GA-z87x-OC vs GA-z87x-UD4H

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
ballzley

ballzley

Honorable
Jan 25, 2014
52
0
10,640
Please help me make a decision between these two LGA 1150 socket motherboards:

GA-z87x-OC
GA-z87x-UD4H
[Gigabyte's comparison chart for reference http://www.gigabyte.us/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4514,4488]

Purposes:

-music (speakers connected throughout facility will be controlled from here; an aftermarket PCI soundcard is likely to be purchased regardless of board),

-gaming with CPU overclocking (oc'ing in CPU-intensive games like Planetside 2 and BF4 for the sole purpose of making gaming more comfortable; not merely for CPU benchmarking). Once a stable overclock is met, it will not be messed with unless there is a higher CPU speed to be achieved. Single graphics card is preferred, but a maximum of 2x Crossfire/SLI will be brought out if the task warrants so.

-will support 4 internal SATA devices maximum

-browsing with on average 20-30 tabs on a daily basis, as well as other tasks that a young teenager does... whatever that is (I'm guessing: gaming, schoolwork, Word, light Auto CAD, and occasional/hobbyist CS6 Photoshopping)

-all of these above, for a few years minimum

I have some experience overclocking the LGA 1366 CPUs, if that helps. I have no idea if it's the same experience with LGA 1150.

Any input would be appreciated - including suggestions to other LGA 1150 boards.

Thanks for reading!
 
Solution
feelingtheblanks
Oh well I haven't double checked the website since my friend is using an UD4H and for some reason I was thinking that OC doesn't have an extra onboard USB hub like UD4H. Apparently they have same amount of usb ports.

And yes looks like you won't need more than one pci-e 1 slot and also yes the difference is really negligible. I always like the smoothness and stability of a single-gpu setup though.

So all in all OC will be the best shot for you. Hope you enjoy your new system.


a side note: Some other motherboards would be suggested of course. Like MSI Mpower (also has wi-fi) or Asus Maximus VI Hero. They are also solid boards with quality components and great overclock potential. But since you come up with these great boards and...
Sort by date Sort by votes
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960
Ok lets make head to head comparison to help you decide.

1- UD4H has a better audio chip which is Realtek ALC 898. OC has 892. Slightly worse than 898 in terms of SNR.

2- For overclocking they are pretty much similar but with slight differences in power design.

UD4H has 8 true phase IR3563B pwm but using a doubler driver to make it looks 16 phase. It's theoretically slightly better actually than 8 phase since IR3563B lets 2mhz frequency switching which increase the performance of doubler designs. Currenty MSI and Gigabyte is using that design on their boards. Asus is using an older revision which only lets 1.2mhz. ASRock however just using Intersil analog pwm. But in practice its almost impossible to see any big difference unless you decide to break some overclocking records.

OC has true 8 phase IR3563B pwm no doublers no gimmicks.

Mosfets are the same IR3553 from International Rectifier. Pretty much the best in the market. UD4H has more mosfets though due to that doubler. But like I said there won't be any noticeable difference in overclock potential since you'll be limited by your cpu way before the motherboard limits you.

Caps and inductors are same and again top quality stuff. OC should have slightly more capacitance but not with a big margin.

3- there won't be any noticable performance difference between any z87 board while doing these stuff you mentioned.

Also there are more pci-e slots for gpu on OC but having more than 2 gpus on z87 chipset is a big waste since there aren't enough PCI lines like X series. So UD4H will be more than enough.

On the other hand UD4H has 2 more sata3 port which would help if you plan to have many drives.

Designwise OC is mostly suitable for overclock enthusiasts

Personally I'd suggest UD4H.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ballzley

ballzley

Honorable
Jan 25, 2014
52
0
10,640
Thank you feelingtheblanks. Your comments underline things to consider not found in other comparison-discussions of these two boards. I have updated the OP to reflect a few things (you covered them already), and I will leave this open for a few days max for others to chime in.

So far, given that they are the same price and of about the same qualities, I'm leaning towards the OC given two subordinate factors not having to do with the boards' primary purposes:
-color theme (I am a sucker for black and orange)
-possibility of teaching nephew to overclock; I get a vibe from the OC version that it's just more practical and suiting for this purpose.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960
You're welcome.

Yes, the overall layout of OC makes you feel that it's primarily designed with overclock in mind. Especially there's plenty of room at the upper side of the board, 8+4 cpu power socket there and fan headers close to each other, also lots of onboard buttons (even for disabling the pci-e slots). They are mostly useless though when you put the mobo into a case. It really shines when you use it on a bench.

If you don't mind having 2 less sata3 ports, less usb ports, slightly worse sound chip, and less pci-express 1x slots (OC only has 1 but UD4H has 3) then z87x-OC would be a good choice just for the black-orange colour scheme's sake. :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ballzley

ballzley

Honorable
Jan 25, 2014
52
0
10,640
I appreciate your input :)

For the sake of others also comparing these two motherboards, I must return the comment:

In the event of introducing my nephew to the world of overclocking with a more hands-on approach, the OC is indeed more suited on a bench.

I don't mind having 2 less SATA ports, as I wouldn't be using the maximum provided (6) by the OC version anyway.

Please show me where you are seeing more USB ports on the UD4H, as they look similar (according to Gigabyte's comparison, the OC actually has 2 more than the UD4H).

The UD4H may have more PCI-e 1, but the only PCI 1 device I would be using is a sound card. If you recall in my OP, I'll end up getting a sound card to replace onboard audio anyway. In the rare event of Crossfire/SLI two graphics cards while having the sound card, I'll move the sound card to an unoccupied PCI-e slot. I have heard this may force bandwidth from the x16 to x8, but this difference is still negligible (http://www.overclock.net/t/1366868/7950-crossfire-8x-8x-vs-16x-16x-performance-hit/10)

Thank you for catching these things, I think you're getting the solution :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
feelingtheblanks

feelingtheblanks

Honorable
Jan 3, 2014
412
0
10,960
Oh well I haven't double checked the website since my friend is using an UD4H and for some reason I was thinking that OC doesn't have an extra onboard USB hub like UD4H. Apparently they have same amount of usb ports.

And yes looks like you won't need more than one pci-e 1 slot and also yes the difference is really negligible. I always like the smoothness and stability of a single-gpu setup though.

So all in all OC will be the best shot for you. Hope you enjoy your new system.


a side note: Some other motherboards would be suggested of course. Like MSI Mpower (also has wi-fi) or Asus Maximus VI Hero. They are also solid boards with quality components and great overclock potential. But since you come up with these great boards and like that orange-black scheme it wasn't really necessary. These are pretty much equal boards. But to be honest Gigabyte is using the best components for the buck and also the most efficent power design on their boards in z87 market so far.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom