Motherboard Mayhem

[flip1012]

I have a question for you all about some specific mother boards. I have recently obtained information that my local Microcenter is bundling mother boards with respective CPU's (mainly 1150 socket types). This bundle would take $30 off the original price, and so I have went over the list and have picked a few mother boards from them, the list being:

 

ASRock: Z97 Extreme 6, Fatlity Z97X Killer

 

Gigabyte: GA-Z97X-SLI

 

MSI: Z97S SLI Krait Edition

 

So now here are some questions

 

1. With the ASRock Motherboards above how would cable management be for case fans?

 

2. Do Gigabyte and MSI have a Power Supply fan port like the ASRock motherboards have above? If not do you have to use one of the 3 system fan ports instead?

 

3. What is your general experience with either of the motherboards above? (Prefer owners to answer this one.)

 

Any comments would be very helpful as I can't decide on which of these to choose.

[dadasmithywinkle]

I have a question for you all about some specific mother boards. I have recently obtained information that my local Microcenter is bundling mother boards with respective CPU's (mainly 1150 socket types). This bundle would take $30 off the original price, and so I have went over the list and have picked a few mother boards from them, the list being:

 

ASRock: Z97 Extreme 6, Fatlity Z97X Killer

 

Gigabyte: GA-Z97X-SLI

 

MSI: Z97S SLI Krait Edition

 

So now here are some questions

 

1. With the ASRock Motherboards above how would cable management be for case fans?

 

2. Do Gigabyte and MSI have a Power Supply fan port like the ASRock motherboards have above? If not do you have to use one of the 3 system fan ports instead?

 

3. What is your general experience with either of the motherboards above? (Prefer owners to answer this one.)

 

Any comments would be very helpful as I can't decide on which of these to choose.

I'll just sum up my thoughts. I generally buy only Gigabyte and EVGA, as both have superb customer service. MSI is fine and the board is great but in this list, I'd get the Gigabyte board.

[KemoKa]

All of them should be solid motherboards for what you want them to do. I'm not sure that motherbaords impact cable management at all. If they do it will be minimal at most.

[ProdigyzMined]

1. Cable management for case fans shouldn't be an issue, though you might want to pick up some cheap fan extension cables.

2. You don't actually plug the PSU's fan into the motherboard, I'm pretty sure that's a legacy thing.

3. ASRock's driver CD has a butt ton of bloatware, avoid that. I'd personally go for the Gigabyte, followed by the MSI, then the ASRock.

[flip1012]

Alright thank you all for the replies, I'll check back regularly to see what others say, this is making me rethink my decision. Thank you once more.

[Bensemus]

I haven't tried Gigabyte yet so can't comment on that board but between MSI and ASRock I'd go ASRock. Few months ago I got an mATX MSI board and haven't enjoyed it. Nothing I can specifically put my figure on but it's just not doing it for me. I'm swapping it out for an ASUS board.