Which 1155 board £150 budget ?

rossiboy001 · 16 Jan 2012 at 19:39

Trying to do my homework for my next build , only MB a processor to get now ,
Reading all these forums , Someone will always have a brilliant version of a board they are happy with while others same board will suck , Realise that across all manufacturers there"s an element of potluck , but the consensus seems to be Gigabyte or Asus .
Whats the best I can do with me £150 ? I prefer black MB"s but its not essential , though will look nice through window with the twin forza 6970 and gunmetal grey rams , but thats only cosmetic , priority is quality
Iv got these two with half an eye on ? or should I be looking at better ?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...bcat=1990&utm_source=forums&utm_medium=banner

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-360-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Cheers all .

beejjacobs · 16 Jan 2012 at 19:43

Both are good boards. Reviews:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z68xp-ud3p_review/11
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/10/asus_p8z68v_motherboard_review/6

RJC · 16 Jan 2012 at 20:14

I have the UD4 version of the Gigabyte and not got any issues, all seems to be going ok

rossiboy001 · 16 Jan 2012 at 20:27

Thanks for the Link BBjacobs , and nice setup RJC , Im looking at the UD4 version , its a couple quid over budget , but ill keep an eye out for a promotion , found a previous review on here made interesting reading .
Think So far it the board of choice Ill buy it if I can get it £150 or under , Seems to be a feeling but this is one of the better well made boards , mind so is the UD3 .

Elevon · 16 Jan 2012 at 20:29

I've the Asus V/GEN3, great board IMHO,excellent UEFI bios with loads of overclocking options etc... also having a Intel NIC is another plus point in my books.

horrorwood · 16 Jan 2012 at 21:49

I had issues with the Gigabyte Z68-UD4 (just google gigabyte boot cycle), I have now swapped to the Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 and so far it seems excellent. The UEFI bios is a nice change too

You really have to wonder why gigabyte can not put out a UEFI bios, are their bios team that shocking? :/

rossiboy001 · 16 Jan 2012 at 21:53

Its a hard call Asus v/gen over the gigabyte models .Though watching youtube videos" on both models Im worried that there may be issues with the SATA connectors being behing the 6970 twin forza card I plan to use , These are two SATA "s thick not single , which will sit behind the card . I wonder if there is any problem as the card will overhang past them , and depending on depth might block me from pushing the card into the PCI E slot ?

mickyflinn · 16 Jan 2012 at 21:59

Another good board is the MSI Z68A-GD65-G3

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z68a_gd65_g3_review/11

Has no one mentioned the Asrock extreme 4?

Davefran · 16 Jan 2012 at 22:10

The only board for me at that price is asrock z68 extreme4 gen3 (just read the owners reviews)

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Review

Never had a single issue with it runs rock solid at 4.6GHz @ 1.312v 24/7, can easily take it over 5GHz, but I prefer it to be cool and quiet.

Elevon · 16 Jan 2012 at 22:13

rossiboy001 said:
Its a hard call Asus v/gen over the gigabyte models .Though watching youtube videos" on both models Im worried that there may be issues with the SATA connectors being behing the 6970 twin forza card I plan to use , These are two SATA "s thick not single , which will sit behind the card . I wonder if there is any problem as the card will overhang past them , and depending on depth might block me from pushing the card into the PCI E slot ?

I've seen a few 6970 Crossfire users with this board in their sig,ie this one ,

Intel Core i7 2600K @ 5.0 GHZ , Asus Z68 Pro , 4 gigs G. Skill DDR3-2133 @ 8-9-8-24-1T, AMD 6990 + Diamond 6970 @ 900/1400 W/Koolance WB's, Koolance CPU-370 for CPU ,1 GTX 480 and 1 GTX 360 Rad , One of a kind Orange Danger Den Monsoon Res , Custom Mountain Mods Pinnacle 24, Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card , Logitech G500 mouse and G11 keyboard , Corsair HS1A headphones , Running 3 Acer P244H in Eyefinity , Featured in CPU magazine Oct 2011 on front cover and page 40 and 41

I have even seen sigs with GTX580 SLI with this board,ie this one

CPU 2600K @ 4.7Ghz
Motherboard Z68-V Pro (BIOS @ 1101)
Cooling Silver Arrow
2 x M4 256GB Crucial SSD (RAID0)
2 x HD103SJ (RAID0)
GTX580 SLI (Lightning & CU II)
Seasonic X-760

TwsT · 17 Jan 2012 at 09:00

both great boards. Personally Prefer the ASUS range but for looks the gigabyte ud4 is miles ahead just such a shame that they didn't go for a uefi bios.

rossiboy001 · 17 Jan 2012 at 09:22

TwsT said:
both great boards. Personally Prefer the ASUS range but for looks the gigabyte ud4 is miles ahead just such a shame that they didn't go for a uefi bios.

I agree Iv been studying reviews and the like since yesterday , The UD4 gigabyte is at the moment ahead for me , though was watching youtube vids of that azus bios and it seems the best . But I guess the priority is spending more time in windows than being in bios , So its not the deal breaker but is a shame , as long as you can do everything needed in the touch bios .

All seem ok for the PCI 3 and ivybridge upgrade ,
Am I right in thinkling the ASrock has 2 PCI x 16 for cards , and would this be better than the 1x16 & 1x8 for SLI or crossfire ? would it give better performance .
That might be a big factor in pushing it up my list ?

Raiden82 · 18 Jan 2012 at 01:30

sorry for crushing your post but was looking for a board around that price or a little more with sli and sata3, sabertooth seems good but odd looking.
RJC that mobo looks cool and well priced, does the sli setup covers all of the pci? will need one for sure for wifi and 1 for a possible soundcard..

Kipper67 · 18 Jan 2012 at 15:06

rossiboy001 said:
I agree Iv been studying reviews and the like since yesterday , The UD4 gigabyte is at the moment ahead for me , though was watching youtube vids of that azus bios and it seems the best . But I guess the priority is spending more time in windows than being in bios , So its not the deal breaker but is a shame , as long as you can do everything needed in the touch bios .

All seem ok for the PCI 3 and ivybridge upgrade ,
Am I right in thinkling the ASrock has 2 PCI x 16 for cards , and would this be better than the 1x16 & 1x8 for SLI or crossfire ? would it give better performance .
That might be a big factor in pushing it up my list ?

Don't think any of the boards at the £150 price point run at dual x16 , they are all x8/x8 , you'd be looking for a board with an nf200 chip such as the asrock extreme 7 if you want more than x8/x8

RJC · 18 Jan 2012 at 20:59

Raiden82 said:
sorry for crushing your post but was looking for a board around that price or a little more with sli and sata3, sabertooth seems good but odd looking.
RJC that mobo looks cool and well priced, does the sli setup covers all of the pci? will need one for sure for wifi and 1 for a possible soundcard..

With multiple GPU'S you will end up with one PCI slot and one PCI-E X1.

Raiden82 · 19 Jan 2012 at 01:39

RJC said:
With multiple GPU'S you will end up with one PCI slot and one PCI-E X1.

Thanks, and actually now that i see most mobos run sli at 8x, is something people do or it's "only dual 16x or not worth it" would it be still worth it dual 560ti for example?

RJC · 19 Jan 2012 at 07:14

Raiden82 said:
Thanks, and actually now that i see most mobos run sli at 8x, is something people do or it's "only dual 16x or not worth it" would it be still worth it dual 560ti for example?

Virtually all P67 and Z68 boards run @ dual 8x only the X79 and the X58 run at dual 16x, at the moment performance between the the two is very minimal.

masscrazy · 19 Jan 2012 at 10:36

RJC said:
Virtually all P67 and Z68 boards run @ dual 8x only the X79 and the X58 run at dual 16x, at the moment performance between the the two is very minimal.

Please explain what you mean by 'at the moment', x8x8 in 2 years time affect performance?

RJC · 19 Jan 2012 at 10:45

masscrazy said:
Please explain what you mean by 'at the moment', x8x8 in 2 years time affect performance?

We can't say for sure what going to happen in years to come, ie with PCI-e 3 coming out with Ivy Bridge and new cards from Nvidia, what the performance will be, it probably will stay roughly the same and in real world performance you might not see any difference.

I would not personally worry regards this to much

Kipper67 · 19 Jan 2012 at 11:15

Don't forget pcie3 x8/x8 is suppossed to be double today's x8/x8 so effectively as fast as x16/x16 if yo are that worried about it.