Need a motherboard

[skimmer001]

Ok i need a good ATX motherboard that can overclock a 3770k paired with an h100i. Nothing too expensive. Budget is $150.

[deathjester]

Ok i need a good ATX motherboard that can overclock a 3770k paired with an h100i. Nothing too expensive. Budget is $150.

 

Take the board with the most power phases between Asus, Gigabyte, MSI at the price range. Asrock would be the cheapest, but the power phases on the other boards are better. Price varies, and there are open box/sales etc. If you buy open box at a store, check the socket for bent pins and make sure it has an IO shield. You can find some pretty darn good deals on open box z77 boards sometimes.

 

On z87 powerphases mean jack. On z77 they meant something. Asrock is fine on z87 for this reason.

 

Same thing applies to AMD chips. Take the most powerphases between Asus/Gigabyte though, because they make the better AMD boards. Why is Haswell different? On die VRM. Z97 will prob go back to the normal "premium motherboard for premium overclock".

[TheSLSAMG]

Z77X-UD3H

[Tmh85]

Sabertooth is one of the best! Also looks the best!

[DIV1D3]

UD3H, Extreme 4, G45. Not sure about the prices but they are good mobos.

[airdeano]

Take the board with the most power phases between Asus, Gigabyte, MSI at the price range. Asrock would be the cheapest, but the power phases on the other boards are better. Price varies, and there are open box/sales etc. If you buy open box at a store, check the socket for bent pins and make sure it has an IO shield. You can find some pretty darn good deals on open box z77 boards sometimes.

 

On z87 powerphases mean jack. On z77 they meant something. Asrock is fine on z87 for this reason.

 

Same thing applies to AMD chips. Take the most powerphases between Asus/Gigabyte though, because they make the better AMD boards. Why is Haswell different? On die VRM. Z97 will prob go back to the normal "premium motherboard for premium overclock".

 

comparing amount of phases on a motherboard or any device is not a fair comparison.

each manufacturer uses a different rated FET and could mean buying more and getting

less. someone using a 8+2 vs 10+2, the rating of the FET at 8 times 30AMP vs 10 times

20AMP. very misleading and very true.

 

and i believe on the Z87 platform, they moved the power regulator to the IC in the CPU,

but the power phases are still mounted to the motherboard. so power phases on the Z87

is as important, just that the control has been moved to the CPU and not on the mobo.

[paulsterio]

Look, unless you're going for world record overclocks, you're not going to get any gain from better power delivery at all, especially not for an LGA1155 processor, maybe with LGA2011, but LGA1155 not so. 

 

I've tested a 3570K I've had on a high end motherboard and a lower end board as well as on both P67 and Z77 and I couldn't get a higher overclock on any of them. 

 

Yes, get a better board for better features. Yes, get a better board for better expansion. Yes, get a better board for better looks. However, don't think that you're going to get any extra performance out of it, all Z77 boards will perform essentially the same. 

[Leonard]

Asus P8Z77-V LK or Asus P8Z77-V LX

[That Norwegian Guy]

MSi Mpower.

 

At that budget, overclock performance matters less than board lifetime under overclock. So you want VRM components that aren't bottom of the barrel but you also need the board to not have a wafer thin PCB.

 

At the very minimum, AsRock Extreme 4.