipset. Each year Intel releases a few alternate versions of the consumer chipset in order to cater to different budgets and usages.
The budget H81 chipset has a few big limitations vs. Z87 and H87. First it has 2 slots for a maximum of 16GB of RAM. Second it only has 4 SATA ports, 2 SATA 3gbps and 2 SATA 6gbps. Certain variants of the H81 chipset have support for legacy connectors such as COM, LPT. The B85 chipset motherboards mainly have 2 RAM slots, but double to 4 SATA 6gbps and 2 SATA 2gbps ports. These chipsets both have less USB ports as well.
The mainstream H87 and Z87 chipsets have 6 SATA 6gbps ports. Z87 has more durability and full support for overclocking both unlocked CPUs and the RAM.
Mainstream Chipsets
H87 - 6 SATA 6gbps, 32GB RAM support, Crossfire/SLI support
Z87 - 6 SATA 6gbps, 32GB RAM support, Support for Overclocking
Budget Chipsets
B85 4 SATA 6gbps, 2 SATA 3gbps, 32GB/16GB RAM support (depends on model)
H81 2 SATA 6gbps, 2 SATA 3gbps, 16GB RAM support
Specialty Chipsets
Q85/Q87- support for Intel vPRO technology
Even if you fall into these categories, know that by saving some money now you're limiting future expandability of the motherboard. Hence, our recommendation for 8-series motherboards is to choose H87/Z87. These are going to be the most future proof. You can find a selection in the latest Buyer's Guide.
For fun, we spec'd out the following "CheapoMac" build on the latest Haswell and 8-series bits. This is not a recommended build, however you may be able to save up to $200 by cheaping out on the motherboard, case, and ram.
Core i3-4330 | Newegg | ||
GA-H81M-HD3 | Newegg | ||
500GB HDD | Newegg | ||
Rosewill mATX Tower + 450w PSU | Newegg | ||
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB DDR3 1600mhz | Newegg |
Unbelievably this build comes out to about $350 as of the time of this posting.
You may ask, why not go with a cheaper CPU? The answer is, the lower end CPU graphics don't work in OS X; you need to buy a graphics card in addition to the above components if you use a Haswell CPU without Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics. We priced out using the cheapest $60 Pentium CPU and a $30 graphics card. When the dust settles, you can shave about $60 off of the price, making the CheapoMac less than $300. However, you get an inferior graphics solution such as the Fermi-based NVIDIA GeForce 610. In the end, using the integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics with the low end Core i3-4330 is the best bang for the buck.
Can you spec out an even cheaper compatible Haswell Build? Post your build here.
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