Devil's Canyon board for a Corsair 250D

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I'm looking for a board in the next week or so to pair with a 4690K in a Corsair 250D but can't quite settle and was looking for some advice. I'm hoping to do a bit of overclocking so a Z97 around £110-120 is what I'm looking for.


  • The layout in the MSI Z97I Gaming AC looks like a pain, so I'm not keen on it.

  • The Gigabyte Z97N-Gaming 5 looks alright apart from the 8-pin and fan connectors at the top/rear, but I can't find any reviews of it. Has anyone used it or does anyone have any opinions on this board?

  • The Asus Z97I Plus looks fine apart from the power and fan connectors and gets great reviews, but for some reason comes with ALC892 audio when pretty much everything else comes with ALC1150. Does anyone know if there is much of a difference?

  • The Asus Z87 Maximus VI Impact looks perfect apart from the price tag and the Maximus VII Impact coming out "some time this quarter", which could mean any time between now and the end of September.

So does anyone know about the Gigabyte board or the ALC892 audio in the Asus Plus board, or have any other suggestions?
 
danewesley said:
I'd get the asus mate....always check clearance lines! ASUSssss!!!!
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Yeah, I was thinking about making wiggle room in the budget and just going for it anyway, not like there's a lot of difference between the Z87 Impact VI and the Z97 Impact VII whenever that eventually arrives.

Hope that B-grade board comes with everything...
 
I can recommend the Z87I Pro on layout alone; it's pretty much perfect. Then I think the sound is the better of the two (if not then I haven noticed).
 
tbyeah said:
I can recommend the Z87I Pro on layout alone; it's pretty much perfect. Then I think the sound is the better of the two (if not then I haven noticed).
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The sound is the better of which two? The Z87 Pro and the Impact VI?

Also, that yellow! :o :p
 
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Although you can get a BIOS update for the Z87 boards to support the Devi's Canyon chips, I'm not sure if they'd be recognised before the updated was applied. As a result you won't be able to update the BIOS without having an earlier Haswell chip in the board first (although I think the ROG boards can flash from USB without powering anything else up).

But if you're going for big overclocks on your DC, then I'd only ever say Maximus VII Impact.
 
LePhuronn said:
although I think the ROG boards can flash from USB without powering anything else up.

But if you're going for big overclocks on your DC, then I'd only ever say Maximus VII Impact.
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Yup, that crossed my mind so the ROG flashback is kinda what I'm planning on doing. It's a great idea really.

I would like to OC the 4690K but I'll not be trying for any world records, so I won't mind if it isn't quite as good as the Z97. Bearing in mind that Asus still haven't said anything about when the VII is coming out I've made a little room in the budget and gone for the VI. Fingers crossed I'll get this built at the start of next week.
 
I have recently upgraded and have took a gamble on the MSI Z97I Gaming AC. It paid off, its a serious bit of kit.

I was a solid Asus and Gigabyte user over past 12 years. This came out earlier and i just took the plunge. So glad i did.
Has good six phase power design , good heatsinks and clocks like a monster. You will not be limited at by this board. Your cpu will be the limit.

Have my i5 4670K now up to 4.8ghz for benches. The voltage needed for the chip holds it back. The board wants more.
Bearing in mind coming from a Z87N Gigabyte my highest was 4.4ghz :-O

Though to add to your OP, all the boards will do the job and well. It all depends on budget and aims really. Though cant encourage you buy the Z87 Impact as its old chipset and for a high price. Buy Z97 mate.
 
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McstylisT said:
Though cant encourage you buy the Z87 Impact as its old chipset and for a high price. Buy Z97 mate.
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I ended up going for the Impact because of the other features in the board, the layout and a better price somewhere else. From what the reviews said there wasn't a huge difference between Z87 and Z97 apart from maybe Broadwell compatability, which I'm not honestly fussed over. I'd have loved a Z97 Impact but all Asus will say about that is Q3 which could mean the end of September, and I wanted to get this built this week.
 
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