Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 or Asus P8Z68-V PRO ?

Sparx · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:21

Planning a new build shortly, unsure which mobo to pick after reading Stulid's review on the Gigabyte and reading plenty of reviews on the Asus both seem pretty awesome motherboards.

Personal opinions anyone? Which one and why?

£149.98 - Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-361-GI

£151.99 - Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-457-AS

stulid · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:27

The Gigabyte out of those two.

Jony27 · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:43

i would pick neither.

i would pick the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

EDIT* my reasons, support of Ivybridge and PCIe. 3.0 out of the box.

Sparx · 4 Sep 2011 at 14:18

Ok so now it's between the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 and Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3..

Atom · 4 Sep 2011 at 14:28

Gigabyte for me, UK rma and better quality..

SheepBeast · 4 Sep 2011 at 15:02

the gigabyte also has support for ivy bridge and PCIe 3.0

http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1048

i am facing the same decision between the asrock and the gigabyte. think i'll go with the gigabyte as i have heard (courtesy of stulid) that the build quality is better

Sparx · 4 Sep 2011 at 15:24

Gigabyte it is.

Thanks all for your advice.

Terrier_Jimlad · 4 Sep 2011 at 17:43

I've always hated Asus with a passion, and used nothing but Gigabyte for the past 3/4 years for pure reliability, features, and yes a UK based RMA. However, I've just bought my 2500k setup and gone with the ASRock Extreme4 Gen3 as Jonny posted above.

Beats both of the other 2 boards you mentioned above - http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z68_extreme4_gen3_review,1.html

Sparx · 4 Sep 2011 at 20:16

Ahhh, completely torn... Gigabyte for UK based RMA (although I shouldn't have to factor it on that!), reliability, features, Dual BIOS, PCI-E 3.0 support, etc..

However I know the Asrock has PCI-E 3.0 support, does it have a dual failover BIOS? But what features does it have and not have compared to the Gigabyte?

Sparx · 5 Sep 2011 at 22:55

Any more opinions guys?

Davefran · 5 Sep 2011 at 23:10

+1 for the Asrock, it has vga, dvi and hdmi outputs onboard and a better lan ;-)

)

correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the onboard sound is better too

Red Leader · 18 Oct 2011 at 02:43

Terrier_Jimlad said:
I've always hated Asus with a passion, and used nothing but Gigabyte for the past 3/4 years for pure reliability, features, and yes a UK based RMA. However, I've just bought my 2500k setup and gone with the ASRock Extreme4 Gen3 as Jonny posted above.

Beats both of the other 2 boards you mentioned above - http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z68_extreme4_gen3_review,1.html

Sorry but I am checking the benchmarks right now, it's a bit strange everybody on this board made the same mistake.

While you are right the Asrock Extreme4 review from your link shows it beats the Gigabyte Z68X-UD4, tested in May, meaning an older BIOS, not the Z68XP-UD4 that Vortez never tested.

However on August 31 they did reviewed the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P, and this time it's the Gigabyte board, almost identical to the Z68XP-UD4, which beats the Asrock in all tests. Particularly, in the x264 HD first pass test, the Gigabyte at stock speed (3.3Ghz) managed to almost (122fps) equal the 5GHz Asrock (124fps)! Overclocked at 4.8Ghz, it beats severely the Asrock with 149fps vs 124fps!

Also the Z68XP-UD4 has 16 phases vs 12 for Asrock, has Another SATA3 controller, a much better sound chip (ALC 889 is superior to 892, even if counterintuitive), automatic BIOS backup (you cant brick it even if the BIOS failed). It also has a better look and cleaner board layout, and seemingly a better built quality and heavier heatsinks.

Crezzlin · 18 Oct 2011 at 02:50

Gigabyte

naefeart · 18 Oct 2011 at 15:12

I'm still dubious about Gigabytes PCI-E 3.0 support, ASUS said their boards would also provide support via a bios upgrade and then started releasing GEN 3 versions of their boards...

I'd go for the Asrock if I was worried about future compatibility atm.

Red Leader · 18 Oct 2011 at 16:42

Tests show that you loose only 1-2% fps when you use the latest top end graphics card in a PCIE8x, compared to PCIE16x. By the time any graphics card saturates PCIE 2.0, Intel will probably have produced at least one (or even two) new socket. Most likely you will have changed your MB before you need more PCI bandwidth.

qbazdz · 20 Oct 2011 at 13:03

I would ad the MSI GD65 to this mix... Vortez has just done the review and it seems really good...
I still cant make up my mind... <banging head in the wall repeatedly :confused:

>

miker1 · 20 Oct 2011 at 14:00

This may not matter to you, but I believe the Gigabyte does not have the new-style UEFI Bios.

[sure someones will correct me if wrong :>} ]

Hyburnate · 20 Oct 2011 at 14:05

miker1 said:
This may not matter to you, but I believe the Gigabyte does not have the new-style UEFI Bios.

[sure someones will correct me if wrong :>} ]

So does the Asus.

Davefran · 20 Oct 2011 at 14:24

Red Leader said:
Sorry but I am checking the benchmarks right now, it's a bit strange everybody on this board made the same mistake.

While you are right the Asrock Extreme4 review from your link shows it beats the Gigabyte Z68X-UD4, tested in May, meaning an older BIOS, not the Z68XP-UD4 that Vortez never tested.

However on August 31 they did reviewed the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P, and this time it's the Gigabyte board, almost identical to the Z68XP-UD4, which beats the Asrock in all tests. Particularly, in the x264 HD first pass test, the Gigabyte at stock speed (3.3Ghz) managed to almost (122fps) equal the 5GHz Asrock (124fps)! Overclocked at 4.8Ghz, it beats severely the Asrock with 149fps vs 124fps!

Also the Z68XP-UD4 has 16 phases vs 12 for Asrock, has Another SATA3 controller, a much better sound chip (ALC 889 is superior to 892, even if counterintuitive), automatic BIOS backup (you cant brick it even if the BIOS failed). It also has a better look and cleaner board layout, and seemingly a better built quality and heavier heatsinks.

What about all the benchmarks it gets beaten by the Asrock then ?
Try reading it again.
Asrock beats Gigabyte in 13 of those tests

+1 for AsRock.
Gigabyte doesn't have vga or Dvi out.( Doubt it has gen3 switches either)

Nelly · 20 Oct 2011 at 14:35

I've not tried any of the other boards but my MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) is a good board, they have been releasing new beta bios virtually every couple of weeks.

I'm currently running my CPU at 4.5GHz on Auto Volts i.e. 1.328v load, 0.960v idle, good enough for me.

I have e-mailed MSI on Tuesday, I got a reply on Wednesday and sent pics and more details about the a few things I want addressing, other than these minor things it's a great motherboard.

Phase control under APS is still either 50% or 100%, i.e. minimum of 3LEDs lit or all 6. I am using Intel SVID which works correctly.
CPU-Z bus speed is still at 99.8 even though 100 is selected in the BIOS. setting it to 10010 results in a 100,2 bus. (Spread Spectrum needs fixing, like they fixed with the B3 motherboards.)
No Offset option in bios, hopefully get implemented.

ASRock would be worth a shout in my opinion, not sure how good their RMA service is, their warranty is only 2 years but who keeps a motherboard more than 2 years anyway.

Gigabyte has the best warranty service, but still using old Bios i.e. no UEFI and not fully PCI-E 3.0 compatable only from the 1st graphics lane, I reckon they will release new motherboards soon.

Asus a few weeks ago announced they are launching fully PCI-E 3.0 motherboards as well, they have crap RMA service if anything goes wrong after 28 days of purchase - expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks maybe more for a replacement.