MSI Z77A-G45 vs ASRock Z77 Extreme6

Iceycold

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Hello all, I'm debating which motherboard to get out of these 2:

ASRock Z77 Extreme6:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295 $160.
MSI Z77A-G45: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2332609&sku=M452-8420 $150 and I can get it at my local TigerDirect.

I. Which is better and why?
II. What does the "A" mean next to MSI Z77A?
III. Lastly, aside from the thermal armor, what do those 2 boards lack from the Asus Z77 Sabertooth? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821 $240.

I'll be using the motherboard I end up getting for the Intel i5 3570k Ivy Bridge CPU.

Thanks a lot guys.
 
Asus Z77 Sabertooth is loaded for the top performance in overclocking made out of higher grade parts, that's why Asus carry 5 year warranty instead of 3 years. And has more advanced power design and temp sensors for absolute control.

TUF Thermal Armor - Total Airflow-Boosting Heat Dissipation

TUF Dust Defender - Repel the Dust, Expand the Lifespan

TUF Thermal Radar - Real Time Temp. Detection and Heat Removal

TUF Components [Choke, Cap. & MOSFET; Certified by Military-standard] - Certified for Tough Duty

New DIGI+ Power Control - All-New Digital Power Control for both CPU and DRAM



ASRock Z77 Extreme6 is also great.

[flash=640,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/lHvE9hjaZ5c?version=3&feature=player_embedded[/flash]
 

Iceycold

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Thanks Nikorr, somethings got me a little mixed up here, what does this mean?

PCI Express 3.0 x16 2 2 (x16/0 or x8/x8) 2 (x16/0 or x8/x8)
PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot - PCI_E7 supports up to PCIe 2.0 x4 speed 1 @x4 1 @x4

That information is at the PCI area.
 
I use Asus and before that it was Gigabyte. MSI is not bad at all, I see that people like it.

Its competitive brand.

I use Intel and until AMD will get faster than latest Intel CPU's, I'll stay.

I am not a fanboy of a brand.

I have build more than few PC's using Asus and ASRock mobos and non of those PC's have any problems, so that is what I favor : )
 

TopABC

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Hi, can you achieve the same clock speeds with a Cooler Master hyper 212? This post has been really helpful by the way.
 

It seems 4.2MHz is achievable with that cooler without a problem.

But with the heat concentration on the IB is on smaller area, make sure that thermal paste is the best one u can get!

Arctic Silver 5 is great.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

I used it couple of times and it worked better than I expected.