Which motherboard?

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MaddyJ

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Hi guys.

I have around R1600 to spend on a motherboard. Now which would be the best? I need a Z77 series as I will be overclocking. I'm looking at the asrock extreme 4 as well as the msi z77a-g45. I can't seem to find a decent asus for the price though. What would you recommend?

Please and thank you :)
 
What are the rest of your PC specifications?

I'd go with either the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 or Extreme4-M, depending on your graphics card and USB usage.

If you're going for SLI/CrossFire, then go with the Extreme4, otherwise you might run into high temperatures with the Extreme4-M, because there is only 1 slot's space between the 2x PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, vs the 2 slots' space on the Extreme4.
 
Will be using a i5 2500k, msi 7870 hawk, and the ram will be 1600mhz but still deciding brand etc.

I can extend my budget to around R2000 if I cut the CPU cooler for now. In this price bracket, what's best? I am looking at the asus p8z68-v pro/gen3, however it does not support that virtu MVP technology.
 
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That Asus motherboard isn't a Z77 chipset motherboard. Even if you raise your budget to R2k, I'll still recommend the ASrock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard.

Do you already have that CPU and graphics card? Because you can now get the i5 3570k, which is 1 generation newer than the i5 2500k...
 
Yes, haha. I already have these components. :) that's why I'm looking at older tech motherboards too. I guess I'm just a bit worried about quality of asrock...
 
I've been out of the motherboard "buying" game for a few years and I would've never thought, back then, that I would live to see the day that so many people recommend an Asrock Mobo to someone......how times and technology has changed.

+1 for Asus
 
I just bought an AsRock extreme 4 coupled with an Intel I5-3570k cpu and I am more than happy with this motherboard. The best R1600 I have spent in a long time together with the 256GB SSD I bought.

I have uninstalled virtu MVP as it kept on causing my system to run out of memory when playing BF3 and I have not noticed any improvement using it. I have 8GB of Gskill 1866Mhz memory so it must have beep virtu MVP causing the problem.
 
WiseCrack said:
I just bought an AsRock extreme 4 coupled with an Intel I5-3570k cpu and I am more than happy with this motherboard. The best R1600 I have spent in a long time together with the 256GB SSD I bought.

I have uninstalled virtu MVP as it kept on causing my system to run out of memory when playing BF3 and I have not noticed any improvement using it. I have 8GB of Gskill 1866Mhz memory so it must have beep virtu MVP causing the problem.
Click to expand...

I also have 8GB's of memory, and get the same error. I just disable it, not uninstall it - it does actually make a huge difference, though - I wish it would stop running out of memory.

You guys will never catch me buying an Asrock board.
 
FlatspinZA said:
You guys will never catch me buying an Asrock board.
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ASRock are making some of the best motherboards at this stage, as well as the best price/performance ones too!

It used to be just Asus & Gigabyte motherboards that you can trust for high end systems. Asus & Gigabyte still make good motherboards, but they're just so much more expensive and are outperformed by the ASRock ones most of the time still.
 
Pada said:
ASRock are making some of the best motherboards at this stage, as well as the best price/performance ones too!

It used to be just Asus & Gigabyte motherboards that you can trust for high end systems. Asus & Gigabyte still make good motherboards, but they're just so much more expensive and are outperformed by the ASRock ones most of the time still.
Click to expand...

I just remember when they first came out - there were always driver issues and they gave me so many headaches I went completely off them.

Asus used to be incredibly prone to firmware corruption/infection but they seem to have fixed that and they're my number one choice for boards these days.

Rectron messed up any faith I had in Gigabyte by requiring that I pay in for a replacement on a faulty board - 3 year warranty my ass!

MSI has always been good, though expensive.

I always suggest spending as much as you can on a mobo because the higher-end ones just run better, and faster than the el-cheapos.
 
FlatspinZA said:
MSI has always been good, though expensive.
Click to expand...

MSI, Expensive???

Never, they always have been priced well. Unlike Asus and Gigabyte. If you do not buy a Asus ROG then they are just to expensive for what they ask and features they have.

Gigabyte is come down a little in price the last couple of months.

ASRock have really impressed me with their features and Board Quality, have worked with the Pro3, Pro4, Extreme4, Extreme6 and the OC Formula(VERY VERY NICE).

ASRock and MSI aslo give 3 year warranties so quality should be around the same.

Only thing between the MSI and Extreme4 is, Do you want to SLI?, if not get whichever is cheaper. You can also look at the Pro4.
 
Back in the day I would not have touched a asrock board either but it's a different ballgame today. It would however bode well for them if they increased the warranty duration.
Not a fan of MSI as I've had to many issues with them in the past, maybe things have changed there as well.
 
I would like to crossfire in the future. I think I'll go for the extreme 4. Gives a lot of the same features as the much more expensive boards. And the upside is I can get a CPU cooler with what I saved.
 
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