Z87 Motherboard Suggestions?

Cripes sygnus what a good idea I might just start that up myself. I know I use Word for a lot of stuff I use in the forum but Excel uses a lot less room so I might just use that same system myself:)

As for the support all mine has been via a web link as phoning Taiwan or wherever it is is way too expensive hence why I said it was tedious.

sygnus21 said:

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.

Pretty much any board from the bottom of the the range to the top/deluxe models will let you overclock a decent amount. 4.2-4.6ghz is not out of the ordinary with a after market heatsink. Giga or Asus

For your needs a mildly overclocked chip with HT and 32GB of ram will do the job.

I know you're an AMD fan, but do any of your photo apps take advantage of CUDA? And why not go the extra bit and grab a 280X? Faster than a 7970


And I was under the impression that any RMAs were dealt with by Amazon, not the company directly?


Either way, you can always wait for the next best thing or go for what's available now. Regardless of choice, it will be an improvement over your current rig mate.

sygnus21 said:

Yeah a lot of people don't use r understand the power of Excel. It's a very powerful tool once you gain an understanding of it's potential. I use it as much as I use Word, which is a lot. In fact I use it for calculations as well. Also by working on my Computer Information Systems degree, I've learned even more tricks - some from math, accounting as well as programming. It really is more powerful than people realize.

As for Asus motherboards, I've not personal experience with them other than knowing they're the big name in the game. My motherboards have been Abit, Intel, and now Gigabyte.

In fact, when I moved from Intel, I was going to get an Asus X58 MB, but a sales person at Microcenter talked me into Gigabyte since at that time Asus was going through some "quality control" pains. That wasn't the only time I'd heard that so I decided to give Gigabyte a try, and the rest is history.

My customer service issue with Asus actually arose last year shortly after I got my Asus laptop. I'd had a problem with the charger getting a little to warm and called Asus about it... long story short, I was told I would get a replacement after I supplied some info; after supplying the said info, I was then told they (Google?) couldn't match my address, and was actually told the address I was giving them was wrong! Mind you Amazon, and everyone else, has been sending packages to my address for years. When I insisted on speaking to a supervisor I was hung up on. Upon calling back, and providing the same info all over again, I was then told I had to go on line and fill out an RMA form, then send the defective item in before receiving the replacement.

I got so frustrated I just gave up. BTW there was nothing wrong with the charger; turns out it'll get warm if you're using the laptop while it's trying to charge. I just thought it got a little too warm.

Anyway it was the utter run-around and lack of professionalism that turned me off; so now I speak with my wallet. As I said, I'll look at their product because they make some good stuff, just don't have to use their customer service.

That's my issue

Yep me too I developed a good budgeting system from scratch based on staff rostering and the FTE's when I was dropped in the deep end managing a small country hospital a few years back and never tire of the calcs it could do for me. Made my job a whole lot easier after the hard yards were done.

As for the AMD stuff I would not know what to look for now but anyway it's a away down the track with the prices as they are at the moment.

sygnus21 said:

ICit2lol said:

Yes mate I agree and it goes on and on to be honest I expect in a years time we will be sitting here discussing some third or fourth gen on from where we are now. I have had no issues bar one with my Sandy Bridge Gigabyte board apart from being an idiot I bought the H67 instead of the P67.

But as I said before and you can tell me go jump but I would make a note of every single number on that board before you install it as trying to find them is a nightmare once inside the case - if you need to contact them once up and running.

Still am looking forward to seeing how you go:)

Well as I said before I've had no issues with Gigabyte's customer service the couple of times I called them, but I know things change rapidly in the world of customer service. However I tend let my wallet speak when I'm treated badly by them. Unfortunately Asus has earned that distinction. I'll still check out their products, but they'll always have that strike with me. I did the same thing with VisionTech; though with them I won't even look at their products.

As for writing down numbers, you've no ideal. I keep a spreadsheet which lists all my electronics, computer items and parts to include serial numbers, date purchased, price, etc. Been doing that for years since discovering the power of Excel

I also keep electronic copies of my receipts where necessary, even scanning them if I have to :)

I save all my paperwork but where ever you purchased it from should have documentation too

I understand about the Wallet thing I had to once to often flex my muscle in that regard until they give in after all no matter how much we mess up the product the customer is right and if it's within 3 months then they technically can't say a word

I worked in retail for 12 years and the first thing they do with complaining consumers is try to detour them from refunding or get a product exchange it's really pathetic because they always produce mass quantities of product and still have to give the consumer a hard time and what happens to the product that was never bought scrap ?

As for Customer support, I've dealt with Gigabyte, ASrock and MSI, none of who ever did fix my problems but blamed my hardware. MSI suggested I use their forums, "where many knowledgeable people can help".
Gigabyte sent my own board back THREE times after they "fully tested" it but would not boot at all in my house. Same experience with a ASrock board, the last one they sent be pops the overload protection in the PSU as soon as it's powered on, also they "fully tested" it.

ASUS did give me some good and quick answers via email which were helpful.

If you won't be OCing, there's no need for a $350 board. The ASUS Z87-Pro is an excellent choice and can certainly handle any HTPC duties. If no one has mentioned it, I would get a good CPU cooler even using it at stock, those puppies get hot and Intel's cooler serves as aluminum scrap metal better.

sygnus21 said:

Well I've been with AMD for so long I wouldn't know what to do If I switched to something else. And no, my photo editing doesn't use CUDA. This is strictly still photography.

Ahh okay. Nothing wrong with sticking with what you know, especially if you don't need the feature.

Amazon, or any other sells vendor only deals with "RMA's" within a stated return period. Anything outside of that period and you now deal with the item's manufacture. My issue came outside that period. To be honest though, on this issue, even if it was within the return period, I still would have called customer service/tech support to at least ask a question.

In this case, that question turned into rocket science/quantum physics, thus my frustration.

Ah fair enough. *Touch wood* I haven't had to deal with a company directly yet - just the vendor. Mind you I do have a few out of vendor warranty items to deal with... I don't know if I could tolerate the stress lol.


What card did you end up changing your mind about?

I know it's not AMD, but the new GTX 780ti is an absolute beast. Out performs the 290x for a few bucks more.