Best choice for a budget Z87 motherboard??

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RXS78

RXS78

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Apr 12, 2011
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Hi all

Trying to limit my budget on a partial rebuild and need some guidance on best choice of mobo. Here's the gist of what I'm putting together:

i5-4670k
8GB DDR3 1600
7870XT (ideally) but perhaps 7950, GTX 660/760 - just depends what deal I can find
Kingston HyperX 3k 120GB SSD
...recycling other components including a good PSU, HDD, ODD, Case, etc.

I may try OCing in the future - not sure as never done it before but open to the idea of trying. PC is typical home use, office use (when working from home), some gaming (when I have time) and watching movies. I've shortlisted some mobos below and would really appreciate a helping hand. I've shortlisted into 3 categories in only slightly different price brackets and am basically looking for the best 'bang-for-the-buck', but I'm really not sure what I'd be losing out on if I shave a few £s off here and there so please let me know what you think and why...

Here's the shortlist I was planning to choose from:

ASRock Extreme4 - £109
Asus Z87- A - £104
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H - £103

These are slightly more but do they offer any real advantage?

ASRock Extreme6 - £133
Asus Z87 Plus - £124
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H or UD4H - £134/£135

Here are the cheaper options but would I be sacrificing anything?

ASRock Pro3 (£77), Pro4 (£82) or Extreme 3 (£95)
Asus Z87-C or Z87-K - both £95
Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 (£87) or GA-Z87-D3HP (£99)

Sorry there are so many but I'm not really up to date on mobo features as you can probably tell and figured some of you would be able to answer straight off and save me some immediate research. Many thanks in advance.

RS
 
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RXS78

RXS78

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Apr 12, 2011
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Thanks both. So not worth stepping up to the higher-priced ones then by the sounds of it. What about if I stepped down to the cheaper ones? Do the quality and features drop off too much?
 
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junkeymonkey

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ya i just posted on another therad about the vrm's seems that there is no standered with intel, and thats what i'm looking at now. 6 phase 12 phase what ever, and you got to see what you get for your $$. and what quility is it? is the gigabyte with a 6+ phase for 145$ as good or better then a asus 210$ with a 8+ phase?? i mean it all over the place . forme asus z87 is out fort me but that voltage regulator thing is a hard study.
 
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RXS78

RXS78

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I'll leave that to you junkeymonkey - too technical for me! Thank you both for your fast responses. You've both been very helpful. Looks like the Z87X-D3H wins and my list is ready to order!
 
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junkeymonkey

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you know just to add i got a msi scocket A board that still fires up and runs just like it did when i first built it thats a lot of years. i had a gigabyte 590SLI board that was my favoret build it rocked but failed in 4 years. i got a asrock n68c-gs fx board that i got for 45$ so i could use up some of the parts from the giga board for use as a back up, what ever build and it seems to be good and stable with no issues as of yet. but the one build that has been nothing but a joke is this asus sabertooth990fx. worst build ever. never worked right since the day i put it together and spent good money on it for nothing. just bad. oh, ans did i say thats was 2 of them?
 
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RXS78

RXS78

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Yes the Extreme4 was on my 'current thinking' shortlist also - pretty much the same price as the Gigabyte. I suppose I have this tendency towards Gigabyte because my last two builds have had Gigabyte boards and served me relatively well.

And that's odd about the Asus - the more threads I've read, the more I see Asus 'plugged' as the solid choice, etc etc. And then I've read a few threads suggesting MSI boards aren't as the reliable as the others. But of course everyone has experiences that differ from the norm. I guess as long as I pick one of those three brands I should generally be okay.
 
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junkeymonkey

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i liked my old giga board it only lasted about 4 years but i pounded the heck out of it . my buddy who also got a junk sabertooth990fx board got the giga 990fx ud3 and is happy with it . [funny how he took all the stuff off the asus and put it on the gigabyte and it fired right up and runs great no issues] my 2ed sabertooth runs only with everything at defult and 1 stick of memory. i have allways built AMD but now it seems there not offering anything thats new so i figured that if i were to spend i would try intel do to the fact that you get a new more up to date board instead of the same board that was out 3 or 4 years ago. nothing new with them so i guess this go round i'll go blue.
 
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