Z87 Motherboard Suggestions?

Lady Fitzgerald said:

We seem to have a bit of confusion here. There are two kinds of IvyBridge and SandyBridge CPUs; the regular line and the enthusiast line. The enthusiast lines usually run from a different socket (such as LGA 2011 vs. LGA1155, for example). The IvyBridge-e, and even the SandyBridge-e, CPUs still run circles around the Haswells performance and capacity wise although the newer Haswell boards are more feature rich (new X79 boards, such as the Asus X79 Deluxe are starting to close that gap).

Thanks for your input but I'm not confused so...

And I'm quite aware that there are two different chips for Sandy and Ivy systems. I'm also aware of the differences between the e and non e chips. I've also said many a time the X79's were performance systems; what I'm not buying is Haswell systems are junk. Sorry.

And not that I can't afford it, but I'll take a Ivy E with an X79 board to match if you're paying

At any rate I started this thread by asking about Z87 boards, not whether or not Haswell made the cut.

I always welcome suggestions and thoughts, but I'm not confused.

Peace

Computer0304 said:

You might need a higher frequency for the the RAM. Unless using XMP. Also whats the difference of the Z87 Deluxe motherboards? Also, try Z87 PRO.

???

I posted the potential system here - Z87 Motherboard Suggestions?. Note the RAM... 1866MHZ.

And the RAM modules are XMP capable, as would any motherboard I get; however, I always prefer to set my RAM manually to meet or exceed the XMP settings. Did this with my current system. See system specs. Don't really trust XMP settings as they tend(ed) to play with other voltages, which can be a bad thing for overclockers.

As for the difference between the Deluxe and Pro, better board and slightly more features, but really nothing to write home about.

I usually budget my parts out so for example I may decide to spend 300 bucks on a MB; With that I'll usually buy the most feature rich item I can get for that budget. In this case the Deluxe is within that budget, even if I don't use all the features.

Computer0304 said:

No i mean deluxe, deluxe/dual, and deluxe/quad.

I haven't looked at them that hard yet to tell the differences.

Anyway seems the consensus here is to go with some iteration of an Asus motherboard.

Thanks to all for your inputs. Will post later in the month which way I went.

Until then

ICit2lol said:

Computer0304 said:

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

Actually my sentiments as well only I don't like criticising to the point of sounding a bit anti if you get my drift.

Myself i am aiming at another Ivy if the prices come down out here for the boards at least and if you can get them!! Only this time I'll probably go i7 instead of i5 although it is good to work around.

Well I'll be anti...

For me compared to my current system (i7-950), a Haswell would be a huge upgrade; and based on my usage over the last few years of said system, I've done nothing that a Haswell system couldn't do+. Couple that with the more feature rich motherboards vs. the current X79's and for me that's the clear way to go.

With regards to overclocking, sure I'll do some overclocking but it won't be anything aggressive; I'm not looking to make any record books or looking for bragging rights, simply long term stability.

If this were simply a matter of processing speed I'd easily get the i7-4930K (2011 socket) with a matching motherboard; I'd already budgeted for them so it wouldn't been an issue of finances. In the end it simply came down to the aging X79 boards or the more feature rich Z87 boards. In the end it was the motherboard that won me over, not the processors.

And yes, I'm sure the gap will be closed here, but as the saying goes... if you wait for the newest tech, you'll be waiting forever as there's always something new around the corner.

Again, thanks for the inputs

Peace