Solved Z87 Motherboard Suggestions?

[sygnus21]

Looking for suggestions on a Z87 motherboard to pair with an i7-4770K.

Not looking to spend no more than say 350ish. Not into tri or quad SLI, so that's not a factor. Also not looking to break any overclocking records as that's no longer important me as well. However, those options remain open... however slim they may be.

Anyway I'm looking at these boards but welcome opinions/thoughts.

- GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD5 TH (264 @ newegg.com)
- Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Z87 LGA 1150.

Thanks

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Very nice sygnus have you checked out the Asus ones??

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Some of the Asus boards look interesting, depending on what you will do with it. Both of the Gigabyte you listed have a legacy PCI slot; do you need that? I've looked hard at both the Z87 Deluxe and Z87 Deluxe/Dual but the Z87 boards just don't have enough PCIe lanes for my needs. The Sabertooths are a popular line.

 

[Computer0304]

ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Quadis good for your needs and in your price range.

 

[Computer0304]

But do you need the PCIe 2.0?

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah I looked at the Asus boards especially that Asus Deluxe Dual but t be honest I'm a bit leery about their customer service support, had a bad experience with them on a laptop issue; additionally I keep reading where others are complaining about customer service as well. Hopefully one should never need customer service in this instance, but if I ever do, I'd like to feel confident in getting service.

All that said, the board does appeal to me, and I may look even harder at it, but as long as Gigabyte has good boards I'll go with them before Asus. Plus my current system has a X58A Gigabyte board that's still kicking strong so....

But, nothings off the table at this point, so if someone with experience with the Asus Deluxe board makes a good argument I may consider.

I want that GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD5 TH board but it's a bit too new... as in just hitting the market; in fact it's bigger brother (UD7) hasn't even made it to market yet.

At any rate it doesn't hurt to look at other boards, thus my questions.

Thanks.

Both of the Gigabyte you listed have a legacy PCI slot; do you need that?

No, but it comes with the territory

 

[Computer0304]

If for gaming, get the ASUS Maximus VI motherboards.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Quadis good for your needs and in your price range.

The Deluxe/Quads have been getting poor reviews so far. They are a pretty new board so I would wait a bit on that one.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

But do you need the PCIe 2.0?

PCIe 3.0 is available on at least some of the x16 slots on the Z87s, the remaining being the older PCIe 2.0. The PCI slots on the Gigabytes are useless unless one has a really old card knocking about, such as a legacy soundcard.

 

[Computer0304]

If sticking to Gigabyte, the UD5TH is a great choice. Is this a gaming build?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep sygnus but for what it is worth I had nothing but grief with gigabyte support too.

A tip if you go gigabyte make sure you write down every ruddy number you can find on the board because to get support they want to know what colour shirt you have on while you are asking what you want to know:sarc:

 

[Computer0304]

You could go with a Ivy Bridge-E bexuase many people aren't liking Haswell.

 

[sygnus21]

ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Quadis good for your needs and in your price range.

The Deluxe/Quads have been getting poor reviews so far. They are a pretty new board so I would wait a bit on that one.

Plus the cost and fear of needing Asus' customer support = no.

And if I do go with Asus it'll probably be the Deluxe Dual.

You could go with a Ivy Bridge-E bexuase many people aren't liking Haswell.

Yeah I've had that back & forth debate with myself but decided on Haswell. In fact I was going to get the 4930K

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

You could go with a Ivy Bridge-E bexuase many people aren't liking Haswell.

Now your talking. Even SandyBridge-E can give Haswell a run for its money although IvyBridge-E doesn't cost that much more. Asus recently came out with a new X79 board, the X79 Deluxe, that looks very promising. I've been drooling like a that famous Russian pooch over that one but I just can't justify retiring a MOBO that is meeting my needs and is only eight months old.

 

[sygnus21]

If sticking to Gigabyte, the UD5TH is a great choice. Is this a gaming build?

Sorry I missed that at first.

It's a combination of gaming and photo editing. I've a 36meg DLSR camera that puts out 75 meg RAW files, and while my current system handles them, they can get pretty big quick when working with layers. It's not unusual for me the work with 700-900 meg files. This in turn can slow processing times down. And this is with a system with 12gig of RAM.

Anyway this is the possible build....

- Intel Core i7-4770K
- Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Z87 LGA 1150
- Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHz
- Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC

The rest of the parts will be coming from my current system.

 

[sygnus21]

You could go with a Ivy Bridge-E bexuase many people aren't liking Haswell.

Now your talking. Even SandyBridge-E can give Haswell a run for its money although IvyBridge-E doesn't cost that much more. Asus recently came out with a new X79 board, the X79 Deluxe, that looks very promising. I've been drooling like a that famous Russian pooch over that one but I just can't justify retiring a MOBO that is meeting my needs and is only eight months old.

Yeah I had that debate over here http://www.sevenforums.com/pc-custo.../293404-so-what-s-word-upgrading-haswell.html but in the end I'm going with a Haswell mainly due to the newer Z87 mobo tech.

I know the performance systems are the X79 systems, trust me, I had one mapped out, but I really don't need that much horsepower, and my overclocking days are pretty much finished, so for me, Haswell fits the bill. Plus it's simply cheaper than the Ivy system I had picked out.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

There's no denying the Z87s are cheaper than the X79s. For me, I needed the X79 platform because my computer is a multitasker, serving as a HTPC (including recording TV shows at a later date once I get ambitious and put in a tuner card), data warehouse (including all my videos, music, and books; that takes a lot of HDD space), office type work, maybe getting back into music notation again someday, etc. The Z87 boards just don't have enough PCIe lanes available for all I'm doing now, let alone later. Just photo editing with only 3-4GB JPEGs can eat up close to half of my 32GB RAM. I really don't absolutely need the pony-power of my 7930K but it sure is nice to have for multitasking, such as listening to music, web surfing, and running four AV/anti-malware scans simultaneously, without the computer screaming, "Are you out of your ever lovin' mind?"

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah mine will be eventually moving into HTPC territory as well but I still can't justify investing in an Ivy system, especially with my 3 year upgrade cycle. At this point I'd rather be nearer to new than old(er).

And believe me, I multitask quite a bit on my system. I'm usually listening to music while doing some photo editing while also surfacing net and working with office files. Again, all this with my current system. See system specs. So If I can do that on this system, I should have no problem with a Haswell system.

I know the Ivy systems are sweet, but I can't justify it's cost. And It's not like I haven't researched it. As I said, I was going with an Intel Core i7-4770K and this Asus motherboard ASUS Rampage IV Extreme but that's 970+ dollars just for those two items; and no mater how you cut it, the X79's are getting long in the tooth. I'm sure they'll be a refresh but...

At any rate I can build myself a high end Haswell system and still save myself about 3-4 hundred bucks. It's not an Ivy system, but it's no pushover either.

 

[AddRAM]

32 Gigs of Corsair Dominator Platinum ? That`s gonna cost ya 16 GBs should be plenty

And I also vote for this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132038

 

[sygnus21]

Yep sygnus but for what it is worth I had nothing but grief with gigabyte support too.

A tip if you go gigabyte make sure you write down every ruddy number you can find on the board because to get support they want to know what colour shirt you have on while you are asking what you want to know:sarc:

Well I feel the same way about Asus. BTW if you look at my system specs, you'll note that Gigabyte board

At any rate as I said, all boards are open for discussion.

32 Gigs of Corsair Dominator Platinum ? That`s gonna cost ya 16 GBs should be plenty

You missed my post where I said I needed that much RAM for my photo editing work. But yeah I thought about 16, but being that I'm running 12 gig now and Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are moaning at times, 32 couldn't hurt

And honestly even if I just get 16, I'll wind up adding the other 16 later so I might as well get the 32gig matched kit now and save money later.

And I also vote for this board:

Newegg.com - ASUS MAXIMUS VI FORMULA LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX gaming board with double-sided ROG Armor, 23C-degrees cooler CrossChill and 120dB SNR, 600ohm audio

And yes, I also looked at that board too. Nice one BTW.