Z87 best board?

[petedread]

There are very few reviews for Z87 boards at the moment because it's only been a few days since it's release. Particularly, the high end boards have had almost no reviews yet. I've seen a brief review of the Asus Maximus Extreme VI, by Techtomorrow (formally motherboards.org). Looks like a very good board as we would expect. I've seen a review of the G1 sniper MATX. It did very well in the review and gives an idea of how well the full ATX board will perform. But so far no review of the full ATX board. Also no review of the Gigabyte Z87 GA-Z87X-OC Force, can't wait to see a review of this. I expect the guys here at TPU will be working on some reviews and I'm really looking forward to reading their opinion because I feel the TPU guys do the best most thorough reviews and for me their opinions hold a lot of weight.
But for now, what do think are potentially the best Z87 2 or 3 OC boards available to man? With out considering price or demographical appeal. Also if anybody can point me to their favourite review site that would be appreciated.

 

[RCoon]

There are very few reviews for Z87 boards at the moment because it's only been a few days since it's release. Particularly, the high end boards have had almost no reviews yet. I've seen a brief review of the Asus Maximus Extreme VI, by Techtomorrow (formally motherboards.org). Looks like a very good board as we would expect. I've seen a review of the G1 sniper MATX. It did very well in the review and gives an idea of how well the full ATX board will perform. But so far no review of the full ATX board. Also no review of the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Force Intel Z87, can't wait to see a review of this. I expect the guys here at TPU will be working on some reviews and I'm really looking forward to reading their opinion because I feel the TPU guys do the best most thorough reviews and for me their opinions hold a lot of weight.
But for now, what do think are potentially the best Z87 2 or 3 OC boards available to man? With out considering price or demographical appeal. Also if anybody can point me to their favourite review site that would be appreciated.

Ask Dave

 

[petedread]

Hoping he mite see this and reply

 

[RCoon]

Asus Mini ITX ROG is my favourite so far though.

I dare say looks at the Z87 MPower, Asus P8 Delux, Maximus Hero etc

 

[petedread]

The Asus deluxe and deluxe duel look good.

I'll google it now, thanks. Is that the Hero?

Looks good. I bet it's a great board at a great price.

 

[sgs2008]

Im personally trying to choose between the hero and the msi mpower

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Asus Maximus Extreme VI or Asus deluxe. The fancy looking MSI one is pretty nice too.

 

[Arjai]

Asus...I'm using an ASUS laptop right now. It's great! However, I will not buy a currently made ASUS motherboard when MSI and GIGAByte have become so much better and more reliable.

I think, today, MSI is the best bet for a motherboard.

2 cents.

 

[Delta6326]

Really most boards $150 and up will all get about the same OC. J.J from Asus even said most get the same results its up to the customer to choice what feature they want like WiFi , bluetooth and audio.

 

[cadaveca]

Really most boards $150 and up will all get about the same OC. J.J from Asus even said most get the same results its up to the customer to choice what feature they want like WiFi , bluetooth and audio.

Also, thermal considerations will also matter, as well as total maximum VRM output for those pushing to the max. Memory clocking will also matter, although that's mostly a BIOS thing. Most users need only change 3-4 settings for a decent OC, no matter what board, which is why all brands have tighter platform-focused designs.

 

[bim27142]

Asus Mini ITX ROG is my favourite so far though.

Me too! Powerful little bastard...

However, I am now hesitant to jump to Haswell as I find this article rather disturbing...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...e_Hotter_and_Slower_Than_Expected_Report.html

Can someone validate this? Any retail owners already out there?

 

[Jstn7477]

I have a fixation with ASRock boards, even if they don't look cool or have amazing UEFI interfaces. It just seems they offer more features at certain price points than other manufacturers, although I could be rather biased. I was surprised to see dual Intel Ethernet jacks and HDMI passthrough on my $170 Z87 Extreme6 along with the Realtek ALC 1150 and 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports. My board also has some fancy "dual-stack MOSFETs" that are supposed to be more efficient as well.

 

[drdeathx]

Really most boards $150 and up will all get about the same OC. J.J from Asus even said most get the same results its up to the customer to choice what feature they want like WiFi , bluetooth and audio.

Yup, JJ said all boards perform equal in CPU benchies. IMO, Asus boards overpriced.

 

[cadaveca]

Yup, JJ said all boards perform equal in CPU benchies.

I am pretty sure I heard him say "they all overclock the same", not "they all perform the same". Doesn't matter, I'll find out for myself.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I have a fixation with ASRock boards, even if they don't look cool or have amazing UEFI interfaces. It just seems they offer more features at certain price points than other manufacturers, although I could be rather biased. I was surprised to see dual Intel Ethernet jacks and HDMI passthrough on my $170 Z87 Extreme6 along with the Realtek ALC 1150 and 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports. My board also has some fancy "dual-stack MOSFETs" that are supposed to be more efficient as well.

I just wish the outside layer of the PCB was a bit thicker so that it would be more of a matte black PCB rather then a brownish, since the copper layer showing through the outer layer is what causes it to be more brown IIRC.

Yup, JJ said all boards perform equal in CPU benchies. IMO, Asus boards overpriced.

Depends on what you out out of your board. Asus boards tend to have the best memory overclocking abilities.

 

[Delta6326]

I am pretty sure I heard him say "they all overclock the same", not "they all perform the same". Doesn't matter, I'll find out for myself.

Yes, I'm craving another review Cad. Do you know when ASUS will release the Maximus VI Gene or can you not say? I really want a good M-ATX board.

 

[drdeathx]

I am pretty sure I heard him say "they all overclock the same", not "they all perform the same". Doesn't matter, I'll find out for myself.

I had a personal conversation with him and in the benchmarks for boards, he was not overly concerned with CPU benchmarks as they will all be within 1% core for core. Asus loves benchmarks where Asus boards shine such as Asmedia controller, PCIE(GPU) benchies, Memory, ect.....

 

[cadaveca]

Yes, I'm craving another review Cad. Do you know when ASUS will release the Maximus VI Gene or can you not say? I really want a good M-ATX board.

It's not out yet? Crap, I have one sitting here. Keep in mind what I posted above.

I had a personal conversation with him and in the benchmarks for boards, he was not overly concerned with CPU benchmarks as they will all be within 1% core for core. Asus loves benchmarks where Asus boards shine such as Asmedia controller, PCIE(GPU) benchies, Memory, ect.....

And I've already got the ASUS boards, here in my livingroom. I don't talk to JJ via professional channels, just on forums, but I don't give a crap about what he said "in person". I'm only interested in public information. There's nothing to hide here, everything is already wide out in the open, IMHO.

Except this whole ES thing...but I might have even have had boards before he did. Not htat that matters, he's very good at what he does, there's no doubt in that.

Also, I'm pretty sure it wasn't JJ doing all the testing with retail chips. That's someone else's job. He merely takes that info and relates it in a palatable manner. He does this is his video guide with Newegg, and says "all boards should overclock equal", which is what we were talking about before you barged in.

 

[drdeathx]

It's not out yet? Crap, I have one sitting here. Keep in mind what I posted above.



And I've already got the ASUS boards, here in my livingroom. I don't talk to JJ via professional channels, just on forums, but I don't give a crap about what he said "in person". I'm only interested in public information. There's nothing to hide here, everything is already wide out in the open, IMHO.

Except this whole ES thing...

Well, benchmarks show on all platforms with both AMD and Intel, CPU benchmarks are very close core for core on all boards. Where Asus shines a bit better is using such things like the ASMedia controller and using more lanes on the board. When those lanes get saturated, Asus does a better job in some instances. The days of having a magic board that overclocks better is over. Overclocking now as you know dave is CPU dependent not board dependent. Yes, low power phase boards may not have an easytime achieving max overclock on a processor but I will say, for extreme overclockers using exotic cooling, Asus bios is second to none with voltage adjustments, LLC and memory overclocking for those looking to get top notch scores on HWBOT.

For the average user through the overclocker not looking to use exotic cooling, all idrange boards from Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock and MSI will overlock within 100MHz or even closer, and performance wise will be very close looking at all benchmarks. Do some shine a bit more on a few benchmarks, yes but most will trade blows.

As far as barging in..... The beauty of a thread is you can say what you feel. Take it or leave it... The OP iis asking what is the best board and this information is relavent to his asking, so this is NOT barging in as you say.

 

[cadaveca]

performance wise will be very close looking at all benchmarks

This is not true, or else, I'd have not received special BIOSes to fix that issue, actually. Just sayin'.

Please do keep in mind I play no brand favorites. There are big differences between boards. Not in OC, yes, and you're right, that's nothing new.

so this is NOT barging in as you say.

meh, btw, did you have a good weekend?

 

[drdeathx]

This is not true, or else, I'd have not received special BIOSes to fix that issue, actually. Just sayin'.

Please do keep in mind I play no brand favorites. There are big differences between boards. Not in OC, yes, and you're right, that's nothing new.

I will say, you are very good with not biasing to one brand or another.


LOLO, my weekend sucked but was good in 1 way, Chicago Blackhawks made it to Stanley Cup. LOL no Canadian team made it... LOLOLOL

 

[petedread]

Asus...I'm using an ASUS laptop right now. It's great! However, I will not buy a currently made ASUS motherboard when MSI and GIGAByte have become so much better and more reliable.

I think, today, MSI is the best bet for a motherboard.

2 cents.

I'm being tempted away from Asus too. I was almost sold on the Gigabyte Z87 OC Formula, but then I saw the G1 Sniper 5 with it's great audio feature. It would have been great if the OC formula had that too. As Dave said, tighter platform-focused designs. It's a tough call. Would that OC formula give me an edge in overclocking?

I use Cubase every day.So outstanding audio is right up my street. The reason I got into high end PC's is because a few years ago you needed a powerful machine to run Cubase smoothly.

 

[petedread]

Just read this.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ne..._audio_z87_maximus_vi_formula_motherboard2013

Then saw this.

http://forums.pureoverclock.com/general-hardware/21126-asus-maximus-vi-formula-z87.html

 

[ZenEffect.]

ASRock Z87 OC Forumula

nuff said.

 

[maijaron]

wow many answers but nobody thought about the real one.

Biostar Hi-Fi Z87X 3D. thats the board you are looking for