Extreme7 or Deluxe?

[Fatanarexic]

Building a strictly gaming rig and debating between two mobos. The ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3? Or the ASUS Deluxe/Gen3?

Here are my other specs:

CPU: i7 2600k Sandy

Ram: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage 8gb (2x 4gb) 1600

Case: CM HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower RC-932-KKN5-GP

SSD: Samsung 830 Series 64gb

Hard Drive: Any recommendations?

GPU: Diamond Radeon HD 5970

PSU: Thinking Corsair 750 Gaming Series

CD: Blu Ray Burner

Monitor: ASUS 24'' 1080p LED

Which mobo should i go with? It seems like the Z68 Extreme has alot more flexibility PCI wise. What do you think?

 

[pro-gamer]

yes, extreme7 is best option..a bit faster than deluxe.!

 

[chesteracorgi]

ASRock has more bang for the buck. +1 pro-gamer

 

[danraies]

I think the Extreme7 is a stronger motherboard, but I have an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO (one step down from the Deluxe) and I like it a lot. The Extreme7 will probably overclock better, though.

I've got to say...I can't tell from the parts what your primary usage is for your machine - the HD5970 is throwing me off. If it's a gaming build then you should definitely buy a cheaper processor (the i5-2500K) and a cheaper motherboard (the Extreme3) and put that extra money into your video card.

 

[Fatanarexic]

First time building, its primarily for gaming. Bought the 5970 on newegg during the black Friday deal for 299.99. I was told to get the i7 for future opportunities to upgrade. Originally had the i5 because i heard that there was not much difference. What do you think? Is there a big difference between the extreme3 and extreme7?

I think the Extreme7 is a stronger motherboard, but I have an ASUS P8Z68-V PRO (one step down from the Deluxe) and I like it a lot. The Extreme7 will probably overclock better, though.

I've got to say...I can't tell from the parts what your primary usage is for your machine - the HD5970 is throwing me off. If it's a gaming build then you should definitely buy a cheaper processor (the i5-2500K) and a cheaper motherboard (the Extreme3) and put that extra money into your video card.

 

[danraies]

For gaming today there's no real performance difference between the 2500K and the 2600K.

The only time the Extreme7 is superior to the Extreme3 is if you need the extra PCIe 2.0/3.0 connectivity. The Extreme7 supports x16/x16 for SLI and has more PCIe x16 slots than the Extreme3 (the Extreme3 only offers x8/x8 mode). However in your build you will not notice the difference between the two. Even if you add a second 5970 you probably won't notice any performance difference between the two motherboards - you rarely notice the difference between x8/x8 mode and x16/x16.

There are a couple of other differences that usually don't make a difference but may matter in some situations. The Extreme3 doesn't have a USB 3.0 header and the Extreme7 does. They both have USB 3.0 in the port cluster, but the Extreme3 doesn't have a motherboard header. Also, the Extreme7 has two more SATA ports than most. The last difference I can see is that the LAN chipset is slightly better on the Extreme7.