Is this Mainboard worth it?

[Z77Reaper]

Heya everybody.

 

I'm currently running an ASUS Sabertooth Z77 together with a 3570k but recently noticed that my CPU is probably going to die soon after 3 years of running on 4.7Ghz. Alrighty, no problem so far, 3 years is a good lifespan for this much OC'ing i think.

So i'd love to upgrade to the 4790K and Z97 platform and wanted to go for the Z97 Sabertooth because, well, once i had that thermal armor i just can't go back, lol. I've noticed that it's not available anymore in the store where i usually buy parts. (Alternate)

Soo.. i've been looking for alternatives and found one from Biostar, which always was more of a cheap brand back in the days and i don't really know how good they are nowadays so i could use your help.

 

Does anybody here have feedback or maybe a somewhat trustworthy review of the "Biostar Gaming Z97X" ?

It's the closest board to the Sabertooth i think since the Maximus 7 is around 160€ more expensive.

Here's a picture :

 

Thanks in advance

[Remmi2002]

At least it looks good.

 

Lol

[OAcesync]

It looks good

But it's Biostar.....

[thekeemo]

1. Wait until it actually dies you would only get an 8% boost.

2. Biostar is a very meh company that I do not recommend

[Z77Reaper]

1. Wait until it actually dies you would only get an 8% boost.

2. Biostar is a very meh company that I do not recommend

 

It actually is pretty close of being dead. I'm 3d-rendering a lot which is CPU heavy when using Keyshot, and in the past weeks the program just keeps crashing whenever i render something. I even had to remove 1 of my 2 GPUs because i just kept having problems since then.

[thekeemo]

It actually is pretty close of being dead. I'm 3d-rendering a lot which is CPU heavy when using Keyshot, and in the past weeks the program just keeps crashing whenever i render something. I even had to remove 1 of my 2 GPUs because i just kept having problems since then.

put the CPU on stock. I had a p4 rendering till 2008.

[Gofspar]

Heya everybody.

 

I'm currently running an ASUS Sabertooth Z77 together with a 3570k but recently noticed that my CPU is probably going to die soon after 3 years of running on 4.7Ghz. Alrighty, no problem so far, 3 years is a good lifespan for this much OC'ing i think.

So i'd love to upgrade to the 4790K and Z97 platform and wanted to go for the Z97 Sabertooth because, well, once i had that thermal armor i just can't go back, lol. I've noticed that it's not available anymore in the store where i usually buy parts. (Alternate)

Soo.. i've been looking for alternatives and found one from Biostar, which always was more of a cheap brand back in the days and i don't really know how good they are nowadays so i could use your help.

 

Does anybody here have feedback or maybe a somewhat trustworthy review of the "Biostar Gaming Z97X" ?

It's the closest board to the Sabertooth i think since the Maximus 7 is around 160€ more expensive.

Here's a picture :

 

Thanks in advance

3570k wont die, lol.

 

I ran my 3770k at 4.9 for 3 years.

[Z77Reaper]

put the CPU on stock. I had a p4 rendering till 2008.

 

It is currently on stock, sorry if i forgot to mention it.

[thekeemo]

It is currently on stock, sorry if i forgot to mention it.

oh.. Try and get x99 so at least its worthwhile

[Nena Trinity]

The CPU is very unlikely to die unless its temperature was high!

[Rekx]

Sabertooth is that you? [emoji14]

[tgronseth1983]

I did some digging into this board when they announced it and they gave it to some gamers to try it and it was OK but not for major overclockers. They sponsored a mmo team, that's why they made this.

[Jumper118]

It is currently on stock, sorry if i forgot to mention it.

how do you know its not the motherboard? my board was doing that when it died. it wasn't the cpu. sabertooth boards have a 5 year warrenty, so you can just rma the board then carry on.  

[Lockless]

3570k wont die, lol.

 

I ran my 3770k at 4.9 for 3 years.

My 3770K died a year after purchase... and it was running at 4.5 ghz. I don't think everyone's Ivy Bridge can live as long as those Sandy Bridge CPU's that still kick ass today. That said, I think Silicone Lottery can hit in more ways than one... or some manufacturing errors that somehow passed QC for some reason.

[Gofspar]

My 3770K died a year after purchase... and it was running at 4.5 ghz. I don't think everyone's Ivy Bridge can live as long as those Sandy Bridge CPU's that still kick ass today. That said, I think Silicone Lottery can hit in more ways than one... or some manufacturing errors that somehow passed QC for some reason.

Thats called having a shit board, CPU's die with voltage and not core speed. it was user error.

[Lockless]

Thats called having a shit board, CPU's die with voltage and not core speed. it was user error.

Okay, now I don't know what killed my 3770K back then. Either it was me or the Z77 Sabertooth.

[Rhotis]

Biostar is still a bottom tier company.  Their RMA rates are likely noticeably higher than brands like ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI and even Asrock (which is very under rated and suffers from a bad early rep but I have built a few dozen rigs for customers with various Asrock boards over the last few years and had good luck with them)

[Z77Reaper]

how do you know its not the motherboard? my board was doing that when it died. it wasn't the cpu. sabertooth boards have a 5 year warrenty, so you can just rma the board then carry on.  

I'm not 100% sure if its the CPU or not. It first started some months ago when my monitor just turned black while gaming and i had to remove 1 GPU because it kept staying black once SLi was activated, that problem somehow fixed itself 2 days later. After that i noticed that i get those graphical artifacts that you normally get when you put too much OC on parts or mod Skyrim too much, don't know how to explain them, like black and oddly colored spikes etc. And also my PC won't get past POST if i OC the CPU to even 100MHz above stock anymore. I sadly don't have any spare parts so swap out and see what the culprit is. I first thought it was the GPUs because of the black screen issue and the artifacts, but even with single GPU i get artifacts even on not that demanding games so i'm really not sure anymore.

[Caeradwyn]

I don't really see why a CPU would die after only 3 years, unless you've been running it at way too high temps, in which case you've been overclocking too much with inadequate cooling. Random system crashes that suddenly start happening, I would rather attribute to system clutter, so cleaning up your OS a bit might sort that out. I've been running my i7 920 overclocked since 2009, so over 6 years now, and it's still going strong. It'll be retired soon though, but that's simply due to the x58 platform really starting to show its age.

When a CPU "dies", I'd say you are much more likely to all of a sudden have a totally non-responsive system (i.e. not booting).

 

As for that motherboard. A quick google search shows up a fair few very decent reviews for it, from some pretty reputable sites, so I wouldn't really worry too much. However, why you'd want to get z97 now that it's ready to be replaced by z170, I'm not quite sure.

[Z77Reaper]

I don't really see why a CPU would die after only 3 years, unless you've been running it at way too high temps, in which case you've been overclocking too much with inadequate cooling. Random system crashes that suddenly start happening, I would rather attribute to system clutter, so cleaning up your OS a bit might sort that out. I've been running my i7 920 overclocked since 2009, so over 6 years now, and it's still going strong. It'll be retired soon though, but that's simply due to the x58 platform really starting to show its age.

When a CPU "dies", I'd say you are much more likely to all of a sudden have a totally non-responsive system (i.e. not booting).

 

As for that motherboard. A quick google search shows up a fair few very decent reviews for it, from some pretty reputable sites, so I wouldn't really worry too much. However, why you'd want to get z97 now that it's ready to be replaced by z170, I'm not quite sure.

Been running it on 4.7GHz for 3~ Years, never had problems and never reached more than 55°C max. using Corsair H100i. And the reason for me chosing Z97 over Z170 is because Z97 has already matured enough and i kinda dont like to use "1st iteration" products. Also because it's cheaper and pretty much has the same performance except some "small" details like the instructions per core.

[Caeradwyn]

Been running it on 4.7GHz for 3~ Years, never had problems and never reached more than 55°C max. using Corsair H100i. And the reason for me chosing Z97 over Z170 is because Z97 has already matured enough and i kinda dont like to use "1st iteration" products. Also because it's cheaper and pretty much has the same performance except some "small" details like the instructions per core.

 

Most reviews indicate that Z170 feels like what Z97 did after about a year of maturing, so I doubt it'll have many of the "early adopter" quirks that you sometimes get. I agree that there might be some savings to be had, but mostly at the very high end, at least in my country. When it comes to "small details like IPC" then that's where upgrades to performance from generation to generation comes from. It would be like saying "this new phone is just like the last generation, only it's a bit faster and got more features". Yeah, that's how phones change. CPU's haven't had any quantum leaps in a very long time, and most reviews suggest that the Skylake is a solid step forward from Broadwell and older.

If you can get substantial savings from going with Z97 though, then I'm all for that.

 

Worth noting: That Biostar motherboard apparently retails for "around $189" which makes it more expensive than an Asus Z170-A which is a very good motherboard.

[Z77Reaper]

Most reviews indicate that Z170 feels like what Z97 did after about a year of maturing, so I doubt it'll have many of the "early adopter" quirks that you sometimes get. I agree that there might be some savings to be had, but mostly at the very high end, at least in my country. When it comes to "small details like IPC" then that's where upgrades to performance from generation to generation comes from. It would be like saying "this new phone is just like the last generation, only it's a bit faster and got more features". Yeah, that's how phones change. CPU's haven't had any quantum leaps in a very long time, and most reviews suggest that the Skylake is a solid step forward from Broadwell and older.

If you can get substantial savings from going with Z97 though, then I'm all for that.

 

Worth noting: That Biostar motherboard apparently retails for "around $189" which makes it more expensive than an Asus Z170-A which is a very good motherboard.

Yeah i might have worded it a bit wrong there, haha. But what my main concern is right now is that i'd probably go for the highest i7, so the 6700K in this case, but i know that there will probably be a 6750K or 6790K right after i bought the 6700K, making me want to upgrade again etc. so i rather wait a bit. But since my PC is pretty much dying i really have to get a new one sooner rather than later that's why i'm focusing on Z97 instead.

[Caeradwyn]

Yeah i might have worded it a bit wrong there, haha. But what my main concern is right now is that i'd probably go for the highest i7, so the 6700K in this case, but i know that there will probably be a 6750K or 6790K right after i bought the 6700K, making me want to upgrade again etc. so i rather wait a bit. But since my PC is pretty much dying i really have to get a new one sooner rather than later that's why i'm focusing on Z97 instead.

Go with whatever fits you budget of course

I somehow doubt there will be a 6790K though, but I'm willing to be wrong on that. I'd actually expect the 6700K to remain the top 1151 CPU until the newer cores arrive, and that they'll release a new 2011-socket for higher end use, seeing as the current x99 platform is starting to show its age.