Asus Z87-PRO vs. MSI Z87 MPOWER (Not Max)

[CiSCii]

Hey guys. As of within a few days, i'm about to order some pieces for a new gaming rig!

However, as of motherboard i've found 2, to about the same price, that I think will suit my needs.

The question is just.. what should I choose?

- Thanks in advance!

The Parts that i've picked so far;
Netzteil 730W be quiet! Pure Power CM (L8) BN
Be Quiet Shadow Rock 2
Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4GHz 6MB Box S1150 HD4600 OC
Fractal Design ATX Midi DEFINE R4 o.N.
Corsair DDR3 PC2133 16GB kit CL11 Vengeance Pro
Asus GeForce GTX780 OC 3GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0
Samsung SSD 840 Evo 250GB SATA6 Basic kit

 

[Gate9er]

Get this one:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z87-gd65-gaming-intel-z87-s-1150-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-(vga)-dvi-d-a

or even better:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/bundle-msi-z87-gd65-gaming-motherboard-plus128gb-msata-ssd-intel-z87

 

[CiSCii]

Get this one:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z87-gd65-gaming-intel-z87-s-1150-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-(vga)-dvi-d-a

or even better:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/bundle-msi-z87-gd65-gaming-motherboard-plus128gb-msata-ssd-intel-z87

Definitely a choice to consider, however in my country, I can't get those super nice offers! (DK)

- However, I do like the free wireless module that comes along with the motherboards i've chosen, so that I won't have to spend money on it, whenever it becomes necessary.

 

[Y0GI]

I have no direct experience with either board but I am a big MSI fan based on my experience with the MSI board in my system. Also MSI has excellent Tech Support. Highly recommended!

Yogi

 

[Gate9er]

Well both motherboards are excellent it really does not matter which one you choose and they both have very good reviews.

Just to answer your question: choose the one which matches your colour scheme

 

[feelingtheblanks]

MSI MPower is better in terms of component quality. Better power phase complexity, better mosfets, capacitor, inductors and cooling design... Especially if you are considering to do some overclocking and also the prices are similar then definitely get the MPower.

 

[Tradesman1]

The Asus is the better mobo, they have the best handle on the Z87 and Haswell...and much better QC, I and most of the builders I network with won't touch MSI.

 

[feelingtheblanks]

Facts versus guerilla marketing again...

 

[CiSCii]

Well both motherboards are excellent it really does not matter which one you choose and they both have very good reviews.

Just to answer your question: choose the one which matches your colour scheme

Sadly enough, the colour scheme doesn't really match anything xD
It's more performance/reliability/Specs that i'm looking for. And the only thing I actually based my choices on, is that I saw that these 2 have built-in Wi-fi adapter, so I wouldn't have to buy it, whenever it became necessary ^^

 

[Y0GI]

Facts versus guerilla marketing again...

One would expect better from a Moderator.

Yogi

 

[Tradesman1]

Facts versus guerilla marketing again...

One would expect better from a Moderator.

Yogi

______________________________

What? Are saying moderators should lie? We should endorse products we have no faith in based on years of experience with them..( I had them on my list of mobos , right there with Asus and GB that I built with in the 90's and through 2011, but the declining QC the last three or four years I used them led me to drop them completely, you can't make money building rigs when every 4-5th one dies within months or has a component go bust and you have to have it RMAed...and I've seen no break in the trend... Sorry, but when I see products month after month with the wide disparity of problems that MSI mobos come up with, then No, I won't use them or endorse them, am even less inclined when I see their sales figures decline more and more on an ongoing basis since what 2008/09...obviously others are seeing the same things I am....If you get a good one, then yes, they are generally decent to good mobos. Apparently you feel that moderators should only say things to make people 'happy' and agree with them (or you), well sorry but I call things the way I see them. I came to the forums to help me keep up with all the hardware out there and help folks... I'd venture to guess I've helped far more than you have with various problems and I do so across the line of manufacturers (the Big Three (Asus the Rock and GB), as well as MSI, BioStar, ECS, Foxconn, EVGA and others), but just because I work on/with them doesn't mean I would build with them.

 

[feelingtheblanks]

So can you please explain the RMA rates being so very close between the manufacturers then? For instance MSI had better RMA rates than Asus in 2012. And Gigabyte has the crown for a very long time.

If I try to use your interesting logic, then I would look at all the enthusiast forums. They are full of with problems of other manufacturers as well.

And also how come a motherboard would be a better choice with inferior power phase design, mosfets, capacitors, worse sound chip and NIC, less layers in PCB...? Enlighten me please? I bet you don't even know the package manufacturer of the mosfets of the Z87-pro or what kind of caps they using, how much solid polymer they using etc...

All I see on your posts is the exact same phrase of "better handling of z87" without any real data and poor arguments without a real, rational base. Just the same phrases all around.

This is called guerilla marketing and It's really sad to see that Tom's Hardware has so low standards with their moderators.

 

[Tradesman1]

As far as what on RMA rates? Depending on where you see these they can differ, there's a French site that regularly puts out rates, but how accurate they are I don't know, last I looked GB had the lowest followed by the Rock , then Asus, then MSI and all fairly close, what percent of those that are RMAed is very hard to quantify though as who knows what percentage of those RMAed even had a problem? Was the actually a problem with the mobo or was it simply the user had no idea what they were doing? I know this happens all the time with DRAM, I've talked with reps from Corsair, GSkill and Crucial and found that upwards of 80% of DRAM RMAed often has nothing wrong with it, it's been the result of people mixing new with old, 'saving a few bucks' by say buying two single sticks or 2 packs of two sticks rather than a 4 stick set ,etc and get sticks that won't play together, that's not the fault of the product...regardless, on the figures that are published applaud GB for having the lowest RMA rate, especially as their sales continue to rise and expect them to challenge Asus for the overall #1 spot soon, and more so as both GB and Asus sell close to 3 times as many mobos as MSI.

Also last I looked (which isn't real often) Asus was still going through TI and using the NexFET mosfets. And while you bring up a number of items those are all great if well implemented and you could depend on them from one mobo to the next, which is where QC comes in to play, i.e. when the Z87s were released how many thousands of mobos did they ship before catching that the Killer NICs and their BIOSs were flaky together and had to jump out BIOS updates.

As far as the phrase I use 'have a better handle on the Z87' from the release of of Haswell and the Z87, of all the mobos I built on, worked on, and upgraded, Asus mobos have consistently handled things better, the BIOS have been better tuned to DRAM (ready and able to run any and all sticks I tested on them from entry level 1600 right up through high performance 2800 (and since then up through 3000), have been able to run high OCs at lower voltages than comparable mobos, in some case simply OC higher, as long as other things work correctly, then all is good with any mobo, things like audio in particular are subjective, if a person mentions a sound card and are looking at a mobo with the 1150 audio, I'll suggest they that first as it's better than the more common 892 and different manufacturers have tweaked it even further.

As I've said many times, most all of what I offer comes from hands on experience with the different components, there are many out there that have built a system or a fewbut primarily depend on what they read for info and as here, you will always find differing opinions on any given component, I myself am happy I've had the opportunity to work with so many and generally on numerous occasions which I've been able to pass along and help people as I have both here, other forums and with my own clients

 

[feelingtheblanks]

You sound a lot more clear with this post. Thank you. But memory RMA rules are a lot more flexible than motherboards so it's not a good comparison. Most of the memory manufacturers give life-time warranty and some of them even changing 4 different sticks of ram with a 4 stick packages without asking any question. On the other hand, we have some tangible RMA rates for motherboards. For instance the worst RMA rates for z77 boards:

- 5.88% ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
- 5.59% ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP
- 4.94% MSI Z77A-G45
- 4.10% ASRock 960GM/U3S3
- 4.09% ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3

Or the worst RMA rates for memories

- 4.92% Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4) DDR3 1600 CL9
- 4.46% Corsair Vengeance LP Black 16GB (4x4) DDR3 1600 CL9
- 4.35% Corsair Vengeance LP Blue 16GB (4x4) DDR3 1600 CL9
- 3.46% Corsair XM3 8GB (2x4) DDR3 1333 CL9
- 3.31% Corsair XM3 16GB (2x8) DDR3 1600 CL11

or best RMA rates for PSUs?

- Cooler Master 0.98%
- Fortron / FSP Group 0.99%
- Be quiet! 1.15%
- Antec 1.23%
- Akasa 1.92%
- Thermaltake 1.98%
- Corsair 2.18%
- Seasonic 2.36%
- Cougar 2.41%

So is it possible to to bash Corsair memories over these rates? Or Seasonic for getting behind? Or Asus for having relatively high RMA rate for a high-end motherboard? Or is it really logical to take some forum threads or some random problem calls as "only" valid data?

It's just a question of inwit.

For the mosfets. Asus, only use NexFets on their top-end Rampage and Z87 ROG boards. Rest is a mix of lfpak and powerpak which are solid but also pretty common for very long time. However Gigabyte and MSI using PowIRStage which is the same quality as nexfets without a marketing gimmick. Also MSI is using tantalum (a very rare material used in space ships and some other industries) filled solid caps which is actually rated as 160k @ 85C and its logically more efficient than the latest 10k solid polymer caps of some other top motherboards. But actually I'm not arguing the quality here. ROG series mobos are using a very high quality stuff of course, to justify their price. But around mid-high end it's just all about features per dollar. The build quality, components and "handling" is all very similar. Rest is about needs and wallet. With tangible datas are that close there's no need to bash MSI in every possible moment. Moreover for this particular thread; an MPower is better in almost every way than a Z87-pro.

About the overclocking stability... Well it's mostly MSI and Gigabyte, keep breaking the overclocking records and pushing the limits lately. However I wouldn't say that Asus or ASRock boards has bad potential. They are all very similar other than some marketing gimmicks.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'm not arguing quality of components, anyone though can take the absolute highest quality components made and put together mobos, but if the quality control and checking isn't there you are much more likely to have complete or partial failure of the mobo, some people can live with, some there are work arounds, and others are just go through the repair or RMA process or junk it, as in part, a builder, I don't care to take these chances, if a rig I build fails, I stand behind it, if a total failure most components are easily replaceable, mobos are a different story, and generally extremely time consuming, I generally provide a l;oaner system till all is sorted out, but there's cost that play in for shipping, time is often a factor as mobos can take a month or more, there's complete teardown and rebuild, etc, so why would one take a chance with iffy components.

When people ask for help and opinions, I provide my my thoughts, and again, those are based on hands on experience, while I have no idea of your experience, but would guess you to be in your mid 20's or younger, just guessing but of those I've employed and taught systems to that (my perception) is the age age group that takes much higher interest in all the actual components that go into the making of mobos, so if I'm right then would congratulate you on building a great foundation for success.

Also as mentioned, while it's nice to look good on paper, spec wise, and was far superior at the same price point, one would think sales to be at least comparable, yet the Pro outsells the MPower about 3 to one, while being more expensive, the Hero out sales it but even a much higher margin, think over 7 to 1, and again, higher priced...so to that end the people are speaking. I also take input from many other builders and IT pros I network with, almost to a person they also shun MSI mobos....

As far as OCing, Asus went to town at Computex recently (as did GSkill, another manufacturer I favor) setting world records. Anyway, can't figure where you come up with Guerrilla marketing, unless you think there's some grand conspiracy by Asus, the Rock and GB to use a single person to drive people away from MSI as I endorse all three openly, and as mentioned I've pretty much used GSkill as my primary DRAM source, and lets see HDs i lean mainly towards WD, but SeaGate is right there also, and hmmm, GPUs, EVGA and Asus for nVidia cards (prefer their cooling designs, though I also use other brands as well) and on the AMD side prefer Gigabyte and Asus (for same cooling reasons), PSUs, I'm rather open I look to SeaSonic first, though their are many others I use, including some that are shunned by others who continue to look at the old, old tier rankings, CPU coolers, lean towards cooler master, and also use a fair number of Phanteks, and Noctua........if anything as far as Guerrilla marketing goes, it might be that I'm not partial to basically any LC single loop options, but that's not true either I just haven't really found a need for it...so I'm not anti and particular LC component, I don't use any of them ......