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Bang for the Buck Z97 Motherboard Showdown Part 3

Luke you are by far the best presenter on LMG . Great Video. I agree with you regarding ASUS, the BIOS is top quality. But I also find Gigabyte pretty good (in classic mode) and should have had an honorable mention especially with the back up BIOS, something that has saved my butt many, many times. :D

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For me, Asus was the best with Gigabyte following. Then MSI and ASrock. I personally never really liked ASrock, I've always thought of their boards as the cheap solution. MSI has tried so hard to make their UEFI simple that they have basically made it even harder to use, as well as uglier. I've always liked Asus and Gigabyte the most. Both my Z87 and Z97 boards have been Asus (Z87-k and Maximus VII Formula) and I've loved them both. The functionality of the UEFI and their quality cannot be topped by anyone. 

Intel Core i5 4670k @ 4.2Ghz | ASUS ROG Maximus VII Formula| Kingston HyperX Beast 2133Mhz | Gigabyte Windforce 280X | Corsair H100i | Samsung 850 250GB | Seagate SSHD 2TB | Corsair RM 850 | NZXT H440 | 

Mad Catz Cyborg V7 | Logitech G502 | Audio Technica ATH-M50X | Logitech Z623 | Xbox 360 Controller | Asus DSL-N66U |

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I bought the gigabyte motherboard and i have to say. I LOVE this motherboard. it works amazing and my only gripe would be the fact that my case has 2 more fans in it than the motherboard has but I knew that going into this. 

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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.

Slick is doing this lineup because that doesnt change what so ever so your picking on other things.

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.

Well I guess id rather not be frustrated the 3-4 time im in there a year? Though I am personally in there more often, especially across rigs.

For me, Asus was the best with Gigabyte following. Then MSI and ASrock. I personally never really liked ASrock, I've always thought of their boards as the cheap solution. MSI has tried so hard to make their UEFI simple that they have basically made it even harder to use, as well as uglier. I've always liked Asus and Gigabyte the most. Both my Z87 and Z97 boards have been Asus (Z87-k and Maximus VII Formula) and I've loved them both. The functionality of the UEFI and their quality cannot be topped by anyone.

I have to agree on what you said about the MSI UEFI.

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So Asrock, and gigabyte doesn't support usb os install?

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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So Asrock, and gigabyte doesn't support usb os install?

Asrock does... Well at least on my board. Di her maybe mean USB 3.0?
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Asrock does... Well at least on my board. Di her maybe mean USB 3.0?

Hmm rewatching it, it seems say since he said only newer USB drives don't work, i noticed they used the SSD performance USB Drive

Remember a wise man once said, "You'll most likely hear/see more bad reviews from products than good, because if they get a good product, they won't bother to write a review, and if they got a bad product, they'll complain about the product" ~ SoftenButterCream

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So...Hyperx 64GB & Corsair Voyager GTX flash drives were *expected* to be incompatible right? For those 2 underequipped motherboards, is there any way to upgrade so they'll ID these flash drives, AND are there any other flash drives out there that I should (also) avoid buying ??? (I note at least one of those drives has an SSD controller - is that the issue?)

[i've got an ASRock z97 extreme4 which is essentially fine for my purposes and I suspect it's approx. the same as the ext3 that was tested]

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Personally my fav was the msi UEFI bios but Asus was definitely was my 2nd

WHO DARE STAND BEFORE WALKOFDEATH  HAHAH just kidding  :)

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you have the same number as i do, yet i still use all of them, and even the ones in the front, you can never have too many

What do you use AL of the 3.0 ones for? I need more usb 2.0 ones... I use maybe 2 USB 3.0 on all the time and maybe another 2 for portable/removable stuff.

Personally my fav was the msi UEFI bios but Asus was definitely was my 2nd

May I ask why with the MSI? In my opinion it's very inefficient and a good bit of the layout isn't as logical as it could be.
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Finally this video has come to life, thanks :D

I'm going to wait part 4 but i'm pretty sure i will buy the GB Z97X-SLI, i want to make sure in the future i will be able to sli some cards if it happens to be a possibility + it matches my color scheme, unfortunately not my pants scheme. UEFI doesn't seem to suck either, it's not top notch as ASUS' one but isn't horrible I guess.

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What do you use AL of the 3.0 ones for? I need more usb 2.0 ones... I use maybe 2 USB 3.0 on all the time and maybe another 2 for portable/removable stuff.

I have a Black Widow 2013 = 2 USB

Deathadder= 1 usb

Webcam= 1 usb

UPS= 1 usb

Galaxy note 3 charger= 1 usb

Lightning Charger for iphone=1 usb

and last but not least, a ipad charger= 1 usb

i have 6 usb in the back and 2 in the front, just enough

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Asus never disappoints when it comes to their bios :) that's why they hold a special place in my heart. Unless the competition is significantly cheaper for the same features, Asus will always be my choice.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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I'm a bit disappointed by the Asrock bios cause I'm currently aiming at a Z97m Killer but I guess I shouldn't expect too much from Asrock since they're also the cheapest of the bunch. I'm just happy that there aren't any glaring issues. On the other hand the Asrock Z97m Killer board has the most sensible layout and feature set compared to other Z97 micro ATX gaming boards in my opinion.

CPU: AMD R5 5600x | Mainboard: MSI MAG B550m Mortar Wifi | RAM: 32GB Crucial Ballistix 3200 Rev E | GPU: MSI RTX 2070 Armor | Case: Xigmatek Aquila | PSU: Corsair RM650i | SSDs: Crucial BX300 120GB | Samsung 840 EVO 120GB | Crucial m500 120GB | HDDs: 2x Seagate Barracuda 4TB | CPU Cooler: Scythe Fuma 2 | Casefans: Bitfenix Spectre LED red 200mm (Intake), Bequiet Pure Wings 2 140mm (Exhaust) | OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit

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How does the UEFI of each of our affordable motherboards stack up against the rest from a usability standpoint?
 

 

I don't care much about how the bios looks like as long as the useful controls are there. :) 

 

I am used to the old text interfaces. :)

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Great video. Best one in the series so far. This is the kind if info, you don't find by reading the specs. Looking forward to part 4.

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My current Motherboard is the ASRock z77 Extreme6/TB4.

I chose it mainly because of the physical specs.

I didn't have a UEFI "Bios menu" before and as I like many of what came with UEFI in comparison with other motherboards the ASRocks UEFI is just less feature-rich.

The one I have has an overview thingie where you see an image of the physical board and could click the ports to see if and to what it is connected, it has kinda some features of an overview of the current status like fan speeds and such but the UEFI is just not as good as the other ones. It has no fan curves i.e. and it's very much like adapted BIOS with that top-down listed options and primarly for keyboard input.

I think my next motherboard will be an Asus because I value these more advanced features and just more amount of good features more.

What I still like about my current ASRock motherboard physically is it has two 10 Gbit Thunderbolt Ports, nice cooling (although the SouthBridge got pretty hot when outside of the case), SLI option (which I probably are going to use in the near future) and just the overall port configuration had just won for me in comparison to MSI or Asus options at that time.

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Thanks, Luke. BIOS usability is a huge deal for me, and I really appreciate seeing somebody do a reasonably thorough (and visual) review of BIOS utilities. I'm no expert when it comes to overclocking, and a well labeled, easy to use BIOS is really helpful. I like ASUS's X99 overclocking utility idea (haven't had a chance to use it yet, though).

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I kinda agree with most of Luke's oppinions but i'm kinda disapointed with alot of stuff that was skipped, specially on the ASRock UEFI. First, as personal preference,  it reminds me alot of old BIOS, wich makes it alot easier for me to navigate around. Second, there are a few features that are really good, like UEFI internet flash (updating the uefi directly from the internet, when inside the uefi), internet driver download, fullhd uefi, Online management guard (usefull in an office/workplace without needing to intall software) and also has a system browser like the MSI board.

 

I get the feeling that alot of people think that ASRock boards come with really basic UEFI, wich isn't true, at all.

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@papeles I like their's second best to ASUS and in fact think MSI is the worst. I quite miss Intel's BIOS. EVGA used to have a bear clone of it but since Intel doesn't make boards anymore they gotten away from it.

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