Mid-Range Z77 Board for OC

[rustikles]

I'm building my first gaming rig this fall, and reviews on some of my mobo choices have me worried.

So, basically I am looking for a solid Z77 board with usb 3.0 for around $150
(+/-$30) that is going to be overclocking friendly for me. Intel i5-3750k for CPU and a Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB video card.

The mobo I had settled on is:
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

However, there seem to be many individuals who have had serious issues with this board being unreliable and shorting/ needing immediate RMA after purchase. Coupled with a "substandard" help line from ASRock, it has me reconsidering. I've always had great results with Asus products, so I tend to default back to them in times of confusion (although I'm willing to buy most brands).

Are there any boards which you've had great personal experience with or know to be great performance for the cost?

 

[chesteracorgi]

I have had problems with a variety of OEMs with RMAs including ASRock, Biostar, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. Sometimes the help lines are nothing but unhelpful PIAs. But I am currently a ASRock fanboy because their product line is the best featured for the price. If you look at user comments at Newegg and TigerDirect I think that you'll see that they are among the most reliable.

I look at user comments over the last 3-12 mos to see how the product is doing lately. Sometimes there is an issue with quality control (like with HDDs just after the floods in Malaysia) that gets corrected.

Just before you purchase read as many of User Reviews as you can to see if a current batch is having problems. If there are a lot of RMAs/DOAs get something else.

And don't be swayed by techno-ignorant complaints (I saw a pan of a caching drive that says that it only has 30GB cache after installation and the fool complained that it was not a 60GB drive - you have to read the specs before you buy).

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 < Built 2 rigs with this board with 0 issues.