Please help me choose one of these z77 mobos for i5 2500k!

Scraniel

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I have decided to buy an i5 2500k. I want to overclock, but not extremely, so I need a mobo with just mediocre overclocking potential. I will be using the computer for some programming and also gaming, so I will be buying a discrete GPU but probably won't care about dual GPUs in the future (so whether these boards only support CrossFire and not SLI, it doesn't limit nor concern me, I'll most likely only have 1 graphics card).

Ok, so I have narrowed my choice of motherboard down to 5 models based on my budget. These 5 models are ranked from lowest to highest price (in my country that is -- I wish I could order from Newegg :)).

Please select the one which meets my minimum needs.

1. Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128547
1. Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543
1. ASUS P8Z77-V LX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131824&Tpk=p8z77-v%20lx
1. Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128546
1. ASRock Z77 Pro4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157296

I am leaning towards the GA-Z77-D3H or the GA-Z77X-D3H because they have onboard mSata (yippee!) for an SSD and maybe better audio than the third Gigabyte board. I think the only major difference is that GA-Z77X-D3H has SLI in addition to CrossFire.

Thoughts? Is there anything I should be aware of before buying one of these boards. THANKS!
 

akamrcrack

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Saying MSI is total crap, is like saying Nvidia or AMD are total crap...

Tier 1 manufacturers.

^+1

MSI is known for their top dog quality and extremely well ocing motherboards with some of the best cooling design graphics cards offering some of the highest clock speeds. As well their motherboards have way better blue/black theme going on versus ASUS.

Basically

ASUS > MSI > Gigabyte > Asrock > everything else for motherboards
MSI > Asus > Gigabyte > everything else for graphics cards


Easily overclocked my 2500K to 4.5ghz @ stock or less voltage.

MSI if anything is total win, only people that have had bad (faulty/manufacturer defect) components delivered will say MSI sucks.

I have never had an ASUS board that worked properly.
ASUS sells, and is more popular due to it's ROG line.

3 out of 3 ASUS boards were total crap.
1 out of 2 MSI boards has become defective.

My 790FX-GD70 is a absolute monster.
My P67A-GD53 would be but, my ram will not work in dual channel mode anymore with this board.

ASUS problems, constant BSOD, Bios corruption, and general instability no matter what i did.

Sounds like you got the short stick every time lol.

Only reason I put ASUS above MSI in my above part of the post is because of their ROG line like you said. I still personally see MSI being the better choice but to be technical I put ASUS ahead of MSI since they somewhat are above MSI in terms of all around features.
 

juniiflow

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I have never had an ASUS board that worked properly.
ASUS sells, and is more popular due to it's ROG line.

3 out of 3 ASUS boards were total crap.
1 out of 2 MSI boards has become defective.

My 790FX-GD70 is a absolute monster.
My P67A-GD53 would be but, my ram will not work in dual channel mode anymore with this board.

ASUS problems, constant BSOD, Bios corruption, and general instability no matter what i did.



nice informative, i might change my motherboard build to msi.

and i wast saying it was crap, i just tought it was.
 

Scraniel

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GA-Z77X-D3H.
Or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130644

Thanks for your vote. That MSI board you linked to is over my budget unfortunately.

By the way, since I plan on overclocking the 2500k, what makes one motherboard better at overclocking than another. What technical spec should I look out for? Voltage regulator or something? (Again, not interested in crazy overclocking to like 5 Ghz, just to the lower 4 Ghz)
 

Scraniel

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Well, I really think the chances of me buying a 2nd GPU are very low. Suppose I am not planning to SLI or Crossfire, so which of those boards would you recommend then?
 

Jaywill

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This board would get my vote. Better than the Pro4, and is basically the Extreme6 minus a couple small features. Tom's ranked the Extreme6 a tie with the MSI board above in the $160 to $220 price range. I personally bought the Extreme6, mainly because I like the look of the heatsinks (lol).
 

You left out the part where MSI deceived people into thinking some of their boards supported SLI when they didn't. The people who purchased those MSI boards were SOL when they tried to add a second Nvidia card. I trust MSI as far as I could throw that company.
 

akamrcrack

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I guess if we were to base a company off its shady tactics, then all companies since the dawn of time can be thrown under that bus.

Even the bible gets an honorable mention for some of its shady tactics to indoctrinate people.


The MSI I know does great at what they do. Their gpus are top of the line and their current motherboards are overclocking/feature enriched.

Out of the entire world of computers the one disgusting thing I can think of when mentioning MSI is the issue Why_Me brought up. Compare that ratio of win to fail to other companies and MSI is still holding the crown and the whip.
 

I don't have a problem with MSI quality, I have problem with a company lying to the consumer. As far as boards go, MSI is #4 on the list in total sales behind Asus, Gigabyte, and Asrock. By the looks of it Asrock will take over the #2 spot in board sales in less than two years.
 

akamrcrack

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Indeed, but wouldn't that list better be said as "Asus #1. Gigabyte #2. Asus #3. Msi #4"
 

Why? Asus owned the a chunk of shares in Asrock. That ended two years ago when Asrock bought out those shares. Asrock has nothing to do with Asus and has not for two years now. When Asus did own those shares Asrock still used it's own engineers.
 

akamrcrack

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ASUS is to ASROCK what ATI is to AMD

SAME DIFFERENCE Q_Q </3
 

akamrcrack

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So what have I posted that is BS, if you took the time to check my posts you would see they aren't..

What I would suggest you do before picking up your stick, is to learn how to have a sense of humor. Clearly my last 2 posts were jokes and had no actual statements in them that could be misconstrued as bad advice. Clearly. So thank you for your time but no thank you for your response because it was unneeded and over exaggerated. Please be more mellow dramatic. Not to mention you never argued my advice (if I even gave any) was bad 3 posts ago, only these last 2 posts. If you are so able to do your homework and critically think for yourself, take the time to read before you type? Because if you did you would see that I was joking mr hot head.

Off to go as you claim, Give more BS advice with zero homework backing. Clearly.


All jokes aside.. if I wanted to go find some bad advice on computers... I wouldn't have to go far. "Ba dum tis!" \end rant


The bias be leaking from THG pours!