Z77 Biostar, MSI, or Z68 Gigabyte

[darkol]

Hello there,

I am in the process of building a PC, and I have ordered most of the parts, but I'm having an issue with the motherboard being out of stock and that will cause a 3 weeks delay I don't want, first, here's my build I ordered:


Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced

Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel Z77 GA-Z77-D3H

Cooling System: Cooler Master V6GT

PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K Processor 3.4 4 BX80637I53570K

GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 Low Profile

HDD: Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB


I want to swap the motherboard with something equivalent in price and performance that is in stock, but I'm stuck with 3 choices and I can't decide. They are:

-MSI Z77A-G43
-Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
-Biostar TZ77XE3

I'm totally undecided, I could wait for the Z77 D3H but that would cost me half of my holiday, so what are the ups and downs on these 3 motherboards?

 

[Raiddinn]

I would go with the Gigabyte.

 

[the great randini]

gigabyte 1st choice
msi 2nd
biostart TAKE OFF LIST

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

If you are building a new system with a 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor like the Intel Core i5-3570K; don't go with the a "6" series boards since it may require you to update the Bios before it will allow you to use the 3rd generation processor. While there maybe some boards out there with the updated Bios that will allow you to use the 3rd generation processors there is no way to tell unless you have it in your hands. So I would go with the MSI Z77A-G43 or maybe the ASRock Z77 Extreme4.

 

[dudewitbow]

gigabyte 1st choice
msi 2nd
biostart TAKE OFF LIST

actually, if the txz77 series scaled down in price compared to its performance from the 150-160$ line

Biostar's line isn't that bad for the price. it only gets barely beaten by gigabytes model of the same price point in the same generation.

 

[Raiddinn]

Biostar and MSI boards are squarely average, with MSI having a lot of problems with bad voltage regulation.

Gigabyte, however, is far above average and easily takes the cake between the 3.

 

[amgamer29]

I would definitely go with GigaByte.
It offers much better standards. Plus it runs on te most supporting chipsets that is the 'Z68'

 

[broseephus]

I've owned all three makes of boards.

Nothing wrong with Biostar or MSI boards. People love to hate on them because they aren't Gigabyte or Asus.

If it was my money I would take the Biostar with the Z77 chipset rather than an older chipset. They make a nice product that and they now have the UEFI bios which is nice.

 

[Ironslice]

The only problem is that if you get a Z68 with that processor you need an older processor to update the Z68 bios before the i5-3570k will even run. So unless you have a Sandy Bridge CPU to put in it first then I would go with a Z77.

 

[Raiddinn]

Looks like the OP has the best of both worlds atm, he listed a Gigabyte Z77 in the OP now.

 

[darkol]

Well, my original choice was the Gigabyte Z77 D3H which is the reason I'm looking for substitutions..

I know the Gigabyte I listed is the best choice among these, and that's the reason I actually ordered it in the first place.

The issue is that Amazon didn't mention it's a back order, and it'll take lots of time to get it in stock (almost a month) and I really don't want to wait all that time. Otherwise I'll only have 2-3 weeks to use the PC before I get back to college..

Getting a Z68 with a 3rd gen i7 sounds like a bad idea. I don't want to limit myself to save time and then regret it afterwards. I'll probably stick to the Z77 models.

MSI shows lots of issues and has overclocking limitations in terms of vCore control and whatnot, so I think I won't go with it.

That closes the circle I guess, BUT now I realized Amazon shipped the rest of my items and now I will be subjected to normal shipping rates for the motherboard so having to buy from Amazon now is no longer a necessity..

Are there any merchants that offer the Gigabyte Z77 D3H and yet ship to P.O. Boxes? This is my only option right now, I have checked Microcenter but they don't have this model as it seems..

Edit: I came across Asrock Z77 Extreme4 at Microcenter, is it any different from my Gigabyte D3H? I noticed it only has 2 4pin fans and 2 3pin fans while the Gigabyte has 4 4pin fans, and my case has PWM fans so I could actually take benefit from the 4th pin. Will it be a problem if I ran PWM fans on full power all the time?

 

[nikorr]

Get Z77. With your CPU, that's the way to go.

 

[nikorr]

ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

I just build PC with this mobo and I like the BIOS, its looks like this.

Works as expected @ 4.4GHz

For the mobo, I would recommend -> ... Latest Z77...
That is a good mobo choice for the CPU. It has good power design for OC.

U can definitely use this one ->

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0387554

 

[Raiddinn]

There is no problem running fans with speed control at full speed all the time.

The Asrock Extreme 4 at Micro Center is good.

 

[darkol]

I have gone with the Asrock, thanks for the suggestions. Although, I feel like a child having to wait 5 days for it to arrive. It's kinda good.. and wrong.

Might give some feedback once I'm done building the PC.