Gigabyte GA-Z97MX Gaming 5 vs. Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3

drnatedogg

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Jun 30, 2014
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Let's just say that PCI Express ports confuse may. I know that they are generally used for expansion cards, but the difference between an Express 16x slot, Express 8x slot, Express 4x, and an Express 1x. The mini ITX has 3 Express 16x slots running at 16, 8, and 4, with one PCI Express 1x. The ATX board has the same 3 Express 16x, but has 3 PCI Epress 1x and one regular PCI. I don't think I will be using too many expansion cards. Maybe a wireless adapter card, capture card, and possibly a sound card. Any other differences between the boards that may concern me I would like to hear about. For instance the audio in the 2 seem different, but other than that they seem very similar.
 
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The main reasons you'd want 16x slots is so you don't get bottle necking with SLI or crossfire other than that if you're not planning on adding in anything other than some extra cards there's not really a downside to the whole thing other than data transfer with added USB ports.

mathieub

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Jan 6, 2014
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The main reasons you'd want 16x slots is so you don't get bottle necking with SLI or crossfire other than that if you're not planning on adding in anything other than some extra cards there's not really a downside to the whole thing other than data transfer with added USB ports.
 
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drnatedogg

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So if I have no interest in the extra PCI slots, is one board better than the other, or are they almost identical. The MX Gaming 5 board is 10 dollars cheaper than the X Gaming 3.