Z87 - What motherboard would you go for 8pack

Aurhinius

Aurhinius

Aurhinius

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19 Oct 2002
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I am thinking about switching to Z87 and a haswell and wondering what board you'd pick 8PACK?

Looking for a solid no frills board that is rock solid.

I don't need or want, wireless, bluetooth or any other useless feature that detracts from the quality of the motherboard itself.

Also don't want to pay for features I won't use.

Don't need on the fly overclocking buttons either.

I discounted X79 because IVY-E doesn't offer anything over Haswell and X79 is an OLD platform.

Cheers
 
I'm tempted towards the Hero to be honest because it seems to offer exceptional overclocking as well and the more I think about this the more I think pretty much any board will take a haswell to 5ghz because it's the chip that matters not the board!

I'm sure you hit a point where the board starts to matter I am just thinking I will probably not get there on air or custom water.
 
Aurhinius said:
I'm tempted towards the Hero to be honest because it seems to offer exceptional overclocking as well and the more I think about this the more I think pretty much any board will take a haswell to 5ghz because it's the chip that matters not the board!
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I don;t know where you got that from but i think you'll find its the Gigabyte OC or Asus Maximius not the Hero..

Gigabyte OC would be my choice.
 
Perhaps but can anyone provide some imperical evidence of this supposed truth using air or custom water as opposed to LN2?

Buying a record breaking LN2 board doesn't mean I'll see any of that benefit when not using LN2.

I think it might be a myth we are dealing with.

I am not denying that there is a point where having a OC orientated board might improve your overclock but I suspect that happens at the point LN2 starts getting involved and that's the point I am considering.

What are we actually talking about? Some extra CPU power phases that might clean the voltage lines slightly (less ripple?) educated guess here.

So that might mean that clock for clock you could drop the voltage by say 0.2 of a volt probably less?

While with Haswell that will equal a lower vcore temp I wonder if that justifies the extra cost when most people will be using AIR or custom air.

Thinking out loud here and enjoying the discussion.
 
If the board can handle those kind of clocks, even when using LN2 - it can most definitely handle them on air.

My choice would be Gigabyte - they've thrown out some damn good boards on Z77 and now Z87.
 
Honestly I dont think you can go wrong with either the Z87X-OC or the Hero. Both are cracking boards and as you rightly say your overclock us much more likely to be limited by the CPU silicon lottery rather than the board, assuming you're not going sub zero. I went with the Z87X-UD3H (which just happens to be on a this week only offer for than £150) and its a very good board. My i7 4770K is sat 4.6GHz for 24/7 use but can bench at 4.8GHz on air with good temps. Main reason for not getting the Z87X-OC was the UD3H was on offer and I wasn't particularly keen on orange tbh and I don't regret it one bit.
 
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Thought it might be worth mentioning, 8 Pack said in another thread a while back that the Hero has a nerfed bios, where as the Gene, Formula have a more in depth, more options bios.
 
Read similair things about the hero missing features found on the other rog boards. I splashed out on the formula as tbh i loved the look of it. Pointless i know as once all the bits are installed you dont see the board anyway.

From reading on here, the Z87X OC is achieving some really good oc's, and it's a very well priced board. The choices in the sub £200.00 category are pretty good from all the major vendors tbf.
 
Yes I suppose I am just more used to the Asus bios and I find having a ramdisk and Secure erase in the bios a very handy feature.

Not fully decided yet because I see the arguments for the Gigabyte board.
 
So does 8Pack have multiple account or is everyone here also called 8Pack?

I would recommend the Z87X-OC, but if fairness I've not tried any of the Z87 Asus boards so it's not really a fair comparison.
Really you want someone like 8Pack that has had chance to have a good play with a number of boards and really push them to answer this question. Maybe you ask him...
 
Sorry for slow responses guys as some will know I am in Sanfran, benching for Ivy E and ASUS RIVE BE launches.

As for this one three solid contenders, MVIG, Hero which has improved in recent Bios releases and Giga OC.

For me Giga is still the best features for money in this category X2 Bios is the best one. Go with it and rag that CPU and memory for best perf!!!!

The guys above are right to be honest a board thats solid LN2 is solid period.
 
I'm also thinking about this upgrade and wondering if the Formula offers anything over the Hero (particularly if using onboard sound and in terms of OCability). I'm also a fan of the Asus bios rather than Gigabyte.
 
Aurhinius said:
break any records?

Don't rate the MSI M power or X power then? Just interested more than anything had an MSI board a long time ago.
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Yeah I took out a couple!!!

M Power I have not tested. X Power is much good with recent Bios but I have only tested on LN2 cooling so cant comment on how it would go with the CPU on ambient cooling.

I know the gamer range of boards on recent Bios are good ambient as I tested for Overclocked Bundles and they worked fine.
 
MoRT489 said:
I'm also thinking about this upgrade and wondering if the Formula offers anything over the Hero (particularly if using onboard sound and in terms of OCability). I'm also a fan of the Asus bios rather than Gigabyte.
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Formula Clocks better than Hero for sure although Hero is a good board. Formula has full ROG bios with all the tweaks which Hero does not.
 
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