Better Z87 Board Overall

[CoolVengeance]

I have chosen 2 boards that I would choose for an i5 4670k

I would be doing a little overclocking

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
or
Asus Z87-A

What board should I choose
I am leaning towards the gigabyte because it has a better color scheme that I am aiming towards but I would like to know some opinions

 

[JackNaylorPE]

With the Giga at $129, I'd do $2 more for the MSI DG65. $168 - 10% - $20 MIR


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.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($189.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $189.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-26 20:49 EDT-0400)

 

[Tradesman1]

Would definitely go the Hero if it will fit the budget, else I'd go the Z87-A (or better yet look at the Z97-A, built one last week, great mobo and it provides for a CPU upgrade path with the HSwell refresh CPUs as well as Broadwell down the line, as far as MSI, I won't build on them due to their poor QC

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Back a few years ago, I agreed with Tradesman but since Z77, things have changed and changed drastically. I have a lotta Asus boards here and in use by outside users and frankly my time investment is getting annoying.... three RMAs on a WS board .... took Halloween to past NY's day. Have four Z87 boards with users complaining about frozen time clocks tho seems to be mostly hitting M6F and Hero users. It took my personal box down again yesterday. Alleged Fix was posted back in August but it's only temporary.....the thread is worth reading if for nothing else that one user posted his "Fix" which was basically to have Windows resync the time at boot and every 30 minutes..... that's like saying the leak in the roof doesn't matter cause ya hired a maid to mop the floor every 30 minutes . It hits me mostly after a BIOS upgrade as a have to reconfigure all my OCs....when you try entering the same settings, they oft aren't stable and the resulting crashes seem to be what sends the clock nutzo.

However, it still pops up without warning.... two weeks ago went looking for a file I edited the day before and newest file I could find was April..... seems my clock froze at some point weeks before and every time I rebooted, it would reset the windows clock to the freeze date. Made a mess of backup archives as older files were not being replaced by newer files because it thought the new files where weeks old.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33895-Hero-Time-Clock-Problem/page15
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?36676-Frozen-Time-Clock-in-UEFI-The-Fix

Others I have dealt with include sound and USB issues but the most frustrating is that all my Asus Z87 users who OC have lost previously stable overclocks with each BIOS upgrade.

You always read only about peeps having problems as nobody starts threads saying things are great so I don't wanna leave the impression that a list of problems means a board or entire product line is bad. ..... but what is unique here, these problems are a year old and no solutions from Asus .... I'm still building with the Asus X79 boards but I have suspended use of Asus Z87 boards, even my beloved M6F, until the clock problem gets fixed. Wanna see if Z97 is so plagued.

Since I switched to MSI in the < $200 range only problem I had in 9 builds was with a user who reinstalled his Hyper 212 and overtightened it....that makes 3 dead boards from over tightening to arrive in the last 18 months..... great lil cooler but care must be exercised when installing so as not to warp MoBo and break circuit traces.

I do like the look of the Hero over the GD65 so I am anxious to give it another try with Z97 .... but two things have to happen before I use one.....

1. The clock problem has to be resolved
2. the $50 price premium has to disappear.

 

[Tradesman1]

With over 40 Asus Z87 builds, I have yet to encounter any clock problems, of them I hhad 1 w/ a mobo problem, on a Z87-Plus had one with a bad ethernet port, replacement was fine and no problems since with any of them...as far as MSI, I simply won't build on them, poor QC, I've had more problem calls on their mobos than all other Z87s put together, and it's no single thing, ethernet ports, USB ports, DRAM sockets, PCI-E sockets, audio doesn't work..and DOAs

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Asus seems to think it's a problem .... Regardless of you not having run into it, a Google / Yahoo search will certainly confirm the issue and as Asus has officially confirmed the issue, it's gonna be hard to take the position that it doesn't exist. Rec'd an e-mail update on the progress of their investigation this morning. All one has to do is look at the links I provided.... forget the problem and how significant it is, it's the "GM like" response to the problem that concerns me as a long time Asus customer and loyalist.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2119454/asus-z87-bios-clock-freeze.html
http://www.overclock.net/t/1460576/asus-z87-frozen-real-time-clock-bug
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20140426003537634&board_id=1&model=Z87-PRO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2023058/solved-asus-z87-pro-bios-clock-issue.html
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33895-Hero-Time-Clock-Problem/page15
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?36676-Frozen-Time-Clock-in-UEFI-The-Fix

I think most peeps would be understanding if there had been some better feedback to customers on the issue. The forum volunteers were as helpful as they could be but even they dropped out of participation in the discussion after a while. But at this point, it seems Asus has taken heed and is now actively pursuing a solution. Unfortunately, look at how many "last Asus board I'll ever buy" posts there are in those threads. While I don't agree with that reaction .... just cause there's a Z87 bug doesn't mean there's a Z97 or LGA 2011 bug of that the problem is not correctable with a BIOS update.

Most peeps who use time sync would never be aware of the clock issue.....I had it happen few weeks back and I was off 10 days before I noticed as I spend most of my time on the lappie. I had a user come in with an OS issue and when he brought it in, the BIOS clock was 10 months outta date.... he ever noticed.

I am now more cautious and will hold off getting further invested in Asus Z87 until the issue is resolved or determined not to exist in Z97. Before getting my M6F, I held off after published reports about the controller bug that was fixed with the C2 stepping. There's also the F10 save BIOS changes bug that says you have not made any changes when you just got done doing them as well as the BIOS upgrades borking previously stable OCs.... I think I'm getting a handle on that one....it appears that it's not so much a reduction in the Board's abilities as much as in the way it does things when certain settings are on Auto. I am getting close to my originally stable OCs that I had under 0804 but with significantly higher VID, VCC Ring, VCCIN (Ev) and DRAM voltage settings.

Look at any component and you will see that every company makes a dud once and a while.... over at storagereview.com database which tracks HD failures, the drive model with the lowest failure rate and the model with the highest failure rate is the same company (Seagate). Many companies produce very excellent products, every company produces a bad or buggy product now and then. Corsair sells some excellent PSUs, Corsair sells some pretty good PSU and Corsair makes some PSUs I wouldn't put in an $850 budget box. No component is "best" simply because of the logo they put on it.....

Yes, I'm well aware of your opinion of MSI and I can only assume nothing has changed in this regard .... AFAIK you still have not built a box with any of the newly designed MIL Spec MSI boards and, as I recall, from past thread(s), you don't intend to unless MSI gives you a free board for the purposes of changing your mind and you have also indicated that you don't trust web reviews / findings / published specs and component lists no matter how reputable the site.

While you are certainly entitled to have an opinion, the weight of any opinion to a reader such as myself must be weighed on the evidence provided and there remains nothing documentable that you have provided that I can look that supports this position. And given your chosen avatar, it's hard to view this opinion as impartial. I'll end it on that note as we've "been there done that" and I don't think myself or any other readers will be benefit by rehashing the exchange again.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1790132/asus-maximus-hero-msi-z87-gd65-gaming.html

 

[feelingtheblanks]

I wouldn't compare Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H and Asus Z87-A. Gigabyte is better in every single way. It's even tad better than Maximus VI Hero in terms of vrm and component quality.

True 8 phase digital International Rectifier controller, highly efficient powerblock fets from IR, better capacitors, better sound chip. Gigabyte's z87x boards has surprisingly good components. They stepped back with their z97 offerings though but these boards are cheaper than z87 counterparts.

I know that there are many Asus fanboys around and it's almost impossible to change their opinions since they are based on some delusional experiences. But I'm talking with scientific facts, not rumors.

Asus and ASRock are doing some weird stuff and acting like some Chinese brands lately; lying about their boards, doing deceptive and false marketing, hiding the true origins of some components... So I would stay away from them. Thank god there are better brands on the shelves.