There was a time when the computer motherboard you bought were all Taiwanese branded ones. Well, enter China into the market, and you guessed it, they devour the budget segment.
I recently got hold of a CPU-RAM-motherboard set because the motherboard became unstable and the owner wanted to upgrade to a brand new set. It would be a waste to dispose the still working CPU and RAM, and the core i3 2120 CPU does perform more than adequately for simple tasks like web browsing and word processing, so I thought, why not get a cheap motherboard and set up a working PC.
For a CPU dating from 2011, you actually can’t find a compatible motherboard available for sale from Amazon or the like anymore. But guess what, Taobao has plenty of such motherboards for sale. Why this is the case, I would guess, is that pricing is a very sensitive thing in China. There is a huge market for people who just wants something that works for the lowest price.
Not only can you find second hand motherboards, new motherboards are also still being manufactured to work with these old CPUs. In fact, they sell complete bundles inclusive of CPU and RAM, and I would guess most people go for these. And why not, if you can get the entry level set for just S$72, vs the current entry level set that would cost almost triple the amount, without a lot of advantage performance wise. I’m guessing that the CPU and RAM bundled are used, but these practically don’t break down forever anyway.
So I bought a motherboard which goes by the brand Kingman for $43, with the B75 chipset which supports USB 3. This particular brand came up as being more attractive than the rest because of the price and the 3 years warranty thrown in.
If your motherboard broke down, you can consider getting a replacement from Taobao and save a bundle.
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