MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt vs Asus P8Z77-V LK

[vance09]

I've come to the decision to choose one of these two boards as my motherboard in my build. I have an ivy bridge i5 and am planning on doing some mild or moderate overclocking, nothing extreme though. The main differences I see are the power phases (the MSI board uses 6+2 while the Asus uses 4+1) and the USB 3.0 ports (2 on the MSI vs 4 on the Asus). Also, is the exploding boards still an issue with MSI boards or was that fixed? Thanks for any help.

 

[vance09]

Anybody have any input? What I'm really wondering is whether the USB 3.0 ports are so important that I need more than 2 and how much better the 6+2 is compared to the 4+1.

 

[euphoria4949]

I'm also looking at the Thunderbolt MoBo so I'll bump this =)

 

[cumiX]

If you have plenty of USB 3.0 Devices, more ports are always welcome.
Well, i only have 1 ext drive with USB 3.0 so 2 ports already too much for me.
For mild overclocks 4+1 phase is enough.
My MSI Z77MA-G45 is enough to take my 3570K to 4.4GHz