Intel Z97 Express: Five Enthusiast Motherboards, $120 To $160
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Motherboards
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Gigabyte
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ECS
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Tom's Hardware Top Picks
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MSI
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Asus
- ASrock
Last response: in Reviews comments
Tom’s Hardware readers set a higher bar for enthusiast-class motherboards, demanding overclocking capabilities and more robust feature sets. Priced from $120 to $160, we welcome the first five Z97 motherboards to our enhanced definition of mainstream!
Intel Z97 Express: Five Enthusiast Motherboards, $120 To $160 : Read more
Intel Z97 Express: Five Enthusiast Motherboards, $120 To $160 : Read more
More about : intel z97 express enthusiast motherboards 120 160
onover
May 12, 2014 11:23:20 PM
makishima
May 12, 2014 11:36:10 PM
SteelCity1981
May 13, 2014 12:43:41 AM
H4X3R said:
Good review
I am looking forward to the best price:features motherboard review though (extreme6). I have a quick question crashman: Do asrock still use Capxxon caps (or just crappy caps in general). I would like to know the company of the caps if possible, once again, thank you
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tarkhein
May 13, 2014 4:20:57 AM
Quote:
I'd like to see a review on the significance of the 'killer' NICs... I highly doubt they have any difference besides branding.Not exactly the most comprehensive review, but here is Asus' take on NICs: http://rog.asus.com/312772014/labels/guides/tried-and-t...
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tarkhein
May 13, 2014 4:33:57 AM
airborn824
May 13, 2014 4:59:55 AM
[/quotemsg]I wish I knew. It appears that they get their caps custom-wrapped to get the gold color, and that the custom wrapping only has specifications (no branding).
[/quotemsg]
Well, then i guess i'll have to hunt that info down because i do not like investing in mobos with cheap components, no matter how many features it has.
[/quotemsg]
Well, then i guess i'll have to hunt that info down because i do not like investing in mobos with cheap components, no matter how many features it has.
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I had to replace a cap on a cheap ASRock mobo that I knocked off myself with too-aggressive cable management. What appeared to be an exact replacement was a Nichycon, which is a good Japanese brand.
As to MSI, I wouldn't touch their cheap boards, but their Z77A-GD65 Gaming board really surprised me over how nice it is, and how cool the VRMs stay under load. If my primary were full ATX, I'd be using it there.
As to MSI, I wouldn't touch their cheap boards, but their Z77A-GD65 Gaming board really surprised me over how nice it is, and how cool the VRMs stay under load. If my primary were full ATX, I'd be using it there.
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geok1ng
May 13, 2014 8:06:05 AM
palitusa
May 13, 2014 10:33:29 AM
Vlad Rose
May 13, 2014 2:46:04 PM
I've used all these brands before and have good luck with each one and say that they're all equal/solid; except one. The ECS/PCChips/L337. A cheap company can try branding their stuff as 'elite' all they want, it still doesn't stop the fact that they use low quality parts and an outdated BIOS. Biostar and Foxconn are even better than them.
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elbert
May 13, 2014 7:31:31 PM
After reading the article it really only reduced choice by one board. I base my finally purchase on company's history of bios update period, uses of quality components, the boards layout. In these Asus and Gigabyte are generally above the rest. Maybe tomshardware future motherboard articles could include average bios update period by company, delve into the layout, and quality of parts used.
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my asrock mobo running an i5 107mhz never get an fsb 4200mhz 2 cores and 4.0ghz 4 cores.
people think will have the same Motherboard after five years. "military class product LOL asus and msi trow these shit on the fan all the time. but you can't shot the motherboard or piss on that. this will avoid de guarantee
people think will have the same Motherboard after five years. "military class product LOL asus and msi trow these shit on the fan all the time. but you can't shot the motherboard or piss on that. this will avoid de guarantee Score
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H4X3R said:
Well, then i guess i'll have to hunt that info down because i do not like investing in mobos with cheap components, no matter how many features it has.sincreator said:
Usually when games are tested on motherboards the results are virtually identical. Strange that the MSI board came up as far ahead as it did in this case. Any ideas on why this happened Crash? elbert said:
Maybe tomshardware future motherboard articles could include average bios update period by company, delve into the layout, and quality of parts used.Score
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Queenslander
May 13, 2014 8:52:51 PM
nekromobo
May 13, 2014 10:54:06 PM
dpassenger97
May 14, 2014 4:42:27 AM
blacksun
May 14, 2014 5:41:15 AM
Onus said:
I had to replace a cap on a cheap ASRock mobo that I knocked off myself with too-aggressive cable management. What appeared to be an exact replacement was a Nichycon, which is a good Japanese brand.As to MSI, I wouldn't touch their cheap boards, but their Z77A-GD65 Gaming board really surprised me over how nice it is, and how cool the VRMs stay under load. If my primary were full ATX, I'd be using it there.
Thanks a lot.
Now i am encouraged to jump on a Z97 extreme6 and get dem 32gbps speeds and i shall laugh at everyone else with their $400+ motherboards that only have 10gbps speed
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Crashman said:
H4X3R said:
Well, then i guess i'll have to hunt that info down because i do not like investing in mobos with cheap components, no matter how many features it has.ASRock says these are "Supreme 12K Platinum capacitors". I've never heard of Supreme capacitors, but ASRock says they are made by Nichicon in Japan.
Great
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Queenslander said:
Does the ASRock have a CLR_CMOS button on the motherboard or not? The specs table says it doesn't, but puts CLR_CMOS on the Internal Button list, and I can't quite make it out on the photo.nekromobo said:
Whats the size of those motherboards?Probably standard ATX, but couldn't find it with a quick look..
blacksun said:
MSI Z97 is suck because they are the only vendor doesn't support SATA Express.
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g-unit1111 said:
Onus said:
I hope my systems are also still running in 2020; they seem easily enough to meet my foreseeable needs.Yeah my Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 has been running strong for four years now. Can't say the same for the Asus M4A87TD Evo I was running.
My MSI GD-70 is still kicking and overclocking like new. I've had this board for 5 years now and has been overclocked since day 1. I know a lot of people bash MSI, but from mine and my brothers experiances with their hardware we haven't had one issue. I also have a MSI 7950 TF III(1070/1500). One of my brothers still has his p67a GD-55, and MSI TFII GTX570. They have both been overclocked from day one as well. He's running a i5 2500k @ 4.8ghz on his board. My youngest brother has the MSI 560ti 448 TFIII.
Honestly, the biggest issue i've seen from MSI motherboards is that their motherboards bios are usually buggy on release. Usually after one or two updates they run fine. Too bad the reviews are allready written by then...
I just had to post my experiances with MSI, since so many people here like to bash them. I don't understand how Guru3d can give their boards such good reviews, and they get slammed so bad by some moderators in here. I guess there have been some bad experiances over the years?
Actually the only peice of hardware I've had trouble with was my old motherboard, the Asus mvp m3a32-wifi. That board cost me over $300 and gave out just outside of a year. Then Asus wanted me to pay all shipping to the place of purchase and back, and the place I purchased it from wanted the shipping from them to Asus. It worked out to be over $100 for shipping, so I bought my current board(MSI GD-70) on sale for $150. My Asus board also overclocked horribly compared to my MSI board.
I guess it's all based on experiances, but I still will recommend an Asus board/MSI board if the price is right and the reviews are all in line.
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No, it only has AMD boards. It is not my spreadsheet. I don't remember which tech site posted it, and I don't have it in my work PC's bookmarks. I would assume that the same company's Intel boards in the same price range would be of similar quality.
Edit: Check out http://www.sinhardware.com/. It's blocked at work, but I believe he's got a lot of VRM info on Intel boards.
Edit: Check out http://www.sinhardware.com/. It's blocked at work, but I believe he's got a lot of VRM info on Intel boards.
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Based on this spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ag... many of MSI's cheap AMD boards have horrible VRMs. I don't think this extends to their "better" boards.
For example, I personally got to review a Z77A-GD65 Gaming board. I was expecting to bash it, particularly for bad overclocks and/or hot VRMs (I even bought an IR thermometer to gather the evidence). I was pleasantly surprised. It was one sweet board. I overclocked an i5-3570K to 4.2GHz on stock voltage. The VRMs didn't go over 38C. I liked other features on the board too. If my primary rig weren't microATX, I'd probably have swapped it in.
For example, I personally got to review a Z77A-GD65 Gaming board. I was expecting to bash it, particularly for bad overclocks and/or hot VRMs (I even bought an IR thermometer to gather the evidence). I was pleasantly surprised. It was one sweet board. I overclocked an i5-3570K to 4.2GHz on stock voltage. The VRMs didn't go over 38C. I liked other features on the board too. If my primary rig weren't microATX, I'd probably have swapped it in.
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thundervore
May 15, 2014 9:17:03 AM
TeamBLU 4K
May 15, 2014 2:06:44 PM
In the specs list on Page 1 of the review, I strongly feel you should start adding "Thunderbolt 2.0" connectivity under networking. Since I'm looking to connect multiple computers into a 10Gbps Thunderbolt network once the Win8 driver is released, this is the most important feature of any new Motherboard for me. Please consider adding this. Thanks
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Vaeserion
June 10, 2014 9:10:41 PM
On MSI's Gaming 5 motherboard: "Notice that the Z97 Gaming 5 has no SATA Express cable provision? That’s because MSI agrees with my boss that the M.2 interface is mostly useful in notebooks that lack space for RAID arrays, and that RAID arrays are most practical in desktops."
I'm confused, if MSI thinks M.2 belongs in laptops, then why did they put it in their desktop motherboard? And if that's not the case, then what's better, an M.2 drive or a RAID array?
I'm confused, if MSI thinks M.2 belongs in laptops, then why did they put it in their desktop motherboard? And if that's not the case, then what's better, an M.2 drive or a RAID array?
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Vaeserion said:
On MSI's Gaming 5 motherboard: "Notice that the Z97 Gaming 5 has no SATA Express cable provision? That’s because MSI agrees with my boss that the M.2 interface is mostly useful in notebooks that lack space for RAID arrays, and that RAID arrays are most practical in desktops."I'm confused, if MSI thinks M.2 belongs in laptops, then why did they put it in their desktop motherboard? And if that's not the case, then what's better, an M.2 drive or a RAID array?
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