Bang for the Buck Z97 Motherboard Showdown Part 3

[TheProfosist]

Asus is really the best one and the msi feature where you can see the plugs in your mobo is available on Asrock boards too.

I guess between these you really can't go wrong, they are all great boards, my only concern is msi not having a quick "repair" possibility if the bios gets corrupted

Luke should have also noted that the ASUS has BIOS Flashback which can fixed a bricked BIOS via a properly formatted usb drive.

[TheProfosist]

-snip-

Also, I have a question. Do H97 boards have the same UEFI ? (excluding the chipset limitations of course)

Yes generally all boards form a single manufacturer within a generation will have the same or nearly the same depending on board features.

[Master Disaster]

@Slick, you totally missed the point of Gigabytes setup.

 

The initial screen is only meant to setup really basic (first boot) options, your supposed to work through the different options one at a time changing them as required until you reach the second to last one which then allows you to select Classic or Smart mode for future, more advanced UEFI navigation. Think of it more like a first boot wizard.

 

I'd have to agree that Asus's UEFI is defo the best but i'd also place Gigabyte in a very strong second place.

 

As you say though, its personal opinion and your mileage may vary

[Kawaii Besu]

I'd have to say I have a similar opinion with Slick's. ASUS and MSI have two of the best UEFI implementations there in the motherboard world. Gigabyte's also pretty and intuitive, but my main gripe is the lack of any visual fan curve settings unlike ASUS and MSI's. Same thing goes for ASRock.

I just hope ASUS will revise their "Channel" motherboard lineup this year, with a color scheme matching their X99 mobos, instead of the "YEAH, WE HAB D BEZT MOTHABOADS IN PLANET EARTH!!1!11" gold color scheme...

Speaking of color scheme, the color scheme of, well, my pants is gray and black, so I dunno what brand has that color in their logos. Biostar?

[Jumper118]

asus and gigabyte are best. the msi bios is terrible and only has one bios chip! how did it come 2nd? 

[tiandrefc]

So basically the best cheap mobo is gold with a brown PCB.... Great

[stconquest]

I did not know so many people spend their days in their UEFI bios. 

 

Guys, all these boards perform 99.9% the same.

[GigaGrim]

I use an ASRock Z87 Extreme6 and love the board, but I agree the UEFI just "gets the job done" and that's about it.

[Raphael_123]

there is nothing like ROG UEFI 

 

haha

 

[xc3ll]

Hey Luke,

 

great video. I really liked the mix of scientific approach and personal opinion. You've spend obviously a lot of time with these boards, so I'm happy to hear your personal view on them.

 

I prefer the ASRock UEFI, because it is "classic"/"old", which makes it a lot easier to navigate without a mouse. But I've never tried an Asus board, so maybe I should...

[Nineshadow]

Asus is damn good, but I also like the ASrock one D: (maybe because I have an ASrock mobo?? ehehe)

[Alec Harpers]

Yes generally all boards form a single manufacturer within a generation will have the same or nearly the same depending on board features.

 

Thanx, I taught so as well, I just couldn't really verify it.

Asus doesn't list the UEFI version for their mobos, they just list the functions included.  I've compared the two, since my OP and the H97M-Plus has all of the functions of the Z97M-Plus. 

[seabass9990]

I dont really care how the uefi looks aslong as it functions well

[Herbinatah]

I'm a fan of blue but Asus motherboards are the best to work with.

[stconquest]

I'm a fan of blue but Asus motherboards are the best to work with.

 

...not in my experience

[TheRagingGamer]

Gigabyte is the prettiest but Asus is the most funkcional IMO 

[flibberdipper]

Psh, Gigabyte for life. Their UEFI BIOS implementation was super easy for me to understand. I had never used a UEFI BIOS before, and I was able to understand Gigabyte's in a good 5 minutes. I was a retard and didn't update the BIOS, which caused a lot of issues. But... ASUS has been my bae for a long time.

[Pugs501]

Gigabyte is the prettiest but Asus is the most funkcional IMO 

Msi IMO I HAVE TOO MANY USB 3.0's!

[zappian]

This will be very usefull for me since i suggest quite a few builds in the new builds sub forum.

[zappian]

Msi IMO I HAVE TOO MANY USB 3.0's!

 

I use two of my like 10 usb ports .

Basiclly mouse and xbox controller are plugged atm.

[fishy]

 

Well, I own the gigabyte one, so I'm probably a bit biased, but it seems to work well enough for me. Not that i fiddle with the bios much anyway 

 

reading the comments, i assure you that you're not the only one

 

 

i have the MSI mpower max board and i told myself that the scroll issue is the biggest one for me in msi uefi, before Luke even began describing the msi, glad we share the same opinion about this, i hate it also

[TheProfosist]

I did not know so many people spend their days in their UEFI bios.

Guys, all these boards perform 99.9% the same.

Setting up a good stable in C takes a while. Also if you someone who upgrades frequently. I actually noted a number of cases where they did not perform the same.

there is nothing like ROG UEFI

haha

Well the normal asus UEFI. The ROG one is just a red version that boots to advanced mode by default and adds tweaker paradise.

[JoshuaC]

I own the MSI z97 G55 SLI and i personal love it. I think the board that Luke reviewed is a non SLI version of it but i have tried it with two cards a but ago and it runs really good I've had only one problem with it and that's with it selecting the wrong disk to boot with but it was an easy fix but if you guys want a cheap board get the MSI one. 

 

PC Part Picker Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/navyvenus3472/saved/gpnwrH

[stconquest]

Setting up a good stable in C takes a while. Also if you someone who upgrades frequently. I actually noted a number of cases where they did not perform the same.

Well the normal asus UEFI. The ROG one is just a red version that boots to advanced mode by default and adds tweaker paradise.

 

Any direction involving a moderate (or even mild) increase in raw performance between any of these boards wouldbe greatly appreciated.  If you are referring to feature sets, including 2x bios chips or even the removble bios chip, it is not the point I was trying to make.  Things like data transport speeds, or clean energy to the CPU is where my focus would be.

[Markmjb]

I choked on my cookie with the "Where are you going" text on the gigabyte board   Harsh times...

I'm more into software than into hardware, so I actually have seen a UEFI once in real life, so no valid opinions about those here

 

That being said, Asrock changed the theme a tiny bit, and that weird intro, but other than that, it's just a plain BIOS-screen. That's fine by me, I don't like change in things that don't need updating.

 

I'm a bit torn between the time spent making the UEFI and the time spent using it per user. I think if you are spending enough time in the UEFI to justify a "perfect" asus UEFI, you are a person for which this UEFId is not targeted anyway, as you should have some Maximus extreme XX board or some other higher-tier board.

And on the other hand, if you have to spend a total of maybe 3-4 times in the UEFI screen in the entire motherboard cycle, how much do you care how the UEFI interface handles?

The point I'm trying to make is: IMO: the UEFI will never be a dealbreaker to me,even if i have to click 60 times instead of 10 times.