Gigabyte Gaming 5 or MSI G45 Gaming?

[tlmills82]

Ok, the bundle price on the board and cpu I was getting went off right before I ordered.  SO now I'm trying to decide which of these 2 boards is the better value.  They look pretty similar from what I can see, but I'm not 100% versed on everything.  So I'm wondering which one is the better value?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97xgaming5 currently $119.99

 

or

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97g45gamingcurrently $123.99

 

 

[TheKDub]

I'd say G45.

[CoolaxGaming]

MSI, its the second best brand after Asus. Gigabyte and ASrock ehhh. Watch Linus's video on Bang for the buck Z97 showdown

[79wjd]

G45 as looks much better. 

 

P.s. Any z97 board from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, AsRock, or EVGA is good (and more or less equivalent) (excluding Z97 Anniversary boards). So, make sure the board has the features you need (SLI/XFIRE support, # of usb/sata ports, etc...) and then just get whichever looks better/is cheaper. 

[Interfectorem]

I vote G45

[Aniallation]

Ok, the bundle price on the board and cpu I was getting went off right before I ordered.  SO now I'm trying to decide which of these 2 boards is the better value.  They look pretty similar from what I can see, but I'm not 100% versed on everything.  So I'm wondering which one is the better value?

G45. They're both pretty much the same hardware-wise but MSI's BIOS is much easier to understand then Gigabyte's

[TheSLSAMG]

MSI, its the second best brand after Asus. Gigabyte and ASrock ehhh. Watch Linus's video on Bang for the buck Z97 showdown

Gigabyte and ehhh don't go together, trust me.

 

In fact, none of the big 4 manufacturers are bad, they all make solid products with varying BIOSes. It's all down to personal preference. No one does motherboard QC testing like ASUS or Gigabyte though, especially with Gigabyte's Black Edition boards and ASUS' TUF boards.

[TheSLSAMG]

I'd buy the Gigabyte board personally, I like the appearance and the Black PCB as opposed to a brown one. They're both good though, so you're not making a mistake with either.

[CoolaxGaming]

Gigabyte and ehhh don't go together, trust me.

 

In fact, none of the big 4 manufacturers are bad, they all make solid products with varying BIOSes. It's all down to personal preference. No one does motherboard QC testing like ASUS or Gigabyte though, especially with Gigabyte's Black Edition boards and ASUS' TUF boards.

Whoops sorry. I just had a REALLY bad experiance with their (I think it was some z97 board) and a gigabyte hd 7850. The 7850 wouldnt listen and the mobo for my dad was just fucked uo.

Maybe I got a bad pick of the lottery?

[TheSLSAMG]

Whoops sorry. I just had a REALLY bad experiance with their (I think it was some z97 board) and a gigabyte hd 7850. The 7850 wouldnt listen and the mobo for my dad was just fucked uo.

Maybe I got a bad pick of the lottery?

You probably just got a bad unit, all of the manufacturers have some DOA and messed up units that come out of the gate. Did you even RMA the unit and get a new one, or did you just return it and get a different motherboard entirely?

[meritmaster]

Gigabyte! I've have numerous bad experiences with MSI, and not just with their build quality, but how they treat and respect their customers. I just switched from MSI to Gigabyte, so i can't honestly say, but i've talked to Gigabyte support, and customer service, so far they have been stellar, I've only been dealing with them for three months though. 

[CoolaxGaming]

You probably just got a bad unit, all of the manufacturers have some DOA and messed up units that come out of the gate. Did you even RMA the unit and get a new one, or did you just return it and get a different motherboard entirely?

I have no idea... I sold the gpu, but the mobo I have no idea. My dad kept it cause I was laughing so hard how Intel had DOA (It was 2 years ago, I thought if a mobo was dead, it was intels problem) and AMD did not... Pretty sure it should be in a closet somehwere...

[CoolaxGaming]

Gigabyte! I've have numerous bad experiences with MSI, and not just with their build quality, but how they treat and respect their customers. I just switched from MSI to Gigabyte, so i can't honestly say, but i've talked to Gigabyte support, and customer service, so far they have been stellar, I've only been dealing with them for three months though. 

Isint there Lightning series the best for AMD or Nvidia?

[meritmaster]

Isint there Lightning series the best for AMD or Nvidia?

It's more of a failure rate issue, and how they treat their customer. MSI makes powerful cards and they perform well, but they also break. This is outta personal experience from the past 6 years, and also due to the reported failure rates.

[i_build_nanosuits]

The MSI G45 has a much better UEFI and fan control.

Hardware wise they are equivalent.

[tlmills82]

Thanks for the info.  It seems the g45 is the general consensus so that's the way I'm going to go.

[arnavvr]

It's more of a failure rate issue, and how they treat their customer. MSI makes powerful cards and they perform well, but they also break. This is outta personal experience from the past 6 years, and also due to the reported failure rates.

 

Yup, my MSI 7950 is on RMA.

[WaitForMeImOnDialUp]

from toms:

 

Tier One-Class A: Extreme Enthusiast Level. 4 Way SLI supported, power packed with superb VRMs and thermals for extreme OCing, all premium features, these boards are the best Z97 you’ll get in the market. Extreme boards shall be a right term to define them. You can’t go wrong quality wise, they’re solid boards.

Note: The 4 Way SLI on this chipset is not as effective as in X99 due to 16 PCIe lanes from the CPU (vs 28 in i7 5800 or 40 in 5900 series,ie, X99), even after usage of PLX chips.

EXTREME9
Z97-WS
Z97 Classified
XPOWER AC
Z97X Gaming G1 (WIFI-BK edition as well)
Z97X Gaming GT

Honorable mention: Z97X-SOC-FORCE, the LN2 version of this board broke world OCing records. This one is no less, minus the 4 way SLI ability.



Tier One-Class B: Enthusiast Level. Premium featured MoBos with SLI capability, M.2 and enough power to run any current CPUs with very high-extreme OCing capabilities. Just a step lower than Extreme Enthusiast boards, they’re no less than feature laden. Solid quality, shall serve you long.


Z97X-Gaming 5 (not to be confused with MX version)
GAMING 5
EXTREME6 (AC as well)
UD5H (BK as well)
Z97-PRO (AC as well)
MAXIMUS VII HERO/ RANGER/ GENE/ IMPACT/ FORMULA (great boards for OCing)
GA-Z97X-SOC
Z97 FTW
Z97X-Gaming 7
MSI GAMING 7
PROFESSIONAL
MPOWER (MAX AC edition as well)
DELUXE (NFC&WLC edition as well)
Gaming 9 AC (ACK as well)
Z97-GD65 Gaming
OC Formula (mATX version included)
PRO GAMER
GA-Z97X-UD7 TH (No M.2)
Z97X-SOC-FORCE (no M.2, but great for OCing, has SATAe)
Sabertooth Mark1/ Mark 2 (no M.2, great for OCing)
G1 SNIPER (No M.2, but this MoBo hit 5Ghz mark stable in some reviews)
Z97 Gryphon

____________________________________________

Tier Two: High end. Great MoBos, SLI capable with good enough thermals and power to take up any CPU, not the best for extreme OCing but do OC very well. Have many premium features as well. Quality is good, no known persistent issues.


Z97X-SLI
MX-Gaming 5
G55 SLI
G45 Gaming
Z97S SLI Plus
Fatal1ty Z97X Killer (mATX included)
EXTREME4
Z97X-Gaming 3
UD3H (BK as well)
Z97-A
Z97M Gaming
Z97-E
Z97-AR
Z97S SLI Krait Edition
Extreme3 (no M.2)


____________________________________________

Tier Three: Mid range. Crossfire Capable MoBos with SATA III for budget oriented gamers. Power phases and thermals are not awesome, still decent for everyday use and some decent OCing, but not with the highest TDP CPUs. Have all the standard features, M.2 is not a compulsion though. Quality is decent, OCing ability is moderate for most boards.


PC MATE
GAMING 3
PRO4 (mATX version as well)
Z97 HD3
Z97 D3H (mATX as well)
Z97 G43 (mATX as well)
Z97 Fatal1ty KILLER (Not the ‘Z97X’, which is SLI capable- Both are good at OCing)
Z97-K/CSM
MSI U3 Plus
Guard Pro
Z97-C

Mini ITX Form Factor (Not CFX capable):

Z97I AC
Z97 GAMING AC

____________________________________________

Tier Four: Basic Motherboards. They have all the basic features, ie., 4 DIMMs, one x16 slot, SATA 3 with USB 3.0 headers. Suited for gamers on tight budget and mainstream general-purpose users. Don’t expect high performance in terms of OCing. Not suitable for high end builds. Average quality, but fine for OCing lower TDP CPUs like Pentium.


Z97 PRO3
Anniversary

____________________________________________