Choosing between these 3 Mobos (MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock) and compatibility of parts

Xtian1911

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Im choosing between these 3. I am trying to build a budget gaming system with expandability. I would like to ask if which of these mobo's should I choose. A friend of mine told me to avoid GIGA and just choose between the 2 but Ill ask you all for this

MSI Z87M-G43
Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H
ASRock Z87 Pro3

Will these parts will be compatible with any of the ones on top.

RAM
G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB(2x4gb) DDR3 1600 Kit
Optical Drive
LG GH24NS95-BK DVD-RW Sata Black
Case
Aerocool Vs-3 Casing Black
PSU
Corsair VS650
CPU
i5-4670k
HDD
Seagate 1TB 7200RPM 64MB, ST1000DM003 (SATA 6 Gb/s)

Thank you
 
Solution
If you want expandability, you should think about going SLI or Crossfire in the future. None of the motherboards you listed have that ability. It looks like all of them only have a single PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot and then the slot immediately below that is a PCI Express 2.0 x4 (or an x1 in the case of the Pro3...yikes!). Many mATX boards have such limitations, but your case can accept a superior ATX board.

The MSi you listed doesn't appear to have very good reviews. Lots of complaints about the UEFI. Of the remaining two I would choose the Gigabyte based on the dual-UEFI system which makes the mobo more robust. Their mobos also tend to be nice and thick and well built in my experience.

If you can stretch your budget, though, you can...

vipervoid1

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Yes ~ it is compatitble~
Btw what GPU u have in ur mind now ??
If u dont really mind about Audio , u can get Gigabyte ~
But MSI have better on-board audio ~

I not sure about Gigabyte quality ~
But my current motherboard from MSI have me running on 24 hour for 5 years ~
Still running great ~
 

Unknown-bjorn

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I currently have an ASrock motherboard.. I am rather pleased with it! I've had no issues with it and its quality is great... Apparently they are made by Asus.. Which is the top brand so i would recommend ASrock and if not then Gigabyte would be my second choice.

Enjoy
 

Xtian1911

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Thank you both.. I know this would be out of topic but I saw a RAM which is in the same price and branding as the RAM I posted but its OCed to 1866.. Should I take the OCed ram or just the 1600 one?
 

Xtian1911

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Just relying on the HD gfx which intel provide atm.. I want a high end one so I'm saving it for last
 

Unknown-bjorn

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I have the corsair vengeance 1600 stick of ram and its not really noticably faster than my friend's 1333 stick.. but if its the same price then i would take it because i dont think they make faster ram for nothing.
 

vipervoid1

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From some tech site forum ~
Your RAM selection is quite good ~
If the price is not high ~
1600 should enough for u , performance wont be different unless u run benchmark ~
U can keep the money for the GPU ~
 

md1032

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If you want expandability, you should think about going SLI or Crossfire in the future. None of the motherboards you listed have that ability. It looks like all of them only have a single PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot and then the slot immediately below that is a PCI Express 2.0 x4 (or an x1 in the case of the Pro3...yikes!). Many mATX boards have such limitations, but your case can accept a superior ATX board.

The MSi you listed doesn't appear to have very good reviews. Lots of complaints about the UEFI. Of the remaining two I would choose the Gigabyte based on the dual-UEFI system which makes the mobo more robust. Their mobos also tend to be nice and thick and well built in my experience.

If you can stretch your budget, though, you can "future proof" your system quite a lot more by getting a higher-end motherboard like the Asrock Z87 Extreme4 or Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H. I went with the Extreme4 because I got one heavily discounted for $105 at Micro Center. Both of those boards support 2-way SLI with PCI Express at x8/x8 and would support high-end graphics in parallel with minimal bottlenecking.

If you decide to go Crossfire or SLI in the future, buy a larger PSU right now based on which cards you will be using.
 
Solution

Xtian1911

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I stretched out my budget to the point that I need to cut some necessities just to ensure my system would be good. I'm not really a big fan of multiple GPUs and if a single CPU and handle 2 or 3 displays then that's more than enough for me. I just want to play in 1 screen then multitask in the other. I could resell the board in the future. Thank you for your answer. :)
 

Xtian1911

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Thank you so much for the compliment. I was choosing between Hyper X and Ripjaws. A friend told me that the OCed one is overrated and I wont really need it since the timings are the same 9-9-9-24 for both. He said timing is what matters.
 

Unknown-bjorn

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If possible.. you must try get CL7 timing rather than higher frequencies.
 

md1032

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OK, tell me which kind of "expandability" you are looking for, then. I interpreted your statement as meaning "upgradeability". Perhaps we can make you a recommendation. You do still have the ability to upgrade your current system. You can add SSD's for increased speed in the future, an aftermarket CPU cooler for overclocking, etc, and you will still have a reasonable motherboard and power supply that can handle upgrading to another single GPU like say the GTX 780.