AOPEN's motherboard was interesting because there were a lot of interesting things.I guess boards just are not sexy anymore? Moving so much onto the CPU responsible? I remember when we would have huge threads about a single board or chipset. Intel, AMD, SiS, VIA, Nvidia, it was the wild west. So many brands - FIC, Abit, Asus, Albatron, Epox, Aopen, DFI, Chaintech, ECS, Shuttle, MSI, Soltek, SOYO, and more.
The IGP was on the board back then. Nforce chipsets were my jam. I built a bunch of systems with the Shuttle MN31N using the Nvidia nForce2 IGP + MCP-T (nForce2-GT)
There was also a mini-ITX motherboard with a ZOTAC DGPU for laptops.I don't have one. I have been through a lot of boards over the years. I don't like spending much more than $200 U.S. either. I don't need workstation or serious overclocking features. Hardest thing I do 98% of the time is game. I do like integrated I/O shields, adequate VRMs and cooling.
At the moment all of my boards are Gigabyte and ASRock, with the oldest being a Gigabyte AORUS ELITE B450 from 2018. No issues with any of them. Newest is ASRock B650E PG Riptide WIFI because of the PCIe 5 GPU support at $185. It must be out of production now as neither Amazon or Newegg offer it first party here.
Cheaper is a bonus, but more importantly one that I can get when I want a board. A "perfect" is no use, if it is not available.I just buy the cheapest, which has all the features I want.
Yeah I bought the X99 fatal1ty because it both had an eSATA port and nvme PCIe 3.0 x4, but in the 11 years I had it I never bought a nvme driveCheaper is a bonus, but more importantly one that I can get when I want a board. A "perfect" is no use, if it is not available.
On the features, I probably want a bit more than I will actually ever need.
I had a laptop with an eSata port and probably had a mobo too in that era (Z77 I think). Bought an eSata enclosure. But because there were no SSDs at the time (or weren't affordable), I had to use an HDD in it. And I was paranoid about the HDD crashing or the partition table crapping out. So used it simply as an external backup drive and only occasionally at that. Didn't experiment. I still have the enclosure. Laptop I sold long ago. Motherboard is almost useless now. Sucks when standards die.Yeah I bought the X99 fatal1ty because it both had an eSATA port and nvme PCIe 3.0 x4, but in the 11 years I had it I never bought a nvme drive
I had a laptop with an eSATA so I had an enclosure, before buying the X99. I still have it somewhere.I had a laptop with an eSata port and probably had a mobo too in that era (Z77 I think). Bought an eSata enclosure. But because there were no SSDs at the time (or weren't affordable), I had to use an HDD in it. And I was paranoid about the HDD crashing or the partition table crapping out. So used it simply as an external backup drive and only occasionally at that. Didn't experiment. I still have the enclosure. Laptop I sold long ago. Motherboard is almost useless now. Sucks when standards die.
Must be special. Mine only accepted SATA drive.Enclosure that could be connected with eSATA or USB and that could have PATA or SATA drive inside. I too see one on my shelf.
In case you have an "enthusiast" level customer who wants better MT perf, recommend the ASROCK B850-X mobo. The two slots reduce interference and allow RAM to hit 8000 MT/s easily, especially useful for dual CCD Ryzens.I tend to avoid the lowest tier mobo chipset.
I'm not familiar with AM4 (no experience yet) but isn't the CPU supposed to have a retention bracket over it, preventing it from being pulled out?Not a week goes by someone doesn't pull the CPU out trying to get the cooler off.
No. There's a proper method for removing the heatsink, but a novice / first time builder probably would be unaware.I'm not familiar with AM4 (no experience yet) but isn't the CPU supposed to have a retention bracket over it, preventing it from being pulled out?