Which Z87 Motherboard To Choose? Or MSI Z87-G43 is Enough?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960
Hi everyone.

I've upgraded from Core2Duo based system to a i7 4770K last week. And since it's been a very long time from my last upgrade I've made some mistakes i guess and acted a bit hasty.

The mobo I bought is MSI Z87-G43. Since I'm only interested in soft overclocking (like around 4.2-4.3 GHz) I steered for a budget solution here and bought an SSD instead of an expensive mobo. But while doing some deep researches to find some good air cooling solutions & overclocking I've found out that "VRM quality" is very important for the long term stability and durability of the system. I don't know about the quality of my power phases to be honest. There are 7 of those SFC written chokes near the CPU. Also it reads R-47 on the side. So what do these mean? Anyone know about the quality of VRM that used on MSI Z87-G43?

I was actually considering to switch to G45 or G65 in few days but from what I read here Gigabyte Z87X-D3H is really good. I'm not interested in extra SATA controllers (6 slots are more than enough for me) or loads of USB 3 ports. Just want to have a stable&durable board that gives me enough room to overclock when I need. Since probably I won't be able to upgrade to anything for at least for 4 years.

If you guys think that it's better for me to move to a different board I can do this until Friday..

I also noticed that lots of lots of people are suffering from a memory issues on Gigabyte Z87X-D3Hs. Reported issues are about the board is not running stable with 4 DIMM slots occupied. And I couldn't find any information if this problem has fixed.

So what you guys think? Is my MSI z87-g43 is quality enough for a soft overclocking? Or should I switch to a better one before it's too late? Since I need to do it until Friday.

Thanks already for your suggestions and comments.

Best
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,301
4,146
174,240
I would have no problem with MSI.
All Z87 chipsets come from the same vendor, namely Intel.
Defects can come into any process.
Here is an older report on motherboard return rates:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/881-2/components-returns-rates-7.html
Unless there is a feature you need, I would not bother exchanging the motherboard.

On the ram, a motherboard needs to use the same voltage and specs to manage all sticks. This is easier to do with 2 sticks vs. 4. I would buy a 2 x8gb kit in preference to a 4 x 4gb kit.

Regardless,
You want documented ram compatibility. If you should ever have a problem, you want supported ram.
Otherwise, you risk a finger pointing battle between the ram and motherboard support sites, claiming "not my problem".
One place to check is your motherboards web site.
Look for the ram QVL list. It lists all of the ram kits that have been tested with that particular motherboard.
Sometimes the QVL list is not updated after the motherboard is released.
For more current info, go to a ram vendor's web site and access their ram selection configurator.
Enter your motherboard, and you will get a list of compatible ram kits.
While today's motherboards are more tolerant of different ram, it makes sense to buy ram that is known to work and is supported.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AlexSmith96

AlexSmith96

Honorable
Mar 26, 2013
245
0
10,760
Your motherboard is same as mine. Its a cool board with a room for little overclocking. Also the Military Class 4 components are a wow.
However, for better overclocking i would give you the following options :
1) Asus Z87-K ($109, newegg) (quite a headroom)
2) ASRock Z87 Killer ($120, newegg) (for xtreme overclocking)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960
Thanks for the quick replies geofelt and alex.

I'm actually more worried about the power phases since I'd like to have soft overclock around 4.2-4.3 in the future with a bit better cooling solution maybe. And my board now has 3 or 4 analog power phases i guess (should be 3+1, 3+2 or 4+1, not sure). Also the quality seems somewhat questionable. This bothers me a bit about the stability&durability of the system. GD65 has all digital power phases and better mosfets. z87X-D3H has even better (but the 4X ram stability issue is a really wide problem for almost every ram brand).

Like I said I'm not a power overclocker, just want to do some soft overclocking to milk a bit more from my configuration. I'm actually not interested in Killer LAN, "slightly" better audio, SLI gpus or more USB3+sata slots. That's mostly why I chose G43 but didn't know much about the power phases. So if I switch to GD65 or anything else this will be only because of that.

So any final thoughts?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,301
4,146
174,240
Voltage regulation becomes important if you are pushing for record level max overclocks.
If you oc to the level that gives you 1.2v you will have no problem with cooling or voltage regulation.
Most haswell chips will do 4.0-4.4 at that voltage.
What YOUR chip will do is mostly luck in getting a good chip.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960


So you say I'm fine with my z87 G43 in terms of stability in long term and no need to switch to another higher price board?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

pumba217

Reputable
Apr 10, 2014
2
0
4,510
Hi so i also just bought this board. I have bought 1x8GB corsair vengeance memory for my choice of ram because i at first wanted 16gb but due to the crazy prices cant at the moment. so i bought 1 x 8 and will later buy another identical stick. Ive heard that the motherboard only supports 2 way or 4 way ram. is this true? will i have to immediately get another ram stick?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

shrikster

Honorable
Jan 10, 2014
52
0
10,630


Hello, i had a conversation with customer service of various RAM manufacturers.
They all claim that since the RAM modules are Dual-Channel they are optimized to work in dual modes, AKA dual sticks. According to them, the performance increases, in some cases drastically. I haven't used single RAM stick yet, so don't have much experience about it.
So, make it asap, and if possible tell me if it works that way or not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

pumba217

Reputable
Apr 10, 2014
2
0
4,510
[/quotemsg]

Hello, i had a conversation with customer service of various RAM manufacturers.
They all claim that since the RAM modules are Dual-Channel they are optimized to work in dual modes, AKA dual sticks. According to them, the performance increases, in some cases drastically. I haven't used single RAM stick yet, so don't have much experience about it.
So, make it asap, and if possible tell me if it works that way or not.[/quotemsg]


The single ram stick ( 1x8) worked perfectly fine, I've been told that dual sticks do have a VERY little performance benefit but single modules work fine in basically any case. I will be another 1x8 stick so that i have 16gb in total and performance will be slithery better as well.
hope this helped and thank you for getting back to my previous question :)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom