Pick my next MoBo!

[cggorman]

Below are the choices. Please tell me why you picked it!

Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Asus Maximus V Formula
EVGA Z77 FTW
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH

I need socket LGA1155, lots of internal SATA ports, and solid overclocking.

Feel free to add your own favorite if you think I missed a good one!

 

[nikorr]

Whats your CPU?

 

[cggorman]

Most likely an i5-3570k. I'm having a hard time justifying the extra cost for the i7-3770k, let alone the LGA2011 stuff.

 

[nikorr]

3570K is the new 2500K value wise. U can get P8Z77-V. Solid OC with great power design

8 SATA ports + (x16/0 or x8/x8) + 1 x DisplayPort

ASUS P8Z77-V LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Average Rating

HardOCP Gold Award, Wi-Fi GO! USB BIOS Flashback


$189.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820

 

[cggorman]

I chose the Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe

Expensive, I know, but it was the only board I could find (and trust) that met my requirements. Budget was more flexible than most of my others bullet points, so...

If you're interested here is some of the data I used to help make the decision: link to screenshot

 

[captain kayos]

Below are the choices. Please tell me why you picked it!

Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Asus Maximus V Formula
EVGA Z77 FTW
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH

I need socket LGA1155, lots of internal SATA ports, and solid overclocking.

Feel free to add your own favorite if you think I missed a good one!

I've gone with the Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH. It's a great all round board and performs similarly to other IB Z77 mobos. It's great for overclocking (hit the world record 7.1Ghz or something, using liquid nitrogen cooling). It has 2x thunderbolt ports + 3x USB 3.0 headers for future proofing and a lot of other extras including dual band WiFi and 4.0 Bluetooth. But it does have limitations, like the number of SATA ports 3x SATA3 and 4x SATA2 + only 1x eSATA at the rear panel. It also only supports a maximum of 2x GPU cards in SLI at 8+8, but with IB CPU, this gives the same bandwidth as 16+16 with PCIe 2.0.

The choice is yours. If you want to go all out, hang the expense, quad SLI, etc, go for the top ASUS Z77 board for around A$570. If you want a bit of future proofing on a bit of a budget, the Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH is fine, but I'd be counting those SATA ports and note that you loose SATA#5 if you go for Intel Rapid Start Tech. using on board mSATA port!

Cheers, Captain Kayos.