Motherboard for I5 3570K

[Jack1n]

Simply find the Z77 motherboard that has all the expansion slots,features you need(good onboard audio if you dont have an audio card for example)and that has good reviews.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by Slizzo

Honestly, I don't see the point of the ROG boards...

Super high price, an overabundance of confusing BIOS features, and they look good

I do have to add that the older ROG boards (I have two, an X38 and x48) are awesome and bullet proof. However, things seem to have changed.

[radrok]

Originally Posted by Slizzo

Honestly, I don't see the point of the ROG boards...

Go under 0c and you'll see the point

[Vlada011]

My vote Maximus 5 Formula without ThunderFX.
For 250e board is not expensive at all for what offer and like top Intel motherboard.
So good sound card is always welcomed.
Because of that Maximus 5 Formula is for me better gaming board and for overclocking under air and water. Extreme is without 3 graphic card and LN2 more than you need.

[ruff0r]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

I do have to add that the older ROG boards (I have two, an X38 and x48) are awesome and bullet proof. However, things seem to have changed.

My old Asus Striker Extreme (680i ) is still and even today under daily use working like a charm also my ASUS K8N4-E in an old Pc works still as well !

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by ruff0r

My old Asus Striker Extreme (680i ) is still and even today under daily use working like a charm also my ASUS K8N4-E in an old Pc works still as well !

And neither run Windows8.

Older ASUS boards are fine, X79 is fine, P67 and Z68 are fine, only Z77 when combined with Windows8-supporting BIOSes are problematic in my testing.


What some product from 3 years ago was like hardly dictates what current ones are like...specifically in the case of ASUS since they contract completely different companies now to manufacture their products compared to 3 years ago, when they used Pegatron.

Originally Posted by Vlada011

My vote Maximus 5 Formula without ThunderFX.
For 250e board is not expensive at all for what offer and like top Intel motherboard.
So good sound card is always welcomed.
Because of that Maximus 5 Formula is for me better gaming board and for overclocking under air and water. Extreme is without 3 graphic card and LN2 more than you need.

I have the ThunderFX version. The ThunderFX unit is really great, but this device has compatibility issues with other USB audio devices that I use, so the ThunderFX sits in the board's box.

As to the board, it worked GREAT when I did the review, but since updating BIOS to get proper Windows8 support, things have quickly gone downhill in regard to how well it works. I have the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS on the Gene and Extreme boards as well, and the Gene itself was one of the very first Z77 boards I reviewed, many many months ago. Again, update to most recent BOIS, and it's a useless paperweight now.


I don't pay for my boards, so to me, it's not a big deal...but if I had paid for them, and they did this, I'd be outright pissed. I won't recommend these products to others based on that, and that's quite difficult to admit, really, since my reviews of the Maximus V Gene and Maximus V Formula report a very different opinion than what I present here. If I reviewed them now in their current state, they'd get a 2/10, since that's about how often booting those boards actually works.

[ruff0r]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

And neither run Windows8.

Older ASUS boards are fine, X79 is fine, P67 and Z68 are fine, only Z77 when combined with Windows8-supporting BIOSes are problematic in my testing.

Windows 7 works fine on the Striker so i would presume so would windows 8

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by ruff0r

Windows 7 works fine on the Striker so i would presume so would windows 8

Unfortuantely, that's not the case. I ran Windows7 perfectly fine too, but Windows8 is a different beast, that requires a BIOS update for proper support.

That BIOS update, broke the boards. And yes, flashing back to previous BIOS fixes some issues, but not all of them. Sad state of affairs, IMHO, since the worst issue left is that SSDs(both SATA 2 and SATA 3 SSDs, SATA and mSATA) are not recognized on cold boot, and it can take several boots before they are recognized.





That BIOS was available for all three boards, and this is when problems began(August BIOS updates, you'll find each board got an update for this), and then got worse and worse with each successive version. The Extreme board has a newer version than the Gene and Formula (1501), and that's the worst of the bunch, at least, for me.

Really, in the end, I don't care what anyone buys. This is what I have experienced, and that is all. If I can save a user some frustration, I'm gonna let them know how to avoid it, and for now, that means ignoring ASUS.

Hopefully we'll see a new BIOS soon, and my opinion will go back to what it was before, that the ROG boards are the best there is.

[rahulyo]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Unfortuantely, that's not the case. I ran Windows7 perfectly fine too, but Windows8 is a different beast, that requires a BIOS update for proper support.

That BIOS update, broke the boards. And yes, flashing back to previous BIOS fixes some issues, but not all of them. Sad state of affairs, IMHO, since the worst issue left is that SSDs(both SATA 2 and SATA 3 SSDs, SATA and mSATA) are not recognized on cold boot, and it can take several boots before they are recognized.


http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...1&d=1357685041


That BIOS was available for all three boards, and this is when problems began(August BIOS updates, you'll find each board got an update for this), and then got worse and worse with each successive version. The Extreme board has a newer version than the Gene and Formula (1501), and that's the worst of the bunch, at least, for me.

Really, in the end, I don't care what anyone buys. This is what I have experienced, and that is all. If I can save a user some frustration, I'm gonna let them know how to avoid it, and for now, that means ignoring ASUS.

Hopefully we'll see a new BIOS soon, and my opinion will go back to what it was before, that the ROG boards are the best there is.

Okk. So no Asus . Then which one i buy ?

[Vlada011]

If man with Maximus 5 Formula say that than listen.
I didn't know that but I have my favorite board and for now serve me well.
I recommend Maximus 5 Formula because I didn't know that, because I would ROG ALWAYS before ASRock, GIGABYTE, MSI and because if I recommend EVGA people will jump on me.

[Crap Daddy]

Any decent Z77 board can get 4.5 on than chip. But if you want better stuff check ASRock Z77 OC Formula. Dave's review here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...ormula/13.html

[brandonwh64]

Pretty much what I said on the first page

Originally Posted by brandonwh64

Pretty much any mid grade Z77 will do the trick.

And even OneMoar thanked my post and that must have to mean SOMETHING!

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by rahulyo

Okk. So no Asus . Then which one i buy ?

Really, even a Biostar board will let you clock your CPU fairly well.

If you want to 24/7 OC, then you should try to get a board designed for that. IF you are running a single VGA, then your choices are many...pick the colours you like, find a board with them, spend a bit over $150 USD, and you'll have a great product, no matter what brand. Each brand have very similar performance, although some boards are better than others, marginally. If you take a look at my Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 review, you can see how close they all are together.


If you have ZERO intention to run Windows8, then you could go for an ASUS ROG board. Just please be wary when updating BIOS. Many OEMs had issues with Windows8 BIOSes, which makes me think there was a new UEFI base code update for that, but some board makers are having issues still. Some aren't clocking memory as well as they did before, while ASUS, for me, has much larger problems. As long as you are aware of the issues, and are willing to deal with them, they really aren't that bad, but they do exist.


If you want to run multiple cards, then that story changes a bit, where some boards are really better than others, as much as 8%.


Overall, the Intel Z77 Express platform is really really good, clocks well, sips the power, and gives amazing performance.


Crap Daddy's suggestion of the ASRock Z77 OC Formula is a great one...Nick Shih is available to help end users with any issues, gives really good answers to problems, and if the board itself needs some work to fix a problem, he WILL get it done. I gotta say, right now I have the utmost respect for Nick and the crew over at ASRock, so they are going to get my vote pretty damn often, for sure.

[rahulyo]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Really, even a Biostar board will let you clock your CPU fairly well.

If you want to 24/7 OC, then you should try to get a board designed for that. IF you are running a single VGA, then your choices are many...pick the colours you like, find a board with them, spend a bit over $150 USD, and you'll have a great product, no matter what brand. Each brand have very similar performance, although some boards are better than others, marginally. If you take a look at my Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 review, you can see how close they all are together.


If you have ZERO intention to run Windows8, then you could go for an ASUS ROG board. Just please be wary when updating BIOS. Many OEMs had issues with Windows8 BIOSes, which makes me think there was a new UEFI base code update for that, but some board makers are having issues still. Some aren't clocking memory as well as they did before, while ASUS, for me, has much larger problems. As long as you are aware of the issues, and are willing to deal with them, they really aren't that bad, but they do exist.


If you want to run multiple cards, then that story changes a bit, where some boards are really better than others, as much as 8%.


Overall, the Intel Z77 Express platform is really really good, clocks well, sips the power, and gives amazing performance.


Crap Daddy's suggestion of the ASRock Z77 OC Formula is a great one...Nick Shih is available to help end users with any issues, gives really good answers to problems, and if the board itself needs some work to fix a problem, he WILL get it done. I gotta say, right now I have the utmost respect for Nick and the crew over at ASRock, so they are going to get my vote pretty damn often, for sure.

Asrock Z77 OC formula out of race . It is EATX . My CM Haf 912 adv doesnt support EATX

In future i will be add another HD 7850, so need bettr mobo for 24*7 oc n multi GPU setup . So which one is gud for me ? How is Asrock Z77 Extreme 6 and Asus Z77 Sabertooth ?

[cadaveca]

I haven't had either of those boards, so have no opinion on them. I imagine that the Sabertooth may have similar issues to the ROG boards, since it seems most ASUS boards share main BIOS code. Extreme6 should be good...I have the Z77 Extreme11 sitting here waiting for me to review, that's an interesting one, but I think that might be outside the form factor you need.

Gigabyte, you could go for the UD3 or UD5H, both are pretty good, and the UD3 is a sleeper OC board.

MSI Z77 MPower is very good too, although I have heard some users with MSI usual problem of BIOS limiting OC in some instances.

Personally, I really like the Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH. It's not a top performer, but having dual Thunderbolt ports is a nice thing, to me. Not everyone is interested in Thunderbolt yet though.

Biostar TZ77XE4 is great too, Crazyeyesreaper has one and cannot say enough good things about it. It won't clock memory as well as the bigger brands though, of course.

[Sasqui]

Huh, no leaning towards Gigabyte. The UDH5 is awesome and the price is right. Only minor downside is no dual 16x PCIe lanes if you were to go SLI/CF.

LOL Dave, as soon as I posted, you were right above me.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Huh, no leaning towards Gigabyte. The UDH5 is awesome and the price is right. Only minor downside is no dual 16x PCIe lanes if you were to go SLI/CF.

LOL Dave, as soon as I posted, you were right above me.

Same can be said for any Z77 board, really, except a few. I do not see it as something to really worry about, even though I have found that the boards that have PLX PEX8747 and offer x16 to dual slots perform better than x8/x8 boards.


I did mention the Gigabyte above a few times as well. That brand wasn't in his list of choices in the outset.

[rahulyo]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Huh, no leaning towards Gigabyte. The UDH5 is awesome and the price is right. Only minor downside is no dual 16x PCIe lanes if you were to go SLI/CF.

I dont want Gigabyte . Having veryyyyyyyyyy bad RMA experience . Pathetic after sales support

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by rahulyo

I dont want Gigabyte . Having veryyyyyyyyyy bad RMA experience . Pathetic after sales support

That explains it.

[rahulyo]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Same can be said for any Z77 board, really, except a few. I do not see it as something to really worry about, even though I have found that the boards that have PLX PEX8747 and offer x16 to dual slots perform better than x8/x8 boards.


I did mention the Gigabyte above a few times as well. That brand wasn't in his list of choices in the outset.

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Huh, no leaning towards Gigabyte. The UDH5 is awesome and the price is right. Only minor downside is no dual 16x PCIe lanes if you were to go SLI/CF.

LOL Dave, as soon as I posted, you were right above me.

Originally Posted by Sasqui

That explains it.

Pls Chk this thread :-

http://www.techenclave.com/consumer-...1/#post1772263

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by rahulyo

Pls Chk this thread :-

http://www.techenclave.com/consumer-...1/#post1772263

That's from 2007, more than 5 years ago. Though I can't speak to Gigabyte support now