Looking for best budget z77 motherbaord for OC'ing on my new build

Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 is awesome!Dont get the pro 4. It sucks for OC

+1 ^

I have an ASRock z77 extreme 3 Mobo and I Overclocked my i5-3570k to 4.5ghz no problem. There is very little difference between the Extreme 3 and The Extreme 4.
both are great boards and I very highly recommend them.

Cheers  

Love my Extreme4 (but have nothing against Asus).

Have not been with intel for very long as I have been with AMD since the K6-2 but I am really liking my Asus Z77 Sabertooth. But then it is the only intel board I have used in a very long time.

I wouldn't call a Sabertooth "budget"  

This is a very misinformed response. Clearly mojin has no experience of using the Pro4. I was torn between buying the Extreme4 and the Pro4 - I don't need Crossfire and the Pro4 had more than enough features, I just wanted to overclock my i5 3570k to 4.5GHz, run a SATA3 SSD and a PCIe graphics card.

A lot of comments I found on forums wrote the Pro4 off as terrible for OC'ing. I doubt any of the people writing those comments had even laid eyes on a Pro4 - it is fantastic.

I have had the Pro4 for a few weeks now. After installing Windows I went into BIOS and ramped the multiplier on my i5 3570k to 40 - giving me 4.0GHz. This was completely stable with no need for voltage offsets. I now have my CPU happily running at 4.5GHz with a minor voltage increase. The board can probably go further but I am near 70C on full load so I'm happy with the 4.5GHz for now.

Misinformed? Clearly I do have experience with the Pro 4 and the extreme 4. I first purchased the Pro4 because i, like you, said it has enough features for me and blah blah. Guess what. It was perfect up until I tried going for a nice healthy overclock. My OC was CLEARLY limited by the board because of how hot the chipset itself got due to the voltage regulation on the board. This was with a 2700k at 4.6 or 4.7 with no voltage tweak. The board caused throttling due to heat. The CPU was cool and collective still. I tried everything aside from sticking heat sinks onto all those tiny mosfet and whatnot. Because thats silly to me. Guess what else. I bought a Extreme 4 two weeks later and my new OC is 5.2 Ghz with a H100 and a mild voltage tweak which peaks around 1.4. The Extreme 4 is a BEAST. Clearly a better board for OC.

So... you might want to get "informed" as I clearly speak from experience on this and clearly have owned both and overclocked with both. Nevermond "laid eyes on then." Your mild OC proves nothing about the pro being a good overclocking board.

Pretty sure my Pro 4 said Crossfire right on it too...

Well your experience with the Pro4 is definitely unfortunate and I apologise for calling your post misinformed. Whilst I have only pushed my CPU to 4.5GHz, I have not had the time to test it further and the 4.5GHz was easily obtained with only minor tweaking. I would consider a 1.1GHz (32%) overclock quite reasonable, especially considering how little effort it took - no doubt this board can push it further. We are also comparing my Ivy CPU with your Sandy CPU - It is generally easier to get higher clockrates out of Sandybridge processors.

Crossfire support on the Pro4 is x16 x4 so it's a poor man's crossfire really - not true x16 x16 (or even x16 x8) crossfire.

Not to get in the middle here... but I wouldn't call 4.5 a mild overclock on a 3570K. That's really pretty good. I only got 4.4 on an Extreme4 with voltage on auto.

For a PCI E 3.0 x4 and x16 crossfire setup being poor mans is really splitting hairs. And hey I know I flamed a little because I got offended for a minute (im a silly dude) but Im telling you getting past that point you are sitting at with your ivy on that mobo is just trouble. When you start bumping that voltage even a little or upping that frequency even another point or two, you will start seeing crazy heat and it is just not the mobo for the job.

Now like I said for a mild OC its fine. It really is. But for more then that you really should have the Extreme 4 with its 8 + 4 power phase design over the Pros 4s 4 + 2. Especially at such low prices.

Budget board for 0 to mild OC and Crossfire = Pro4
Budget board for moderate to high OC and/or SLI = Extreme4

Its well known bud.

I can agree there. I think an Ivy at 4.5 with voltage bump at only 70C under load is a real GEM of a CPU actually  

Was the 4.4 on air?

Ya Evo. I plan to try to fine tune down the road but I don't have a use for more than 4.1 right now and it doesn't go over 1.18V on auto.

I'm running it on a cheap watercooler (Antec Kuhler 620 - a really great choice for ~£45) and off the top of my head the voltage is 1.3v full load and it hits 68-70C. I may be overdoing the voltage but just haven't had the time to reduce and retest. I like to get the best performance out of my money so for £225 for my CPU+Mobo I am very pleased with what I have got  

Back to the topic of budget z77 board for overclocking - I have had a good experience with the Pro4 so I can thoroughly recommend it for a budget z77 board which will allow you to hit 4.5GHz with an i5 3570k. However, if you would rather be on the safe side, splash the extra £30 or so on the Extreme4 and you will be guaranteed a great board and better Crossfire capability + SLI capability.

Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 is a decent board for overclocking. 4.6ghz\1.28 volts\mid to high 70's max temps\Noctua NH-D14

Actually ASUS is the company made ASRock.

About OC, you should select Extreme4, (talking to MyNewPCBuild) as it's a very good motherboard for OC.

Asrock ans ASUS are separate companies now.

Oh thanks!