Asus z97a or msi gaming 5?

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RamonIR

RamonIR

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So I am buying my new Motherboard tomorrow but i cant choose i keep finding negative reviews for both mobos and on amazon and new egg the msi gaming 5 mobo has more reviews and the asus z97a have less but they are at the same rating at 4 1/2 stars/eggs yet i like the looks of the MSI Mobo i read that the asus is more reliable. Msi has the oc genie overclock with a push of a button. I have more research on the msi mobo because I have been stuck on it since before the summer. Pls Help me clear my mind and choose a mobo TY <3 :)
 
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Karadjgne
Yeah, had several low end msi boards either go bad quick, or DOA, for clients, embarrassing, and I have a 18yr old Asus P2b that's never failed me, and at the time the Gigabyte boards (nvidia chipsets) were a disaster and had nothing but problems with fan headers. So everybody is suspect, to a degree. But even after all that, I'd trust Asus to work or be replaced promptly over MSI or Gigabyte and I've turned away work from ppl insisting on Biostar and ECS. The only motherboards I've ever used and never had an issue with at all are SuperMicro, but they have been limited application builds or old lga775.

Both boards are very good, with almost identical components, but with its advantages for a new builder, I'd have to agree with SR-71...
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Asus has Asus Suite, which for the most part is pretty unremarkable or even useless, except for Asus FanXpert which is the single best pc fan control software available and very easy to use and setup.
The MSI fan software is somewhat lacking.
Asus has a basically easy uefi bios to understand and is about as user friendly for new builders as it gets.
MSI uefi bios is considerably more technical, but is also better suited to advanced OC procedures.
Asus has (in the past) shown to have slightly better service and support dept than MSI but as far as reliability goes I've had more issues with Asus mobo's than the higher end MSI (my current MSI mpower z77 has been nothing but perfectly awesome, my Asus p8z77-v has been RMA'd 2x now, so it's in my wife's pc)

Forget the gimmicks like OC genie or Asus Turbo etc. If you want to OC, do the research and do it manually. It's not only safer and less taxing on the pc, but better overall in performance. Software OC uses high amounts of BCLK, which should be left at 100, and this affects all communication on the buss clock, raising the speeds of your ram, hdd etc which can make for premature failure, instability etc.

Don't rely on amazon/newegg reviews. Totally unreliable. What you get is a mixed bunch of ppl who'll slap on 5 stars for fast shipping, 1 star if it took too long, 1 star if they messed up the install and shorted out the mobo but claimed it as DOA etc. If you want to read reviews, stick to places like Tom's, HardOCP, RealHardTechX, Guru3d, Anandtech etc who actually test the boards in an unbiased manner.
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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does DOA= Dead on arrival and will i need to update bios for the asus z97 for my i5 4690k
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Yeah, had several low end msi boards either go bad quick, or DOA, for clients, embarrassing, and I have a 18yr old Asus P2b that's never failed me, and at the time the Gigabyte boards (nvidia chipsets) were a disaster and had nothing but problems with fan headers. So everybody is suspect, to a degree. But even after all that, I'd trust Asus to work or be replaced promptly over MSI or Gigabyte and I've turned away work from ppl insisting on Biostar and ECS. The only motherboards I've ever used and never had an issue with at all are SuperMicro, but they have been limited application builds or old lga775.

Both boards are very good, with almost identical components, but with its advantages for a new builder, I'd have to agree with SR-71 on the Asus z97A being the best overall choice.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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The z97A will fully support the i5-4690k as is, but it's best to get the latest bios as that'll contain any possible bug fixes, ram QVL etc etc. Since lga1150 is also slightly older, you'll also want to visit the website and download any and all upgraded drivers, don't bother with the ones supplied with the mobo.
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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Ok thank you. So I have add the motherboard to my cart on amazon its going for $131.44 But says there is a rebate of $20.00 how does that work?
Price after rebate is $111.44 but when i check my cart it doesnt say that?

AND what is the cd that the mobo comes with for and do you have to use it



ASUS Z97a:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TXBP1NS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Motherboards by themselves are plug and play. Windows will have any generic drivers needed. However. Those windows drivers are exactly that. Generic. The drivers and mobo software on the CD are specific for your mobo, so they'll have performance advantages. The CD also has the vendor software, like the Asus Suite and some others by Intel etc.
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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So i dont have to use it? but is it recommended to?
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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That CD was current when it was made. Since then, its probable that there have been upgrades, bug fixes, newer drivers online at Asus Support. So while it won't hurt to use the stuff on the CD, it'll most likely be older than what you can download. That goes for the software as well as drivers. There is other stuff on the CD as well, you'll have to look exactly what, but it might not pertain to you. There's Intel software for using a 64Gb or smaller ssd etc which you for certain probably have no use for.
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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is it required to use the cd in order to setup my pc and go to the asus website and install the new drivers?
or can i just skip the cd and go to the asus website and download from there? (When im done with the build and everything works)
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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do I use the cd after i install windows? or before
 
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RamonIR

RamonIR

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alright thanks man :)
 
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