motherboard recommendations

[thedon]

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20OC%20Formula/

I've been looking at this board for a while but considering the price I'm a bit sceptical, have any of yous had any experience with Asrock, are they reliable and is it a fair price $300 - $320, I'll be doing a lot of gaming and content creating, thanks

[H4X3R]

I suggest a new Z97 mobo: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97deluxe

[Guest]

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20OC%20Formula/

I've been looking at this board for a while but considering the price I'm a bit sceptical, have any of yous had any experience with Asrock, are they reliable and is it a fair price $300 - $320, I'll be doing a lot of gaming and content creating, thanks

 

If you're not focusing on high OC, then I don't see why that board would be suitable for you.

 

Get a Z97 motherboard as @H4X3R said, I say the Z97X-UD5H ($209), Z97 Pro ($189) are both good choices at the lower end. The Deluxe is very expensive, but it literally has everything you could possibly ever need.

 

If you are interested in a OC motherboard, the Z97 SOC and SOC Force are also there ($188 and $209 respectively). In my opinion, ASRock doesn't know how to make high end 8- and 9-series boards, and they seriously need to get their support services together (this coming from a Z77 Extreme3 user).

[thedon]

thanks for recommendations guys, I'll be definatly be looking into these

[ZeroBreaker]

ASRock may be a less common brand than the main players like ASUS and Gigabyte, but they do make some pretty decent boards at pretty decent prices - I personally wouldn't go with them at the higher end though. As others have said, Z97 Definitely - will help with upgrades down the line. Also, don't bother too much with extra features or premium 'OC' boards - especially with haswell, OC is very much dependant on the silicon lottery.

For that price, I would either buy a board which ticks the required boxes like the Gigabyte Sniper or something similar and spend the money on the GPU or the RAM or such, or alternatively get an ROG board. They tend to be very well designed at higher price points.

A motherboard is what connects the components and controls storage and not much else. Unless it's a NAS or has other such specific requirements, focus more on the other components. That said, don't cheap out too much - replacing the motherboard often means replacing the CPU as well, and that can cost a lot of money.

[jdsb52]

In the same boat, stuck between MSI Maxpower, Z97-Pro (with Wifi), Sabertooth (but the other two have 12 phase power design, and it has 8) Motherboards are Tuf decisions (see what i did there  ) 

[thedon]

ASRock may be a less common brand than the main players like ASUS and Gigabyte, but they do make some pretty decent boards at pretty decent prices - I personally wouldn't go with them at the higher end though. As others have said, Z97 Definitely - will help with upgrades down the line. Also, don't bother too much with extra features or premium 'OC' boards - especially with haswell, OC is very much dependant on the silicon lottery.

For that price, I would either buy a board which ticks the required boxes like the Gigabyte Sniper or something similar and spend the money on the GPU or the RAM or such, or alternatively get an ROG board. They tend to be very well designed at higher price points.

A motherboard is what connects the components and controls storage and not much else. Unless it's a NAS or has other such specific requirements, focus more on the other components. That said, don't cheap out too much - replacing the motherboard often means replacing the CPU as well, and that can cost a lot of money.

thanks for that, thinking of going to the http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4865#kf , cheaper and it looks like it'll do the job

[Daniel91]

i would go with MSI or Gigabyte these brands are more reasonablely prced compare to asus and they have  pretty high QC standards compared to asrock and biostar...

 

Remember the day..... dad your office smells weird... dad opens door to find his biostar pc on fire hahahaha

[Guest]

thanks for that, thinking of going to the http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4865#kf , cheaper and it looks like it'll do the job

 

That is not a Z97 board.

 

The Sniper board for Z97 has changed to red like the rest of the G1 lineup, so if you were after the green you're outta luck.

[thedon]

That is not a Z97 board.

 

The Sniper board for Z97 has changed to red like the rest of the G1 lineup, so if you were after the green you're outta luck.

nah not to worried about the colour, and is there much difference with a z97 board? thanks

[Guest]

nah not to worried about the colour, and is there much difference with a z97 board? thanks

 

Well, if you want to pay about the same and not get SATAe and M.2 the choice is up to you. That's the only difference between Z87 and Z97, and that Haswell Refresh / Broadwell is not supported on Z87.

[thedon]

so this http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4966#ov isn't much different

[Guest]

so this http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4966#ov isn't much different

 

Well, it does look less attractive with those budget heatsinks, but if you mean features then yes

 

it does have Sata-Express, M.2, SLI and a Creative audio suite (probably just a meaningless marketing gimmick), but there is a Z97 Sniper board if you want it. It's not the highest-end board so it shouldn't be too expensive, I think this time around the Gaming G1, UD7 TH, SOC Force and the Black Editions are the high end boards in Gigabyte's lineup

[Sintezza]

the Asrock Z87 OC formula is probably not the best board to buy, if im right this board could have some connectivity issues with usb 3.0 and sata.

 

I would suggest to grab some of the newer Z97 boards, they are basicly on the same price point as the older Z87 equilivents.

 

Asus maximus VII Hero

Msi Z97 mpower (max)

Gigabyte GA-Z97x Soc Force

 

Grtz Sintezza

[Helios79]

I'm on my second ASRock motherboard so far, and I am highly liking them. I can recall a time were ASRock was in the same boat as ECS for reliability, but they have come a long way as a motherboard manufacturer. It's hard to break the die-hard Asus/GA/MSI users from their preferences. I will say this though, I wouldn't bother spending $250 on a motherboard as Intel could do another socket switch 2 years down the road.

[Helios79]

Well, if you want to pay about the same and not get SATAe and M.2 the choice is up to you. That's the only difference between Z87 and Z97, and that Haswell Refresh / Broadwell is not supported on Z87.

 

Some motherboard manufacturers are updating their higher end Z87 motherboards to support the Haswell refresh. eVGA is one of the few that are doing it to all their Z87 lineup.

[Sintezza]

Some motherboard manufacturers are updating their higher end Z87 motherboards to support the Haswell refresh. eVGA is one of the few that are doing it to all their Z87 lineup.

 

Correct, Asus does this as well.

[Guest]

Some motherboard manufacturers are updating their higher end Z87 motherboards to support the Haswell refresh. eVGA is one of the few that are doing it to all their Z87 lineup.

Correct, Asus does this as well.

 

I said Haswell Refresh / Broadwell. Not certain if Broadwell will be supported on Z87. Z97 says support for 5th Gen Core i so I would suppose Z97 does. Virtually every manufacturer is doing this to their mid-range to high-end Z87 range. B85 should have better luck than H87/Z87 because it's meant to stay until Broadwell I think.

 

If anything this may end up like Gigabyte's FM2+ fiasco where the new BIOS had been out for months but there were still boards in stock with the oldest possible BIOS. Would much rather buy a Z97 board than save $5-10 on the Z87 only to have to buy a Celeron to update the BIOS first.

[Helios79]

True, and this is why I purchased a Z97 variant over a Z87. It's just one of those 'common-sense' things.

 

Simply stating 'Z87 does not support Broadwell' would have been a more accurate statement.

[thedon]

Well, it does look less attractive with those budget heatsinks, but if you mean features then yes

 

it does have Sata-Express, M.2, SLI and a Creative audio suite (probably just a meaningless marketing gimmick), but there is a Z97 Sniper board if you want it. It's not the highest-end board so it shouldn't be too expensive, I think this time around the Gaming G1, UD7 TH, SOC Force and the Black Editions are the high end boards in Gigabyte's lineup

 

after looking at a few more boards today I've come accross this one http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4959#ov ,I can pick it up for $277, possibly cheaper off ebay but not very confident buying expensive pc parts off there

[Sintezza]

Broadwell there is nothing to say about that yet.

i think broadwell might be most likely Z97 only, but yeah who knows.

Basicly devils canyon was planned to be Z97 only aswell.

But some manufacturers went against intel, and created an bios update on theire Z87 boards. Asus was the first who did this.

[Guest]

after looking at a few more boards today I've come accross this one http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4959#ov ,I can pick it up for $277, possibly cheaper off ebay but not very confident buying expensive pc parts off there

 

...the Z97X Gaming 7 is $172 on Newegg...

 

Newegg has a promo by the way, it says get a free bluetooth Wifi card with purchase of the board, a Gigabyte 802.11ac card. It looks good.

 

You're paying extra for a debug double digit LED over the Gaming 5 basically, and the Z97X Gaming 5 has a free mouse as well. Though at $12 I would rather go with the wifi card...that mouse looks sketch...

 

EDIT: never mind, I see that you live in AU

 

@thedon At that price you may as well get the UD5H Black Edition or the SOC Force, both of which come in under $300 after shipping. I think the UD5H is a better board than the Gaming 7.

 

The UD5H BK has Intel NIC which is probably better than Killer E2200

[thedon]

...the Z97X Gaming 7 is $172 on Newegg...

 

Newegg has a promo by the way, it says get a free bluetooth Wifi card with purchase of the board, a Gigabyte 802.11ac card. It looks good.

 

You're paying extra for a debug double digit LED over the Gaming 5 basically, and the Z97X Gaming 5 has a free mouse as well. Though at $12 I would rather go with the wifi card...that mouse looks sketch...

 

EDIT: never mind, I see that you live in AU

 

@thedon At that price you may as well get the UD5H Black Edition or the SOC Force, both of which come in under $300 after shipping. I think the UD5H is a better board than the Gaming 7.

 

The UD5H BK has Intel NIC which is probably better than Killer E2200

I can only pick up the http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4950#ov and it's $280, I can't even find the black edition on ebay

[Guest]

I can only pick up the http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4950#ov and it's $280, I can't even find the black edition on ebay

 

Do it then, the UD5H has pretty much everything the Gaming 7 has, with both a E2200 port and a Intel NIC port, debug LED, and arguably more extensive and therefore higher quality VRM than the Gaming 7 (this remains yet to be determined, I hope Sin's VRM List will have a comparison soon). The Black Editions are mostly just a marketing ploy anyways, it's not like boards aren't tested for hours before being released.