Ever wondered why modern motherboards look similar to a spaceship out of a sci-fi movie?
With all their godlike designs and features, the latest chipsets come with a very steep price tag.
But, why do the latest Intel and AMD Ryzen motherboards cost so much? And what do motherboards offer for the price besides RGB lights and visuals that are making the motherboard look complex and expensive.
If these questions are on your mind, they are going to be answered very soon.
Everything that you need to know about motherboard prices in recent times is discussed in this guide. So, give it a look to find out if your choice of motherboard is worth considering.
What Does A Motherboard Do?
The motherboard is a computer’s central PCB (printed circuit board) that connects all other components of the computer. It can be considered the backbone of a computer. To bridge every PC component with one another, they contain different types of ports, chipsets, and electronic circuitry.
A motherboard is technically a PCB that is usually made out of fiberglass and copper connections.
There are several different kinds of ports and slots to connect a computer’s components and peripheral devices. The motherboard contains slots for RAM, GPU, and storage devices.
These are connected through memory slots and SATA or PCIe interfaces for M.2 or NVMe connections. The motherboard also contains the BIOS chip that is necessary for the booting up of any computer.
The CPU is connected and situated on the motherboard, and it contains have heat sinks and connectors for CPU fans to neutralize the heat produced by the CPU.
The components communicate with each other through electronic circuitry and chipsets present on the PCB. Chipsets connect the different components
Motherboards also have USB ports, audio and video ports and ethernet ports for connecting external input/output and network devices like keyboards, mice, microphones, modems, routers etc.
You should go through our separate post to learn about what motherboards are made of to learn about these in detail.
Most modern desktop and laptops also have Wi-Fi cards built onto the board to allow convenient wireless connection.
As you can see, motherboards are quite a complex part of computers and manufacturing one with all its necessary components can be a complicated task. So, naturally, motherboards should be pretty expensive, but there are also cheaper ones.
So what makes the costly ones worth it? Know all about why they can be so expensive in the following section.
Why Are Modern Motherboards So Expensive?
The reason why are Motherboards so expensive compared to RAM, processor and chipset is because new PCIe comes at a cost. If you want to build a high-performing computer, you need an expensive motherboard. The reasons for their high price are more features, high demand and production cost.
Purchasing a new motherboard is almost like purchasing a new PC these days.
Motherboards are quite expensive pieces of technology. The high price is justified too. In this section, you will find an elaborate explanation of why motherboards cost so much.
These are the reasons why motherboards are so expensive:
1. Necessity As A Component
The motherboard is the most crucial part of a computer. This is because you won’t be able to run a computer without one. If your motherboard malfunctions, your computer will not even boot. Again, the only way to fix a dysfunctional motherboard is to buy a new one.
The manufacturers are well aware of the importance of motherboards as a PC component. So, it is obvious that the price of motherboards will be influenced by their high demand in the marketplace.
After all, the manufacturer’s aim is to increase its profit. This is why they are always introducing newer models with better specifications and features than earlier ones and higher prices than earlier ones.
Apart from this, different PC parts like modern CPUs and GPUs require more motherboard power. Gamers, Professionals and PC enthusiasts, who do things like video editing, need to spend more money on your motherboard for optimum performance.
2. Presence Of System Clock
A motherboard also has to work as a system clock to maintain the intervals of the processes carried out by your computer and to run them synchronously. It also lets all the other components in your computer work in harmony with each other.
The system clock in a motherboard is constructed around a small quartz crystal. This clock has to be extremely accurate so as not to allow any discrepancies or obstacles to your computer’s functions.
Building and integrating such a sophisticated system clock on a motherboard isn’t easy. Moreover, quartz crystals aren’t so cheap, either. This is why new motherboards are seeing an increase in prices.
3. More Ports For Better Connectivity
Ports are the constitutive parts of a motherboard. The type and technology of the ports determine how well your motherboard is going to perform. Also, the more the number of ports are available, the more devices you can connect to your computer.
Expensive boards feature better and faster ports. In addition, the number of ports like USB ports also contribute to the increase in price.
Moreover, new higher-end Z690 motherboards, like the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, utilize DDR5 RAM technology instead of DDR4, which requires more pins, causing the price to increase.
Most people get confused about DDR4 compatibility with DDR5 ports. If you plan on purchasing a DDR5-compatible CPU, read our guide to learn everything about its backward-compatibility with DDR4 RAM.
So, as they provide better connectivity facilities, motherboards with better and more ports for connecting devices are naturally more expensive.
4. Material And Aesthetics
Currently, manufacturers have been introducing boards that are made out of premium polymer materials giving them enhanced durability and reliability. For better connectivity, the copper in the internal circuitry of a motherboard also needs to be of the right quality.
Besides durability, different materials are utilized to upgrade the motherboard design. Rather than the traditional green PCB, you will see newer ones with blue, black, or grey PCBs with aesthetic factors that are more costly to manufacture.
Also, as mentioned at the beginning, motherboards are also given a futuristic, space-like look combining dark colors and other extra parts/coverings.
In addition, strips of light or RGB are fitted onto them to make them pleasing to look at. All these bring about a steep rise in the price of modern motherboards.
5. High Demand, Low Production
As of recent, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote working opportunities, there has been a very high demand for computers.
Moreover, a lot of people build high-end computers solely for gaming. For this, motherboards are very popular in the market right now as they are absolutely necessary to run a computer. Other PC hardware like the graphics card are also getting more expensive.
In contrast to the demand, the pandemic had seen a decline in motherboard production as industries were shut down at the time. Because of this, the supply chain upon which PC hardware manufacturers were relying on got disrupted.
6. Chip Shortage
Motherboards have a BIOS chip containing the booting information of your computer. There are also other necessary chips that are crucial for the proper and synchronous functioning of motherboards.
The computer industry has been experiencing a global chip shortage, which are necessary to produce the different parts of your computer. Chip shortage affects production costs for motherboards, which leads to driven up prices in the market.
7. Value Of Brand
Some motherboard brands are widely-recognized as manufacturers of high-quality and reliable products. Certain brands like these tend to be more expensive than that of lesser-known brands.
For example, ASUS is one of the most well-known brands that produce computer parts. There are also some other famous brands like Gigabyte, MSI etc. These brands cost more than those by other smaller brands.
Moreover, the other brands also increase the price of similar products to compete with the bigger brands. For this, motherboards generally have higher prices in the market than most other computer parts.
For example, Intel motherboards are significantly more expensive than AMD processors.
You can now surely realize why manufacturers are charging high prices. After all, good things always do come at a price. Are these expensive boards actually worthy of the great price tag on them? What are you getting for that price? Find out in the next section.
Do I Need an Expensive Motherboard?
Modern high-end motherboards do cost a lot, but with all the features they provide you, you should be getting the full worth of the price that you will pay to purchase a motherboard. Getting an expensive motherboard is worth it if you utilize all the features that come with it.
In general, motherboards cost a lot, but the more expensive ones come with state-of-the-art features that will definitely come of use to you if you are going to use it for gaming or other tasks requiring your computer to have higher specifications.
It is actually recommended that you should get a high-end motherboard for more demanding tasks.
Are you thinking about upgrading your motherboard? Before you do that, you should check out our detailed article to understand if upgrading is the right choice.
You will be getting your price’s worth from the expensive motherboards, and you’ll also be getting lots of extra and necessary facilities along with your motherboard. Some of these are mentioned here.
These are the features that come with an expensive motherboard:
- Additional USB ports for connecting many devices
- Faster connectivity ports, like USB 3.1 and M.2 slots
- High-functioning components and chips that allow fast communication between your devices
- High-quality capacitors used in the circuitry
- More memory slots to house more RAMs
- Capability to connect more secondary storage devices, that are, HDD and SSD
- Latest ethernet port
- Excellent durability because of the premium quality of materials used for manufacturing them
- Increased limit of overclocking and easy overclocking through software
- Wi-Fi support using a Wi-Fi card
- Connectors for CPU fans and cooler
- Support for connecting high-voltage PSU
- Aesthetic design
- RGB
Besides these, motherboards have other characteristics that are much more expensive, and some of them are unique to certain manufacturers. These additional attributes and quirks make expensive motherboards worth their price.
If your aim is to build a computer for heavy tasks like gaming, streaming, editing, etc., it is suggested not to shy off when getting a motherboard for your computer.
Is it absolutely necessary for you to get the most expensive motherboard for your gaming build? Go through the following section to learn about this.
Should I Get Cheap Motherboards?
Motherboards are relatively more expensive than other components of a computer, but that doesn’t mean that there are cheaper models that you can buy. In fact, you don’t need to get an expensive motherboard if you are going to use your computer just for light work.
If you’re looking for something that can do less-demanding tasks, like editing official documents and files, browsing the internet, sending and receiving emails, watching movies, etc, it is perfectly fine for you to get one of the cheaper, low-spec models. It all depends on what you want to employ your computer for.
Even if you are building a gaming PC, getting Intel’s Z690 chipset is not necessary. There are also other mid-range and low-range budget options for gaming builds. You will miss out on some features, like overclocking.
Overclocking is typically only supported on higher end boards, due to the added cost of enhanced power delivery and VRM cooling. Cheap motherboards may also not support high-end GPUs like the RTX 4000 series.
If you purchase a budget motherboard with only the necessary specifications for your tasks and no other extra features, you’ll be able to get your work done just fine.
So, although getting a high-performing motherboard can heighten your user experience, you can always opt for a cheaper option with specifications and features that meet your needs. Having all those extra features isn’t worth it if you won’t be using them as much.
Conclusion
Motherboards are the most integral components of any computer.
Without a motherboard, all the other parts of a computer are useless since you won’t even be able to connect them together to work in unison.
To build a computer, you must get a motherboard along with other components. Don’t let their price intimidate you. There are justified reasons for it, and you have several budget-friendly options to choose from.
After going through this guide’s content, you will know why motherboards are priced so high, what you are getting for the price and also what kind of motherboard you should get.
