Gigabyte Z87X-D3H or Asus Z87-A => Conclusion: Winner, Asrock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer

[stuff_me_good]

So which one to choose for my new PC build in terms of OC, fan control and reliability?

The things I'm concerned are:
- BIOS fan control. I've read that gigabyte has quite limited fan control in bios but a proper one in windows via application(I prefer proper fan control via BIOS and lose the application option all together). Not sure about asus, but apparently better fan options in bios?
- Asus has realtec NIC, Gigabyte has intel NIC(so obviously wayyyy better)
- Asus has 2 legacy PCI bus connectors, gigabyte only one. Not really concern, but in my mind I would prefer zero legacy shit, so +1 for gigabyte.
- OC ability pretty much the same I guess? My power is corsair ax760 and cooler is NH-D14


Edit: It turns out, I mistakenly wrote in the headline U3H when there is not such board. I meant D3H.

Edit: Conclusion: winner, Asrock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer

 

[zealot1983]

z87A better

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You know . . . This is something you'll have to sort out with the details.

Per your note about the NIC. A gigabit network interface . . . is a gigabit network interface. There was once a time when people leaned to Intel NICs. I did, and they were pricey. Mobos in those days didn't come with built-in NICs. But these days, the Intel name is not a basis for decision.

Actually, as a matter of fact, we had an LGA775 Gigabyte mobo here -- one of two the same model. The NIC was bad, and we had to buy one for $15 and put it in a slot. No problems after that.

We have a Gigabyte mATX (the LGA775), an eVGA ATX 780i (also LGA775), a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R (LGA775), an ASUS 680i STriker (the WHS server) and my ASUS P8Z68-v-Pro.

The Gigabyte boards are fine, but nothing special. EVGA can produce some nice motherboards -- firsthand from my dated experience and secondhand from what I've seen for the last three CPU generations.

These days, I've been partial to ASUS. And frankly, I've been a stickler for thermally controlled fans from motherboard headers. With all the crap and limitations I had to suffer with the 680i Striker, it was prodigious for BIOS control, the number of fan-headers and inclusion of a few two-pin thermal sensors on the motherboard -- bundled with the sensor wires.

I liked the fan control on an old ASUS P4P800 Springdale motherboard, the Striker, and my P8Z68-v-Pro.

So the disclaimer: I'm partial to ASUS boards these days. There are other good board makers. But I have to give the credit for ASUS fan control -- in BIOS, Q-Fan and the whole enchilada.

Is this what you're lookin' at? :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131981

This also depends on your budget.

It is not unusual for even good motherboards to get only a 50% 5* customer-review rating. This often arises when people don't know what they're doing, then blame their troubles on the motherboard. You might want to get the frequency-count of DOA and other troubles with this board as a percentage of the overall 100+ number of cus reviews. Even that's not critical.

If I were planning a serious over-clocking project, I might lean more toward (at least) the Z87-Pro board. Or the Sabertooth. Or the Z87 "Dee-lucks." And I might bite my lip thinking about the Maximus VI boards, while I compare the Pro and Maximus to literally account for the feature differences of the specs in the price difference. Then, I'd probably tell myself that I don't need those features -- or if I did, save some extra money before I spring for the "flagship."

One thing for sure. With a handful of boards, names and model numbers, I'd start looking at more than one serious lab review for each in the handful.

Then -- I'd place my order.

 

[Putz Beri]

i think this board is much better than the gigabyte or asus something

click to see.. hope this will helps

http://www.asrock.com/mb/VIA/4CoreDual-SATA2/

 

[nwo]

I'm not impressed with my z87-A... I think it is rediculously overpriced for a motherboard that barely has any features...

If I could take it back, I would definitely go with This ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. It's cheaper and more loaded than Z87-A.

 

[stuff_me_good]

I'm not impressed with my z87-A... I think it is rediculously overpriced for a motherboard that barely has any features...

If I could take it back, I would definitely go with This ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. It's cheaper and more loaded than Z87-A.

There we are on the same page. I think too that z87-a way over priced for being so modest motherboard. But can you tell more specific what features are you missing or what features should be changed in any way in your MB?


I have nas so I don't need extra sata ports, or anyt other extra features for that matter. Only thing I'm after is solid performance, stability, good OC ability in terms of air cooling and good fan options in BIOS.


The small heatsinks in asus don't invite good oc, but since so much power related stuff has been integrated to haswell core, it doesn't matter now days I guess?

 

[nwo]

OC capability with the Z87-A is pretty far below my standards and expectations. Also, considering that it was over $150 when I bought it a couple of months ago, I would expect it to have more features, both software and hardware. It also did not cope well with my DDR2133 RAM when I set the XMP profile in BIOS, while the RAM works perfectly fine on a much older Asrock p67 deluxe motherboard with same XMP settings... Backplate is the worst.

Would like to see more USB ports as well as a debug LED, and as far as software goes, I was expecting it to at least be capable of charging my USB devices rapidly as well as the ability to flash the BIOS via windows or USB. Anything more than that I consider a premium, but a $150 board should definitely have all of the aforementioned features.

 

[DigDog]

Well, no need for me to mention the incredibad RMA / customer service Asus provides. I guess when you're n1, you can treat people like dirt.

Gb makes some really nice mobos. I doubt you would be disappointed by their quality, but if people here have specific recommendations, i say you can trust them.

My 1150 is the MSI G43 Gaming, because it was cheap, and works well. Not really that big on fan headers though.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Asus bios fancontrol is bad. CPU fan is limited to 40% minimum and casefans are limited to 60% minimum: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1375-page6.html

It seems FanXpert got worse too, low limit used to be minimum fan spin up speed but now it's apparently the same silly 60% low limit. I do hope Speedfan works for the majority of Asus Z87 boards.

 

[nwo]

Heck if anything, I want my fans to spin faster, not slower! They hardly move any air as it is and I have them at full throttle.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Well, your needs are catered for just fine. Like any other brand you can run your fans at 100% no problemo. You just need to buy higher rpm fans.

Some people like quiet computing though and are annoyed by fans spinning faster than they have to, especially with modern hardware clocking down during idle and not generating much heat at all.

 

[stuff_me_good]

It's a shame how this industy has changed over the years. Few years back you could get pretty much top of the line mobo for 200€ and now you have to pay for the top of the line board 400€. This is crazy. D: Nobody in their right mind would pay that much for just motherboard. To get the basic functions and OC ability, you have to pay 130€. There are just too many models just to confuse people without really giving any real option to anybody. All these gamer editions and OC editions and crap like that and they are all capped one way or another.

No wonder the industry is dying and tech companies are wondering why PC industry is not blooming anymore. Geez, I wonder why? I know tablets and shit are the reason, but they are just pouring gazoline into the fire by their own doing.

 

[Headfoot]

Asus is hands down the worst company I've ever dealt with for RMAs, ever (As in they won't ever honor it). If you buy the Asus buy it knowing that the warranty is only as useful as the paper its written on. I'd recommend the Gigabyte board

 

[nwo]

Asus is hands down the worst company I've ever dealt with for RMAs, ever (As in they won't ever honor it). If you buy the Asus buy it knowing that the warranty is only as useful as the paper its written on. I'd recommend the Gigabyte board

I have never dealt with them directly. However, one of the boards I am using now (Asus Z77 Deluxe) was a gift from a friend who received it as RMA for having bent/broken CPU pins.

 

[*kjm]

I have never dealt with them directly.

Count yourself as a lucky one... they are that bad.

 

[nwo]

Count yourself as a lucky one... they are that bad.

The z77 and z87 I have now are the first two Asus motherboards I have ever owned. Always used MSI/DFI in the past.

 

[Xarick]

I have never RMA'd Asus, but their tech support is friggin horrible.
If you get a working board that never has an issue they are great.

 

[stuff_me_good]

I turns out that if you are planning to have PCI-E based SSD(yeah, the sandforce 3700 based pci-e cards are on their way) and SLI or Crossfire, the asus z87-a board is no go. The third big PCI-E slot is a dud. It only has two lanes, so effectively makes it 2x pci-e slot.

So this leaves me the gigabyte option because it has 4x pci-e slot among the two 16x(which run in 8x in SLI/CF mode).

 

[nudave]

I turns out that if you are planning to have PCI-E based SSD(yeah, the sandforce 3700 based pci-e cards are on their way) and SLI or Crossfire, the asus z87-a board is no go. The third big PCI-E slot is a dud. It only has two lanes, so effectively makes it 2x pci-e slot.

So this leaves me the gigabyte option because it has 4x pci-e slot among the two 16x(which run in 8x in SLI/CF mode).

Curious as to if you mean the UD3H? I can't find a model U3H...unless I'm mistaken and need more coffee.

 

[stuff_me_good]

Curious as to if you mean the UD3H? I can't find a model U3H...unless I'm mistaken and need more coffee.

Oh, sorry, my mistake D3H as in Z87X-D3H wich is the same as UD3H, but has two sata ports less and realtek alc892 audio codec instead of alc 898.

I don't care about those extra features.

 

[Ketchup]

It's a shame how this industy has changed over the years. Few years back you could get pretty much top of the line mobo for 200€ and now you have to pay for the top of the line board 400€. This is crazy. D: Nobody in their right mind would pay that much for just motherboard. ....

This is a bit of a generalization. INTEL is charging way to much for their chipsets the last few gens. Not sure what is going to change that, since AMD just can't keep up.

Another vote for the Gigabyte. I have had a few of their boards and they are rock solid. Built several for others and have heard no complaints. Tech support is also on the ball if you need them (very few instances I did though).

 

[nudave]

Oh, sorry, my mistake D3H as in Z87X-D3H wich is the same as UD3H, but has two sata ports less and realtek alc892 audio codec instead of alc 898.

I don't care about those extra features.

Thanks for the clarification. I've been following this thread as I'm in a similar situation.

 

[Tristor]

Considering my recent run of luck with Asus Z87 boards, I'd say avoid. Gigabyte has not done me wrong yet. That said, I think you'd do better with the Z87X-UD3H not the Z87X-D3H. The UD3/UD5 I think are absent PCI slots altogether. I really have no idea why anybody would put a PCI slot on a board in 2014, it's absolutely ludicrous.

 

[Xarick]

Because some of us have sound cards we still use.

 

[DigDog]

If i recall correctly, gigabyte messed up back in the days of the sandy launch, with the Sniper G1 having some horrible BIOS issues, and because of that *one* board, have taken a big hit on the reputation. But really, they have been pushing for quality since 2005 (that i recall).