Value and performance go hand-in-hand. Chip company AMD is having to play the value game in both CPU and GPU markets. There's nothing wrong with this strategy, of course, but it needs retail partners to be fully cognisant of the messaging. Take the latest 'Kaveri' APUs as an example. They work best when paired with a value-based motherboard, further strengthening AMD's bang-for-buck.

But manufacturers tend to seed press with deluxe boards that usually elicit the same reaction going along the lines of 'a cheaper version would be almost as good.' We've seen MSI and Gigabyte provide £80-plus boards that take some shine away from the overall proposition.