Z68 - Asus, Gigabyte or Asrock?

titaniumx3

titaniumx3

titaniumx3

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For a 2700K, which of these would you get for maximum overclock and reliability?

Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBFIA-G0EAY00Z]

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-Z68X-UD5-B3]

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3]

I've always used Asus boards, which is the only reason I'm wanting to go for the Asus. Not sure if they produce good boards anymore or have any advantages over other manufacturers?

The Gigabyte board seems highly recommended when it comes to overclocking, but it seems to have certain features missing, like PCI-E 3.0. Are these features important?

The Asrock seems very good, but I've always seen them create budget motherboards. Is this still the case?

:confused:

Some advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
ASUS - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=20605102&postcount=13

ASROCK - a few reports of damaged pins in the cpu socket upon arrival also silly things such as inverted mouse control in the BIOS occasionally (But a update should/does fix this.)

Gigabyte - 20 phases for the cpu circuitry should give it an advantage in the overclocking department. It is missing Lucid and Quicksync.


The Gigabyte is the only one with a UK support and RMA center.

like PCI-E 3.0. Are these features important?
Click to expand...

Not unless you add a ivybridge cpu and a next generation gfx card.
 
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I've owned both the ASRock E4G3 and two Asus P8Z68-V Pro (one is RMA replacement) and much prefer the ASRock, my first Asus had a problem with onboard audio jack sensing (Realtek dialogue kept popping up thinking something had been plugged in) and both have a lot of noise intererence in the onboard audio.
 
Are the performance from these boards the same? There's a review of the Asrock Extreme4 on bit-tech which puts it's performance a fair bit below similiar boards.
 
They are all around the same, you will need to do benchmarking to see the small differences between them. It really is a non issue.
 
titaniumx3 said:
Thanks.

Also, regarding the Gigabyte UD5 board, according to this article it will support Ivy Bridge and PCI-E 3.0 via bios update:

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

Is that even possible?
Click to expand...

Well ivybridge will use the same socket and all 1155 boards from H61/H67 chipsets to the highend will support it, many manufacturers have already released BIOS updates for this.

The PCi-E3.0 is a little more complicated depending on the actual motherboard, but lets just say PCi-E3.0 cards will work perfectly fine in PCI-E2.0 slots as they are backwards compatible.
 
Man, I'm not sure what to get now, sigh.

I'm also looking at the MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 and it seems to be getting great reviews too. Would that be any good compared the aforementioned boards? I also noticed that it only has 10 power phases (or whatever they're called) for the CPU. Does that make any difference in this case?

Also, is the Asus P8Z68-V PRO really that bad? I've always trusted Asus boards, never really had a problem (except once, but that was ages ago).
 
The MSI has 8 phases for the CPU, the other two are for RAM/IGP, more = better as they share the load and thus run cooler and more stable voltages.

I would ignore ASUS, there is also the Gigbayte Z68Xp-UD4 which has Lucid/Quicksync etc and has 16 phases for the CPU.
 
Think I'm gonna go for the Gigabyte UD5 board then as it seems like the best overclocker, PCI-E 3.0 is supported for single card config (which is all I need) and the other features I don't really need.
 
The expansion card layout is more conventional, as the UD4 has the two PCI slots at the bottom. I think that's right.

Does anyone actually use the Lucid/Quicksync? Is it worth getting the Gigabyte XP boards over the X just for that? Otherwise I think the UD5 has the edge, especially on offer.
 
Well the big advantage to having a board with a onboard GFX solution (or passthrough in this case) is that if there is ever a issue with a GFX card then you can still use the PC.
 
Nobody is really using Lucid Virtu for the power saving then?

I have a Radeon HD 5450 here for if the worse happens to the gfx. It is happening too, my 5870 is unreliable, but that's another story.

I think on balance, the UD5 would be the best choice and the board you'll be most glad you got in 2 or 3 years time. That's the way I see it. I wish it was all black like the UD3P and UD4 though, it looks better in my eyes.
 
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