Asus Sabertooth Z77 vs MSI Z77 MPOWER

[koolsair]

What's the better Z77 board? You could also include ASRock Z77 OC Formula, Asus P8Z77-V PRO and Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H.

[Wats]

Sabertooth vs Mpower...The Sabertooth is a $240 board with $100 worth a features and a lot of plastic. Mpower wins by default.

The OC Formula is made by ASRock, so it will break into 3 pieces, if you're careful.

So the real fight here is the P8Z77-V Pro vs the UD5H. As much as I like my Asus boards, I'm giving it to the UD5H. Much better for dedicated overclocking.

[Art Vandelay]

The Sabertooth Z77 is pretty overpriced. It has a doubled 4 phase PWM.

The other four boards have doubled 6 phase PWMs, which are much better than 4 phase ones.

Both Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte have decent MOSFETs. According to Sins Hardware, the OC Formula has great MOSFETs (I can't find any other information on them)

The OC formula and Asus also both have better inductors than the rest of the boards, according to Sins Hardware.

The Asrock OC formula might have the same voltage reading issues as the other Asrock Z77 boards. It has a different PWM than the other boards, so it might be fine.

You should also consider the Gigabyte Z77 UP5. That board has some of the best MOSFETs in existence, great Inductors. It also has an 8 phase PWM, which, AFAIK, is better than a doubled 6 phase.

You also have to look at the features they provide:

Sound:

OC formula: Realtek ALC 898

Sabertooth: Realtek ALC 892

UD5H: Realtek ALC 898

Mpower: Realtek 898

P8Z77-V pro: Realtek ALC 892

UP5: Realtek ALC 898

I think the 898 is better than the 892, but both are pretty bad

Networking:

Sabertooth: Intel

P8Z77: Intel

UP5: Intel

UD5H: Intel + Arethos (probably the E2200, which is a great chip)

OC formula: Broadcom

Mpower: Realtek

I'm not sure how good each of these networking chips are, other than the Arethos, which is probably the best.

Additional SATA ports:

UP5: 4x Marvell

OC Formula: 4x Marvell

P8Z77: 2x Asmedia

Sabertooth: 4x Asmedia internal, 2x Asmedia external

UD5H: 3x Marvell internal, 1x Marvell external

no idea which of these are best.

Other features:

The OC formula and the Sabertooth are actively cooled

Sabertooth has that awful thermal armor

The UP5, OC formula and Mpower have POST LEDs, which are always nice to have

The Asus boards will probably be a little better for RAM stability (They tend to be)

The UP5 and UD5h has an Msata port

The OC formula looks to have VRM watercooling, which serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever on 1155.

The Gigabyte and Asus Boards both have a voltage offset option, whereas the others don't

The Gigabyte and Asus boards, as well as the OC Formula are digital PWMs, whereas the MSI is not (I'm not really sure how much that matters)

The UD5H has dual LAN

The P8Z77 has onboard WIFI

The UP5 has thunderbolt

Personally, out of the ones you listed, I would probably go with the OC formula or the UD5H, but out of all the choices currently available, I would pick the UP5; it's cheaper than the OC formula, on newegg.

All VRM information is from Sin's Hardware.

[Artorias]

I would probably pick the UP5H because of it's outstanding price to performance ratio, OC'ing prowess, and durability out of all the boards that you've listed...

[Art Vandelay]

Sabertooth vs Mpower...The Sabertooth is a $240 board with $100 worth a features and a lot of plastic. Mpower wins by default.

The OC Formula is made by ASRock, so it will break into 3 pieces, if you're careful.

So the real fight here is the P8Z77-V Pro vs the UD5H. As much as I like my Asus boards, I'm giving it to the UD5H. Much better for dedicated overclocking.

Don't completely write off the OC formula because it's made by Asrock. They still have made plenty of good products.