Best z87 board for gaming to get for 150$?

Solution
We been going back and forth on this in a few threads.... I just had a similar problem w/ Asus but I wouldn't use my single or other anectdotal experience to condemn a company. I still buy Asus over $200 ....their offerings are just no longer anywhere near competitive in this price segment. I have an Asus Z77-A build back on my dining room table (done 4 to date) .....built it two weeks ago and user dropped it off about an hour ago (BIOS refuses to remember settings every now and then, SSD keeps dropping from No.1 in boot order and memory LED stops boot process which can only be resolved by removing GFX card).... probably the most time I have put into a build in 8 or 9 years.....

I wont do another Z87-A.....not because of the...

trance9009

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2012
71
0
18,640
thank you jacknaylorpe, I had that motherboard in mind, also the Asus Z87-A and the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H also came to mind. Never had an MSI board and always been a fan of asus. Is the MSI z87 645 going to be compatible with my corsair vengeance pro ram or is there another ram kit that would better suite the board? also will be running i7 4770 k processor
 
I became an Asus fan with the P2B-S which I think came out in 1999 .... went into 90+% of my builds......

And while I still choose Asus above the $200 mark, Im down on the MoBos below $200 as they getting out hustled in several niches by MSI. The GD-65 is a killer board at the $180 mark and the G45 just dropped from $155 to $140. Greta looks, great OC, MIL spec components ....ya gotta get up to Asus TUF and ROG series to get that stuff and thatz big $$

On the GFX card front, Asus ruled the market with the factory OC'd 670 performance. But now Asus' 700 comes outta the box at a paltry 1058MHz compared to MSI's 1137 and the MSI is cheaper !
 

trance9009

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2012
71
0
18,640


Ok so i will go with the g45, one last thing would corsair vengeance pro ram 16gb be a good choice, or should i go with gskill trident or something else?
 
Wow....I must be old....:) ..... back in the day (mid-late 90s / early 00's), Mushkin was **THE** "enthusiasts" brand, the one ya bought when ya wanted better then Corsair or Micron....the Porsche if you will of the memory market. Joints that sold pre-built puters would list Mushkin RAM prominently in their ads. They never advertise.... but then again, neither does Porsche.

I also remember that, at one time at least, Mushkin included NASA among its customers. It is still considered a maker of "performance-enhanced computer products". Its Chronos Deluxe SSD was one of the 1st to contain long life / hi performance toggle mode modules and it is still (2 years later) in THGs Tier 1 of SSDs. In the last 20 years, I have returned 1 set of Mushkins, maybe 3-4 sets of Corsairs and prolly 7 or 8 sets of Gskills....tho I haven't had a set of the G's in at least 5 years....those returns were almost all in a 10 month period

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4490/mushkin_redline_pc3_17000_16gb_kit_review/index.html

Gskill, like Asrock, at least back even 5-6 years ago, was considered the equivalent of the "walmart" brand .... gained lotta popularity over the last 8 or 9 yeas as price wise, again like asrock, it's always among the most affordable. But given the reviews, it would seem that both are coming up in the world. Asrock now offers a 3 year warranty when back in P8P67 days it was almost exclusively 1 or 2 years.

 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
The Asus Z*& A model is a good mobo and would be a good choice, I won't touch MSI, poor QC and support.

For DRAM the Corsirs will work fine but I'd go GSkill, been using them fairly exclusively for a few years, they are the market leader in sales and innovation with the widest variety of sets out there. For the Z87 I'd look to Tridents or Snipers from GSkill

 

trance9009

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2012
71
0
18,640

i was just about to make the purchase till i read this :(

 
We been going back and forth on this in a few threads.... I just had a similar problem w/ Asus but I wouldn't use my single or other anectdotal experience to condemn a company. I still buy Asus over $200 ....their offerings are just no longer anywhere near competitive in this price segment. I have an Asus Z77-A build back on my dining room table (done 4 to date) .....built it two weeks ago and user dropped it off about an hour ago (BIOS refuses to remember settings every now and then, SSD keeps dropping from No.1 in boot order and memory LED stops boot process which can only be resolved by removing GFX card).... probably the most time I have put into a build in 8 or 9 years.....

I wont do another Z87-A.....not because of the above problem.....I'm not going to condemn Asus for a bad egg. And while it's a very affordable MoBo, it's simply too "feature poor" for it's price compared with what else is out there.....and unless it's a TUF or ROG MoBo, you're a 3rd class citizen dealing with Asus TS.

Don't take what Im writing as gospel, Id suggest reading the reviews. Everybody has their favorites but don't confuse sales with quality....remember Walmart outsells everybody. The G45 reviews are "glowing". Asus, long the favored son of many reviewers are now singing the praises of MSI .... Asus still owns the top end, but as you will read below, they've surrendered the middle

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_z87_gd65_gaming/12.htm

MSI has been using components that meet or exceed MIL-STD-810G for some time as part of its Military Class build philosophy. Parts such as Super Ferrite Chokes that run at up to 35 degree Celsius lower temperatures, have a 30% higher current handling capacity, and a 20% improvement in power efficiency; Tantalum filled Hi-C Caps that are are up to 93% efficient; and "Dark Capacitors" that feature Lower ESR and a ten-year lifespan all tied into a PCB with improved temperature and humidity protections as part of the "Military Essentials" package......In the end MSI's Z87-GD65 is a board that comes with an expansive feature set that includes all your basics and the extras that set them apart such as the V-Check points, upper end audio, Dual BIOS ROMs, KIller Network package, Military Class IV package, and a three-year warranty. Couple that with good looks that carry the dragon theme through the board, and you have a winning combination at $189.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z87_gd65_gaming_review/15

Now and again a motherboard appears that is so obviously brilliant, and so affordable, that we wonder if anything will be able to top it. For a while that crown was held by the ASUS Sabertooth, both in X58 and then P67 variants. Then MSI stole the crown with the Z77 MPower. Looking at the Z87 GD65 Gaming we think it's going to take something extraordinary to top it, such is the perfect storm of price, performance, features and looks.

The switch to Military Class 4 has given us an extremely ready overclocker too. You're always thermally limited when overclocking and the i7-4770K is one of the most demanding around. Considering the amount of cooling we're using we think that although the GD65 is capable of bringing 5GHz from our i7-4770K you'd need a proper water loop to make the most of it.

Performance is outstanding. The stock results were a particular highlight. We know a lot of people still just like to put their CPU in and go, without overclocking it first. Despite how easy it is these days we know that the fear factor still exists. So you'll be glad to know that the MSI Z87 GD65 Gaming really rocks hard even at stock settings. Naturally the overclocking is blistering too, with some OC3D records broken.

MSI have laid the gauntlet down to all the other manufacturers. Gorgeous to look at, blistering performance and all at a very affordable price, the MSI Z87 GD65 Gaming is not only the new benchmark for Z87 motherboards, but probably for all motherboards.

The G45 also has the same MIL spec components as the GD-65 thou has few less features

G45 reviews ....
http://www.bjorn3d.com/2013/08/msi-z87-g45-gaming-motherboard-review/
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/msi_z87g45_gaming/12.htm
http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/motherboards/34994-msi-z87-g45g?showall=1&limitstart=
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/07/22/msi-z87-g45-gaming-review/7
http://www.pcgameware.co.uk/reviews/motherboards/msi-z87-g45-gaming-motherboard-review/
 
Solution

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Reviews aren't really my cup of tea, these reviews are all done with mobos sent out by the manufacturer and each mobo is hand culled only the best go out, also keep in mind the places doing the reviews know that if the review is bad they may no longer get new products from manufacturers....all mobo manufacturers do it so it's an across the board thing....when you look at reviews by users, those also have to be taken with a grain of salt, but repeated mentions of things like bad DRAM slots, bad ethernet ports, etc makes you wonder...I won't build with MSI, but of all the calls I get for major problems and failures MSI mobos get more than any any other two manufacturers put together....and this has been going on for a few years now, it also shows in their sales, they were #3 a few years back and have been sliding backwards since then, the Rock passed them in 2010 for #3 and has continued to increase market share, Asus and GB continue as #1 and 2
 
I agree MSI was "lost" back in P8P67 days failing to maintain an identify for themselves in any way. However starting with Z77 they attacked the middle market with some very aggressively designed products which have been very successful. Listening to your experience I am reminded of a colleague who bought 2 dozen 7200.11 Seagate drives cause he "got a deal" ....They had a firmware problem and he was stuck w/ 24 of them.....he won't use Seagate to this day which means his clients never benefited from last year's best drive (Bararcuda XT), this year's current standout (7200.14) and never used the Momentus XT ....all class leading units. I bought well over 30 7200.10s and 7200.12's never had a problem..... we just fell on opposite sides of the "hardware lottery".

The Rock passed MSI in a period of recession when MSI was without direction and Asrock did so by offering the cheapest alternative in almost every niche. While every other manufacturer offered a 3 year warranty on their boards, Asrock stuck at just 1 and 2 years and their users on a budget were willing to risk it. It doesn't have to be good when it's cheap as Walmart continues to show us. I credit Asrock with upping their warranty and improving their component selection but I still have a MoBo or 2 around here that I save to show people what leaking and bulged caps look like. The eban counters knew well waht they were doing w/ those warrantees.

I used Asus almost exclusively (few gigabytes) from late 1990s to recent years. I never felt comfortable with MSI back then especially after they "cheated" with the MSI 660 PEs. I only started using them for MoBo's since Z77 because of the great reviews and peeps coming in and repeatedly asking for them. Only with the release of the 7xx series did i start using them for GFXcards and for one simple reason.....how do I convince a user to select a factory overclocked Asus card for $410 @ 1058 MHz when the MSI is $400 and is clocked at 1137 Mhz.....it's simply not competitive

Same thing with the MoBo. I want a full size board w/ MIL spec components w/ Asus I gotta spring for $240... that comes at $140 w/ MSI. The feature set between the Z87-A and the G45 continues the trend.....G45 has extra PCIE slot, better audio, MIL spec components, extra SPDIF, Killer ethernet, OC Genie, gold plated game ports, .... again, you just get more.

Im not discounting your experience with MSI, I'm just saying I have not experienced same, I don't know anyone else who has experienced same and when I go looking I can't find anyone who has had more than anecdotal one time experiences with their Z87 and 87 mobos. I can't judge them for their pre-Z87 era products as I have no experience with same. A company's performance has to be viewed in a time context. If I judged Asus Vid cards by the performance of the 7xx series, id never have owned one. If I judged them by the performance of the 6xx series, id never buy anything else.

Id much rather do a Asus MoBo Build as I much prefer their BIOS .... but like the current vid cards, in the $140-$200 price category, they just don't compete very well with the competition. Asus Hero, Asus Maximus VI Formula, Asus Sabertooth I'll take in a heartbeat .... Maximus Extreme, and Z87-A just don't measure up. Again, I'm not discounting your experience, but each way I turn I'm not finding anyone who has had similar run of experiences on Z77 and Z87 boards.