Motherboard line value

[calarahil]

I'm curious what makes the enthusiast grade motherboards better. Reason why I ask this is I have currently as ASRock Extreme 4 z68 gen 3 board but its quality is hit or miss its good in some places but not always the most stable board. I look at something like the ASUS ROG z87 Hero board and see if as a solid offering has a good layout, I like the color scheme. But I wonder though how it compares to the other boards your 150 dollar boards MSi's GD65. I'm just curious, do the caps and chokes really make that much of a difference temp wise would I have a more stable system with something like a ROG hero board? I'm thinking by the end of the year I'll probably upgrade my 2500k into something. Probably something like Skylake its been 3-4 years now its about time for me. Any thoughts opinions?

[RML Futuristics]

Well i use a GD65 Gaming - I got mine because the OC'ing is quite easy with it in the bios and like you i like the colour scheme, I would say however to be honest with you there isnt a huge amount of difference apart from maybe slightly more stability and easy of use maybe when it comes to the bios. The next thing is as you move up the bands things like onboard sound might get better, then you start getting extra functionality, some boards can take more speeds of ram compared to others. There are lots of things to look at before you buy into a board, and what you want to use it for, as to if its worth it, that's a call only you can make.

 

Im on Haswell, i know a few people who went from sandy to haswell, i think thats a good jump, so a wait till Skylake is sensible things can only get better, and if they dont you can always fall back on Haswell!

[PrAwKsee]

Usually those boards offer higher build quality and quality control which means the components usually last longer while maintaining stability. Asus has great customer service and warranties because of it but keep in mind you are paying a premium for it.

 

Is it worth it? That's up to the individual. Some people will say it is because higher end components usually look better and have better build quality but other people opt for something cheaper that doesn't sacrifice build quality like Gigabyte's own line of Z87 boards for example.

 

Almost all Z87 boards offer the same performance so all you're paying for are the bells and whistles of each particular board. Ex. # of sata ports, thunderbolt connectivity, integrated bluetooth/wifi, usb ports etc. If warrenty is a concern for you and you want the best of the best and are willing to pay for it then something like and ROG branded board might be right for you. On the other hand if you only expect your pc to last for say 3 years or so and just want something that works without sacrificing quality then something like and msi board or Gigabyte will suit you better. 

 

Really it's up to you what you want and how much you are willing to pay for it. Most people suggest you get the cheapest Z87 board from Gigabyte, msi or Asus that suits your needs with the aesthetics that you want and just leave it at that. If money isn't a concern then hell, go balls to the walls and get an ROG if that's what you're after. Either way you're going to have a fantastic overclocking board with the Z87 chipset and stable enough performance to last a good few years before something starts to go wrong and you're in need of an upgrade.

 

Hope this helps

[calarahil]

Well i use a GD65 Gaming - I got mine because the OC'ing is quite easy with it in the bios and like you i like the colour scheme, I would say however to be honest with you there isnt a huge amount of difference apart from maybe slightly more stability and easy of use maybe when it comes to the bios. The next thing is as you move up the bands things like onboard sound might get better, then you start getting extra functionality, some boards can take more speeds of ram compared to others. There are lots of things to look at before you buy into a board, and what you want to use it for, as to if its worth it, that's a call only you can make.

Im on Haswell, i know a few people who went from sandy to haswell, i think thats a good jump, so a wait till Skylake is sensible things can only get better, and if they dont you can always fall back on Haswell!

Well I'd never use onboard I have ASUS Xonar Essence STX so at the moment I don't really require any premium onboard sound option. Just really at this point weighing my options out. Microcenter also has really good deals to the point where I would go for something like a 4770k but when skylake comes out.

Cheapest 4770k combo 309 dollars !

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

I do like the GD65 as well. I know its probably overkill but I do enjoy a little more stability and stronger components and ease of use in terms of hitting overclocks.

Usually those boards offer higher build quality and quality control which means the components usually last longer while maintaining stability. Asus has great customer service and warranties because of it but keep in mind you are paying a premium for it.

Is it worth it? That's up to the individual. Some people will say it is because higher end components usually look better and have better build quality but other people opt for something cheaper that doesn't sacrifice build quality like Gigabyte's own line of Z87 boards for example.

Almost all Z87 boards offer the same performance so all you're paying for are the bells and whistles of each particular board. Ex. # of sata ports, thunderbolt connectivity, integrated bluetooth/wifi, usb ports etc. If warrenty is a concern for you and you want the best of the best and are willing to pay for it then something like and ROG branded board might be right for you. On the other hand if you only expect your pc to last for say 3 years or so and just want something that works without sacrificing quality then something like and msi board or Gigabyte will suit you better.

Really it's up to you what you want and how much you are willing to pay for it. Most people suggest you get the cheapest Z87 board from Gigabyte, msi or Asus that suits your needs with the aesthetics that you want and just leave it at that. If money isn't a concern then hell, go balls to the walls and get an ROG if that's what you're after. Either way you're going to have a fantastic overclocking board with the Z87 chipset and stable enough performance to last a good few years before something starts to go wrong and you're in need of an upgrade.

Hope this helps

Yea certainly it helps thanks! It's nice to bounce ideas out their and see what others think. Right now I have these ugly blue corsair high profile vengeance dimms that I would probably replace so I think that is why I'm aiming for skylake probably the ideal destination for ddr4 so I can get a ram kit that matches my board as well. For me every 3-4 years is about right for a CPU/Mobo upgrade although I feel like this time around performance hasn't jumped much at all last time I upgraded from a core 2 duo 6320.

[Jumper118]

upgrade to a 2600k and a z77 board,it'll be cheaper and faster than 90% of haswells.

[calarahil]

upgrade to a 2600k and a z77 board,it'll be cheaper and faster than 90% of haswells.

 

Yea, I'm not going to side grade at this point. If anything I'd get a new chipset, new cpu, and probably new ram as well.

[Jumper118]

Yea, I'm not going to side grade at this point. If anything I'd get a new chipset, new cpu, and probably new ram as well.

a z77 board is a new chipset and a 2600k is a new cpu...................................... and its more of an upgrade than a 4770k would be unless you can get it to do 4.6ghz. what do you have you're 2500k at?

[calarahil]

a z77 board is a new chipset and a 2600k is a new cpu...................................... and its more of an upgrade than a 4770k would be unless you can get it to do 4.6ghz. what do you have you're 2500k at?

 

I brought it back down to stock due to the worry that I believe my cpu is degrading over time. I had it at 4.5 ghz. And I'm not necessarily looking to upgrade now I hope that is clear ideally I would like to upgrade with skylake so that's 2 more generations away.

 

 

Sandy

Ivy

Haswell

Broadwell

Skykake (possibly consumer DDR4)

[Jumper118]

I brought it back down to stock due to the worry that I believe my cpu is degrading over time. I had it at 4.5 ghz. And I'm not necessarily looking to upgrade now I hope that is clear ideally I would like to upgrade with skylake so that's 2 more generations away.

 

 

Sandy

Ivy

Haswell

Broadwell

Skykake (possibly consumer DDR4)

wow thats a long way away! we'll be flying around in spaceships by then and motherboards will all be locked super micro itx piles of crap that  you can't overclock at all on because intel put everything on the motherboard inside there cpu's making them highly unstable with a 1mhz oc. 

on a more serious note. run that 2500k as fast as you can on 1.35v at least. it won't degrade noticeably quickly until over 1.5v and even then they last 2 odd years. 

[calarahil]

wow thats a long way away! we'll be flying around in spaceships by then and motherboards will all be locked super micro itx piles of crap that  you can't overclock at all on because intel put everything on the motherboard inside there cpu's making them highly unstable with a 1mhz oc. 

on a more serious note. run that 2500k as fast as you can on 1.35v at least. it won't degrade noticeably quickly until over 1.5v and even then they last 2 odd years. 

 

My CPU has a hard time temp wise at that voltage. As you know more volts higher temp. And I'm already running on a h100i with noctua nf-f12's. Which is probably a mix of the boards strength and the cpu's.

 

before I added the noctua fans. I don't want to mess around on my next upgrade. I'll probably finance a 1 year no interest on something which means I'll have to spend 500 dollars or more with amazon or newegg or use microcenter for their combo's.