Which Gen3 Motherboard should I go for?

Inaharry

Inaharry

Inaharry

Associate
Joined
3 Aug 2004
Posts
252
Hi everyone,

I'm planning on getting an HD7970 when they're released in a few weeks and thought that I might as well upgrade to a Sandy Bridge based system as I've been waiting to do this for a while now.

I've been looking at a few boards to go with either an i5-2500k or i7-2700k (depending on what the overall price will end up being). The most important requirement is for it to have PCie 3.0 slots because of the HD7970, (when I put an Ivy Bridge CPU in it eventually). I'd also like some USB 3.0 ports and SATA 3 is important for my M4.

I've narrowed down the choices to a few boards. These are:

Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z
Gigabyte G1 Sniper 2
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 or GD80-G3

I think I've already decided against the Asus because, although I like the amount of USB 3.0 and SATA-3 ports and the fact it's got UEFI BIOS and that it can be run in x16/x16 with SLi because of the NF200, it's not PCIe 3.0, (probably because of the NF200).

So that leaves me with the Gigabyte and MSI. There's a massive difference in price and the one downside with the Gigabyte Sniper is the lack of UEFI, so I'm not sure whether to go for one of the two MSI models and then use the difference in money to either get the i7 or a dedicated souncard like the Asus Xonar or Creative X-fi or whether to go for the Sniper and live with the old style BIOS, but benefit from the on-board X-Fi and Bigfoot Killer.

Both boards have had fairly favourable reviews.

One question I can't find the answer to is which of the Creative X-Fi dedicated soundcards does the Gigabyte Sniper's onboard CA20K2 closely relate to? Is it one of the cheaper OEM based cards or one of the higher rated, more expensive Creative cards? Basically, I know that the Bigfoot Killer is worth £60, but is the onboard sound worth the extra £90 that the board costs over the MSI?

Any advice or other product suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks. :)
 
I5 2500k OEM + normal GEN3 asus or ASrock board?

sniper board is a waste of money for the killer nic you could get a normal board and the killer 2100 for a lot less.And thier onboard sound is meh it wont compare to say a Xonar D2 or STX which again u might be able to afford with saving by getting a normal GEN 3 asus board or something.

When u go IVY for that u can still do 8x/8x 3.0 which would be the exact same as 16x/16x PCIE 2.0 i think?

2500k £160
Asus xonar D2 £90
Killer 2100 £59

Oh and u get to keep UEFI
 
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Thanks very much for all of your suggestions, it really helped.

I've been looking at loads of reviews for the Gigabyte and MSI boards as well as the Asrock ones that you've suggested and I think I'm going to go for the MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 for two reasons, one is that all of the reviews I've seen were very positive and it's been winning gold and Editor's Choice awards, but it's also on 'This Week Only' at £138, so it's a bit of a bargain too! :D
 
Inaharry said:
Thanks very much for all of your suggestions, it really helped.

I've been looking at loads of reviews for the Gigabyte and MSI boards as well as the Asrock ones that you've suggested and I think I'm going to go for the MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 for two reasons, one is that all of the reviews I've seen were very positive and it's been winning gold and Editor's Choice awards, but it's also on 'This Week Only' at £138, so it's a bit of a bargain too! :D
Click to expand...

MSI and Asrock are good choices,I'm using the Asus Z68 V/Gen3 and it has been solid so that gets my vote :) .
 
I have an Asus P8Z68-v/gen3 too. I think it's a cracking board. Amongst its positives are more power phases than equivalently-priced products from other manufacturers, good quality onboard sound (if you need that), extra VRM features and power options, and built-in Bluetooth with BTGo! (some people see this as a bit gimmicky, but it is actually an excellent way to use your smartphone with your PC imo). It also has the best UEFI BIOS it seems, and the widest range of options to adjust (as far as I've been able to ascertain anyway, someone may well correct me on this...).

On the downside, you only get 6 SATA ports total, including only two 6GB/s ports (you get more with the more expensive PRO version, though), there are some question marks about the kind of service you get should something go wrong after retailer warranty period ends, and there are some eccentricities to the BIOS and Windows interfaces: some people have double boots with XMP enabled, I think (though I never have), there are others who have issues with USB ports switching off if power saving options are set in a certain way, and it can take some getting used to the vdroop and LLC interactions (though this may be the case on all Z68 boards?).

Overall, I think it's a very good option; it's given me nothing but sterling service with no problems, and I really like some of the added features.
 
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+1 for the Asrock, the main thing that put me off the Msi boards is there is no offset voltage option.
So you either have to rely on the auto voltage which can sometimes feed excessive vcore to the chip. Or use manual vcore, which doesn't drop down when the speed does at idle.
 
Davefran said:
+1 for the Asrock, the main thing that put me off the Msi boards is there is no offset voltage option.
So you either have to rely on the auto voltage which can sometimes feed excessive vcore to the chip. Or use manual vcore, which doesn't drop down when the speed does at idle.
Click to expand...
Yep kind of annoying if you have a CPU with a vid of 1.40 but will do 1.28v @ 4.6Ghz on manual like one of my 2500K's.

I've asked MSI 5 times when giving feedback on Beta BIOS since July about adding offset, all they say is they will pass it on to the relevant dept.

From what I gather Gigabyte motherboards - DVID/Offset doesn't work properly i.e. BSOD's and you cannot use it with LLC enabled anyway, can you with the ASRock motherboards?
 
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