Which Z68 Chipset motherboard should I choose?

[xlzhsteven]

I was looking at all the boards offering Z68 Chipset include ASUS MSI GIGABYTE and ASrock

I am not thinking about GIGABYTE because of the lack of iGPU on the higher end of the board.
MSI seems to price 30 dollars higher than ASUS and ASrock is 10 dollars cheaper.

Now the answer is between ASUS and ASrock, parent and child competition.

Which one do you guys I should get? ASUS P8Z68-V PRO or ASrock Z68 Extreme4?

If anyone has already own one of these two motherboards, can you tell me what are the temperature for both CPU and Motherboard when idle.

Is there going to be any sleep/wake problem like the P67 chipset?

Thanks

 

[dcimini12]

I am in the exact same boat as you i am looking to get one of those for my build, the Asrock got better reviews then the asus but i think there both great boards, only real difference is the Asrock has a extra PCI E slot, i have always been more of an Asus guy for my builds so i am more then likly going to get the Asus, as for the sleep/wake problem i have no clue these boards just came out so its to early to tell

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

What difference would the mainboard temperature make? That depends a lot on the ambient conditions and case cooling, and doesn't tell you anything about the board itself.

I would choose the ASRock myself, based on the excellent performance my ASRock P67 Pro3 board has provided.

 

[omega8303]

i am in the same boat, i like ASUS, but i have read the ASRock is better :/

 

[geekapproved]

I am not thinking about GIGABYTE because of the lack of iGPU on the higher end of the board.

Huh?

 

[tecmo34]

I believe this is the reason why...

Intel Z68 Motherboard Note:
I have been provided some information that I found important for users to understand with regards to the new Intel Z68 boards. On motherboards that don't have on-board graphics, there will be no support for QuickSync and there will not be Lucid Virtu on them. These are some of the features that users have been waiting for the the Z68 boards. The features of the Z68 was the ability to overclock both core and graphics on the board but on boards without on-board graphics, they will act just like the P67 board, in those regards.

Best Regards,

Tecmo34

 

[chesteracorgi]

I looked and looked before I lept and saw that ASRock generally provides more features for the same price as ASUS. I bought an ASRock P67 Extreme6.

Now I am not saying that you should buy ASRock; the choice should be on your use. If you are building a basic, enthusiast, or a gaming system the low and mid level ASRocks beat the ASUS competition at the same price. But ASUS also offers some extreme gaming and professional boards that ASRock doesn't compete with, like the Revolution and Maximus lines.

The mobo I settled on has 3 PCIE 2.0 slots which can be configured 1 X 16, 2 X 8, or 1 X 14 X 0 X 4. There are some ASUS that provide 2 X 16,

I think that if you do the research you will find that the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 has more features than the ASUS Z68 V-Pro.

 

[xlzhsteven]

Thanks for all the replies, I got the ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro and it is running really nice right now, still have the sleep/wake problem, but I do not worry about that right now, just shut down my computer over night and wait for ASUS to fix this problem. Overall the performance is about the same as the P8P67 Pro, I haven't done any movie decoding yet, I am just going to wait for a reasonably priced SSD and do SSD caching and hopefully the result will be as good as what ASUS advised (4X faster than mech drive)

 

[technoidgit]

Thanks for all the replies, I got the ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro and it is running really nice right now, still have the sleep/wake problem, but I do not worry about that right now, just shut down my computer over night and wait for ASUS to fix this problem. Overall the performance is about the same as the P8P67 Pro, I haven't done any movie decoding yet, I am just going to wait for a reasonably priced SSD and do SSD caching and hopefully the result will be as good as what ASUS advised (4X faster than mech drive)

Well I wonder how long the fix will be? They have had this problem through most of the P67 boards also. I know it has only been a few months, well about 5 but if you factor the recall then maybe 2 or 3. How long does a fix like this usually take. I was also wondering if this is only a ASUS problem or is it across all the SB boards, I know ASRock is made by ASUS. I'm looking at the MSI z68 GD80 the reviews seem solid but things are too new to tell. Some folks think it's to much $ but it's not that much more than the Asus Pro and I like to leave my PC running as it is much harsher on the components when turned on and off all the time. Another reason is I feel they may use slightly better components.

Also wondering how the Z68 Pro is working aside from the sleep issue, if there are any others

 

[xlzhsteven]

Well I wonder how long the fix will be? They have had this problem through most of the P67 boards also. I know it has only been a few months, well about 5 but if you factor the recall then maybe 2 or 3. How long does a fix like this usually take. I was also wondering if this is only a ASUS problem or is it across all the SB boards, I know ASRock is made by ASUS. I'm looking at the MSI z68 GD80 the reviews seem solid but things are too new to tell. Some folks think it's to much $ but it's not that much more than the Asus Pro and I like to leave my PC running as it is much harsher on the components when turned on and off all the time. Another reason is I feel they may use slightly better components.

Also wondering how the Z68 Pro is working aside from the sleep issue, if there are any others

I will get use to the sleep/wake problem I guess, I just turn on and off computer instead of sleep and wake up computers since the restart time is not long. Other than the sleep/wake problem, everything else run really smooth and stable after OC, it's a motherboard I would recommend to buy, although I think it's a little overpriced. Talking about if ASUS is the only problem has the sleep/wake problem, I know in fact sleep/wake problem also appears on other brand MB. There are reviews on newegg which proves that.

 

[technoidgit]

I will get use to the sleep/wake problem I guess, I just turn on and off computer instead of sleep and wake up computers since the restart time is not long. Other than the sleep/wake problem, everything else run really smooth and stable after OC, it's a motherboard I would recommend to buy, although I think it's a little overpriced. Talking about if ASUS is the only problem has the sleep/wake problem, I know in fact sleep/wake problem also appears on other brand MB. There are reviews on newegg which proves that.

Most of these new Z68 boards are overpriced. They should have been priced about the same as the p67 with the p67 prices dropping. I thought I have read about other manufacturer's mobos having the sleep problems, I just wonder if it's a Sandy Bridge issue and not the boards themselves. I don't think so as I think some of the boards don't have the issue. I jsut wonder why they sell a board knowing they have this issue. It's not the time it takes to boot and shutdown it's having to do it. It's much easier on the systems components to leave the machine running and just shut down when needed. I have seen this with most of my systems and a a few sets of work stations I built. The ones that where shut down every night or sooner were always the ones that had hardware issues first. My current machine has been going strong for 8+ years and is only shut down when needed(maybe once every several weeks) but then booted up and left running(sleep)

I like the Asus z68 Pro but given the choice between the ASRock and ASUS, I think I may take the ASRock Extreme4. Very hard choice though so I'm going with the MSI GD80 (I think)

 

[technoidgit]

I also ment to ask where you are at with OCing. How high have you pushed it, I hear the wall is between 4.8 to 5.2 depending on the CSU. With the push of 1 button (genie) the MSI will OC to 4.2 (super stable) and is easy to push further

 

[xlzhsteven]

Best answer selected by xlzhsteven.

 

[developeraslam]

Thanks for all the replies, I got the ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro and it is running really nice right now, still have the sleep/wake problem, but I do not worry about that right now, just shut down my computer over night and wait for ASUS to fix this problem. Overall the performance is about the same as the P8P67 Pro, I haven't done any movie decoding yet, I am just going to wait for a reasonably priced SSD and do SSD caching and hopefully the result will be as good as what ASUS advised (4X faster than mech drive)

Please explain more about this problem. i am will to buy new ASUS z68 v pro

before i buy i want to know more about this problem

"Still have the sleep/wake problem, but I do not worry about that right now, just shut down my computer over night and wait for ASUS to fix this problem"??????????

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

They have problems waking up from sleep mode correctly. Eventually, ASUS will fix the problem with a BIOS update.

In the meantime, "fix" the problem yourself by not using sleep mode. Either shut the computer down when you're not using it or leave it to run 24/7 and use Power Options to have the monitor shut off and the hard drive spool down after a period of inactivity.

 

[RetiredChief]

+1 ^
Over the years, I've really not found a diff in "Leave it on 24/7" or turn off when not using, ie at night.

I bought the Asrock Z68 Extreme4. It is also a one button click to OC, mut it is a little over aggressive on Vcore. There seems to be another problem, which I can live with untill corrected, and that is Asrock use an off the wall USB controller (not the problem) and provides a software program that speeds up USB (FastUSB) - That is the problem. I've just stopped it from loading on startup.