Which is better out of these 2 ASRock Mobos?

[Spartacus394]

Alright guys, I'm having trouble deciding on a motherboard. I've narrowed it down to 2.

ASRock Z77 Professional:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157299

ASRock Z77 Extreme6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295

I'm building a gaming rig for Skyrim, DayZ, Crysis, and I want the best I can get for my budget, (Around $1200).
Here's the rest of my planned specs.

i5-3570k
MSI GTX 670
Corsair Vengeance 8gb (2x4gb)
Corsair HX 850W
Cooler Master HAF 922

I like the Pro model the best right now because I'm trying to stick to red as my color scheme, plus it comes with free memory sticks so I can bump up my RAM to 16GB.
But color and the memory aren't anything to me if it doesn't work right. I just want to see what you guys think on which one is better for me.

 

[SPEED94]

Alright guys, I'm having trouble deciding on a motherboard. I've narrowed it down to 2.

ASRock Z77 Professional:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157299

ASRock Z77 Extreme6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295

I'm building a gaming rig for Skyrim, DayZ, Crysis, and I want the best I can get for my budget, (Around $1200).
Here's the rest of my planned specs.

i5-3570k
MSI GTX 670
Corsair Vengeance 8gb (2x4gb)
Corsair HX 850W
Cooler Master HAF 922

I like the Pro model the best right now because I'm trying to stick to red as my color scheme, plus it comes with free memory sticks so I can bump up my RAM to 16GB.
But color and the memory aren't anything to me if it doesn't work right. I just want to see what you guys think on which one is better for me.[/quotemsg

Spoiler

]

I did not notice any difference between the 2 except the free ram kit and a PATA port with the proffesional one. BTW the price of ram seems included.Who uses a PATA drive nowadays anyway.You can go with any of the 2.Your budget seems quite heavy. If you pardon my interference I would suggest to go over a GTX 680/690

 

[Spartacus394]

[/quotemsg]

I did not notice any difference between the 2 except the free ram kit and a PATA port with the proffesional one. BTW the price of ram seems included.Who uses a PATA drive nowadays anyway.You can go with any of the 2.Your budget seems quite heavy. If you pardon my interference I would suggest to go over a GTX 680/690[/quotemsg]

Thanks.

I heard that the GTX 670 is only 5-10% worse than the GTX 680 so thats why I've been sticking with it, and the GTX 690 is way out of my range. My budget is only for the tower, I already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse for now.

 

[chesteracorgi]

I detest the Fata1ty boards for their idiotic splash screens, who wants to see Wendel's ugly mug in red every time you go into BIOS. I prefer the Extreme 6 (of which I run both a P67 and Z77): they run well.

 

[razvan_mz]

Digi Power Design, 8 + 4 Power Phase Design vs Digi Power Design, 16 + 8 Power Phase Design (this is for extreme overclocking stability), 160$ vs 195$, the fatality professional are asrock flagship.

 

[Lutfij]

Save money and wait out until Haswell comes out, its only a few months away.

 

[the great randini]

i have the p67 version of the pro one and i have never had a better mobo some features i like are the dual nics can be teamed one sends one recieves. the bios is very nice with lots of oc options, you can save 4 or 5 oc profiles. Not to mention is is awsome looking. only thing i did not like so much was the location of the sata ports, it was a pain getting all my hard drives connected.

 

[the great randini]

i belive you can disable the "ugly mug splash" at boot by pressing a key f9 or somthing, it was a little annoying at first.

 

[Spartacus394]

I detest the Fata1ty boards for their idiotic splash screens, who wants to see Wendel's ugly mug in red every time you go into BIOS. I prefer the Extreme 6 (of which I run both a P67 and Z77): they run well.

Well I honestly don't care what the bios looks like, I probably won't use it much after I set up my system. But you said the Extreme6 runs well, so +1.

Digi Power Design, 8 + 4 Power Phase Design vs Digi Power Design, 16 + 8 Power Phase Design (this is for extreme overclocking stability), 160$ vs 195$, the fatality professional are asrock flagship.

So the Pro model would be better for Overclocking?

Save money and wait out until Haswell comes out, its only a few months away.

I heard that this generation will last me a few generations so a slightly better version doesn't worry me. I'll be fine getting current gen tech and upgrading in 3-4 years.

i have the p67 version of the pro one and i have never had a better mobo some features i like are the dual nics can be teamed one sends one recieves. the bios is very nice with lots of oc options, you can save 4 or 5 oc profiles. Not to mention is is awsome looking. only thing i did not like so much was the location of the sata ports, it was a pain getting all my hard drives connected.

The pro sounds like a better board overall for my needs, the OC profiles sound useful, and it's red so it fits my tower theme. I think I'm going to get the Professional model, Unless the sata ports are so bad that I can break parts trying to hook them up.

 

[Spartacus394]

How about I ask a different question. How do after market heatsinks fit with either of these boards? I have this one:

CM Hyper 212 evo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

It's a monster, and I wanna make sure that the Mobo heatsinks or RAM slots don't interfere with the heatsink. I'm only running one fan with the heatsink.

 

[the great randini]

you case is bigger than my storm scout, my problem was you had to reach around and up from back side to plug them in, it may be easier for you. it looks like the sata ports on the extreme 6 are the same anyway.

ya that will be a nice red and black theme, you should post some pics when you are done!

have you picked a cpu cooler?
ZalmanCnps9900Max-r
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118075

Prolimatech PRO-PNTH 120mm Panther CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242010

 

[Spartacus394]

you case is bigger than my storm scout, my problem was you had to reach around and up from back side to plug them in, it may be easier for you. it looks like the sata ports on the extreme 6 are the same anyway.

ya that will be a nice red and black theme, you should post some pics when you are done!

have you picked a cpu cooler?
ZalmanCnps9900Max-r
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118075

Prolimatech PRO-PNTH 120mm Panther CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242010

Pro it is then!
You must have replied at the same time as me. Haha, I do have a CPU cooler!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

 

[the great randini]

now the pro has support for lga775 heatsinks but i would not use one. i had a cnps9900Max-b (the pre lga1155 version) that did not have a 1155 adpater, i figured who cares it supports lga775, but it did not fit right if you look at the mobo there are square capacitors that surround the socket it was squished right into one using the 775 holes. i did not like that so i bought the red one with the 1155 bracket, i could of bought a bracket for 10-15 bucks but i figured i wanted the red theme so i pulled the trigger.

 

[Spartacus394]

Best answer selected by Spartacus394.