Asus Sabertooth Z87, MSI GD-65 or MSI G-45??

[hardware_guy]

I am going to be building a new gaming PC for myself and was just wondering what motherboard to get. I have rounded them up to these three. I was wondering if it is really worth spending £80 extra getting the Asus Sabertooth and get the MSI G-45 instead, because with that money i could get a pretty decent water cooler. Or should i spend an extra £40 and go for the MSI GD-65. I am really confused, and don't know what the big difference between these three is, but the Asus Sabertooth looks tempting to get, because it looks nice and it has got a five year warranty on it, but the GD-65 and G_45 is more gaming looking and has more gaming feature, but it doesn't come with a 5 year warranty. I wanted to know which one i should get for my system and i also wanted to now how you have had experiences with these motherboard if you have/ha done? 

Specs:

- i5- 4670K

- Gigabyte GTX 770

- 1TB WD Blue HDD

- 120GB Samsung EVO 840

- 8GB Corsair vengeance pro Ram

- Corsair RM650 Power Supply

- Fractal Design R4(windowed) Case

[wtfxmitchell]

sabertooth z97 maybe?

[KieranThePCGuy]

I am going to be building a new gaming PC for myself and was just wondering what motherboard to get. I have rounded them up to these three. I was wondering if it is really worth spending £80 extra getting the Asus Sabertooth and get the MSI G-45 instead, because with that money i could get a pretty decent water cooler. Or should i spend an extra £40 and go for the MSI GD-65. I am really confused, and don't know what the big difference between these three is, but the Asus Sabertooth looks tempting to get, because it looks nice and it has got a five year warranty on it, but the GD-65 and G_45 is more gaming looking and has more gaming feature, but it doesn't come with a 5 year warranty. I wanted to know which one i should get for my system and i also wanted to now how you have had experiences with these motherboard if you have/ha done? 

Specs:

- i5- 4670K

- Gigabyte GTX 770

- 1TB WD Blue HDD

- 120GB Samsung EVO 840

- 8GB Corsair vengeance pro Ram

- Corsair RM650 Power Supply

- Fractal Design R4(windowed) Case

Regarding Z87 and Haswell, the motherboard doesn't really affect performance of the CPU that much. My advice would be to look at their feature sets and see what you prefer. What features do they have? What colour scheme you going for? What do you think of the looks etc? What is the price difference? Compare all of them and I hope that justifies your decision. Either way they are all great motherboards.

 

Hope it helps! My $0.02

[Raudi_]

I would recommend the ASUS Sabertooth Z87 motherboard, It runs stays cool overclocks great and is extremely stable, When I got a total of a 7 year warranty with my Sabertooth board the only issue i had with it was the USB 3.0 header and its location. Other then that 1 flaw, its a pretty heavy board and my Dark Rock Pro 3 makes it look tiny.

[JAKEBAB]

get the cheapest there all going to be the same performing the only thing is the asus will have a bunch of features u pretty much wont use lol i had a sabertooth z77 and now i have a gryphon z87 i havnt used any of the exclusive features it has except for checking my temps which there is 3rd party software that does the same thing just get the cheapest and spend the extra money on something else.

 

P.S alot of people dont really understand motherboards on this forum and they recommend people alot of things they really dont need like majority of them will tell people to get an rog board which is a complete waste of money!

[s3ns3]

the cheapest

[Enderman]

sabertooth z97 maybe?

does that even exist...

[wtfxmitchell]

does that even exist...

almost 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/141947-asus-z97-motherboard-lineup-unveiled-%E2%80%93-hero-gene-ranger-sabertooth-deluxe-pictured/

[Victorious Secret]

Z97 will work with errything for the next few years, but if you don't care get the Z87. Haswell chips aren't exactly bad, the Z87s will run the H-refresh chips just fine to boot. 

 

I have a Z87, the thing is great. The warranty is the best thing, 7 years. And the board itself is just built to a higher standard, hell I'd put it at 2 behind the ROG series of boards in terms of features and quality. 

[hardware_guy]

get the cheapest there all going to be the same performing the only thing is the asus will have a bunch of features u pretty much wont use lol i had a sabertooth z77 and now i have a gryphon z87 i havnt used any of the exclusive features it has except for checking my temps which there is 3rd party software that does the same thing just get the cheapest and spend the extra money on something else.

 

P.S alot of people dont really understand motherboards on this forum and they recommend people alot of things they really dont need like majority of them will tell people to get an rog board which is a complete waste of money!

I might just go for the G-45 then, and spend that extra money on a decent cooler, but it's still tempting to get a Asus Sabertooth Z87, because it has the 7 year warranty and it has the dust protection on the board. Does the dust protection actually help or is it just a feature which no one uses?

[JAKEBAB]

I might just go for the G-45 then, and spend that extra money on a decent cooler, but it's still tempting to get a Asus Sabertooth Z87, because it has the 7 year warranty and it has the dust protection on the board. Does the dust protection actually help or is it just a feature which no one uses?

It's a gimmick!

[Faceman]

I am going to be building a new gaming PC for myself and was just wondering what motherboard to get. I have rounded them up to these three. I was wondering if it is really worth spending £80 extra getting the Asus Sabertooth and get the MSI G-45 instead, because with that money i could get a pretty decent water cooler. Or should i spend an extra £40 and go for the MSI GD-65. I am really confused, and don't know what the big difference between these three is, but the Asus Sabertooth looks tempting to get, because it looks nice and it has got a five year warranty on it, but the GD-65 and G_45 is more gaming looking and has more gaming feature, but it doesn't come with a 5 year warranty. I wanted to know which one i should get for my system and i also wanted to now how you have had experiences with these motherboard if you have/ha done? 

Specs:

- i5- 4670K

- Gigabyte GTX 770

- 1TB WD Blue HDD

- 120GB Samsung EVO 840

- 8GB Corsair vengeance pro Ram

- Corsair RM650 Power Supply

- Fractal Design R4(windowed) Case

Get the least expensive Z87 motherboard you can find.  Either SLI capable or not SLI capable depending on what you want to do in the future.  Motherboard doesn't impact performance. 

I would also go with a less expensive PSU.  The Corsair CX600M will work just as well as the 650, plus I have heard lots of complaints about the RM650 being loud.  The CX600M is very quiet, own one myself.

Get the least expensive 1600mhz 9-9-9-24, 1.5v RAM you can find.  Brand doesn't matter.

Don't get the Samsung EVO SSD, go with something less expensive like the Mushkin or Kingston, SSDs for daily tasks all perform the same.  Save some money here.

Get a less expensive case.  Case doesn't impact performance.

 

Take all of the money that you saved, and get a GTX780.  That will give you more performance than any other component.

[rcarlos243]

get the asus.

 

I suggest you stay away from MSI as they have a bad history regarding them cheapening out on power delivery circuitry.

[pskarz]

I recently rebuilt my main rig using the MSI GD-65 board and really like it. Only issue I had was finding a working driver for the E2200 Killer Nic. The one that came on the driver disc, on the msi site and the qualcom site all had one issue or another. Finally sent an email to MSI support and they pointed me to a working driver. 

[LawrenceBarnes2013]

sabertooth is well known to be very tough, long warranty  ,very good Features ,MSI's GD 65 offers Killer Network ,Amazing Onboard Audio ,and also Amazing features to go with it , your Call

[hardware_guy]

Get the least expensive Z87 motherboard you can find.  Either SLI capable or not SLI capable depending on what you want to do in the future.  Motherboard doesn't impact performance. 

I would also go with a less expensive PSU.  The Corsair CX600M will work just as well as the 650, plus I have heard lots of complaints about the RM650 being loud.  The CX600M is very quiet, own one myself.

Get the least expensive 1600mhz 9-9-9-24, 1.5v RAM you can find.  Brand doesn't matter.

Don't get the Samsung EVO SSD, go with something less expensive like the Mushkin or Kingston, SSDs for daily tasks all perform the same.  Save some money here.

Get a less expensive case.  Case doesn't impact performance.

 

Take all of the money that you saved, and get a GTX780.  That will give you more performance than any other component.

 

 

The reason im going with the RM650 is because it is rated at 80 plus Gold and it has got a fanless operation when not in high power usage. Im not really bothered about RAM, but i want something trustworthy which corsair is, but will probably go for 1600MhZ. The motherboard i might just go for the MSI-G45, because its not that expensive and i like the sound of the killer Ethernet and the good quality audio. And the reason i am going for a Samsung 840 EVO, is because i have read many reviews about Samsung and all of them have been very positive. The nand flashes samsung use is their own and apparently they are very long lasting and the performance is very good with equally good read and write speeds. The reason i am not going for a 780, is because i would rather spend that money on a mechanical keyboard and mouse, because i am trying to keep to a budget of £1000, which doesn't include monitor, mouse or keyboard. and i really want to get this case, because it will be sitting on my desk and i want it to look nice(which this does) and it has pretty good airflow and its also quiet.

[hardware_guy]

I recently rebuilt my main rig using the MSI GD-65 board and really like it. Only issue I had was finding a working driver for the E2200 Killer Nic. The one that came on the driver disc, on the msi site and the qualcom site all had one issue or another. Finally sent an email to MSI support and they pointed me to a working driver. 

 

 

Could you send me that link if you do have it, because i will probably need it if i do end up getting an MSI board.

[pskarz]

Could you send me that link if you do have it, because i will probably need it if i do end up getting an MSI board.

 

Couldn't find the link I had before but I am pretty sure that the link below is the driver I used to get it working. 

 

Killer Nic Driver Only

[Faceman]

The reason im going with the RM650 is because it is rated at 80 plus Gold and it has got a fanless operation when not in high power usage. Im not really bothered about RAM, but i want something trustworthy which corsair is, but will probably go for 1600MhZ. The motherboard i might just go for the MSI-G45, because its not that expensive and i like the sound of the killer Ethernet and the good quality audio. And the reason i am going for a Samsung 840 EVO, is because i have read many reviews about Samsung and all of them have been very positive. The nand flashes samsung use is their own and apparently they are very long lasting and the performance is very good with equally good read and write speeds. The reason i am not going for a 780, is because i would rather spend that money on a mechanical keyboard and mouse, because i am trying to keep to a budget of £1000, which doesn't include monitor, mouse or keyboard. and i really want to get this case, because it will be sitting on my desk and i want it to look nice(which this does) and it has pretty good airflow and its also quiet.

     If thats your prerogative.  I would focus on getting the absolute best possible computer for my money before worrying about peripherals. I have heard that the RM650 has a problem with noise, precisely because of the fanless option at low speeds.  The CX600M is a fraction of the cost, will perform just the same, and is quiet.  I own one myself.  The SamsungEVO... Those rated speeds are for very large file transfers.  Day-to-day tasks, all SSDs perform the same.  I really urge you to go for the 780, it is a massive improvement over the 770.  Things like a mechanical keyboard and mouse can be purchased later when funds are more available.  Focus on your computer(performance) first, then worry about peripherals.

[hardware_guy]

     If thats your prerogative.  I would focus on getting the absolute best possible computer for my money before worrying about peripherals. I have heard that the RM650 has a problem with noise, precisely because of the fanless option at low speeds.  The CX600M is a fraction of the cost, will perform just the same, and is quiet.  I own one myself.  The SamsungEVO... Those rated speeds are for very large file transfers.  Day-to-day tasks, all SSDs perform the same.  I really urge you to go for the 780, it is a massive improvement over the 770.  Things like a mechanical keyboard and mouse can be purchased later when funds are more available.  Focus on your computer(performance) first, then worry about peripherals.

 

I really don't need to get a 780, because its my first build and i would rather spend the £100 on upgrading other and make all my other componetns good, rather than having a decent ssd and a extremely good gpu. Its my first build so i dont need the best of the best components and im trying to keep my budget as low as possible, preferbly under £1000, which it is at now. And i would ratehr get my mouse and keyboard now, becasue i am using a normal hp branded mouse and keyboard which i have had for about 6 years now.