Micro ATX Z68 motherboard help

[SeanFL]

building a new micro atx mini tower for audio & video editing. I've ordered an i7-2600k and am making the decision on which way to go for a motherboard.

Asus doesn't seem to have their micro atx z68 out yet. So these two looked good:

ASrock for $124.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ro%20atx%20z68

Gigabyte for $124
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-495-_-Product

At that price point, it looks like the ASRock comes with esata, the gigabyte doesn't. I've never used ASRock, a recent Anandtech article seemed to praise them.

Any thoughts on build quality and reliability between the two brands? I've uses Asus MB's the last three systems, my most recent Asus MB just died, so I'm open to considering others.

Thanks for any opinions. Sean

 

[Massive Overkill]

I would hold out for this board, which is what I've been doing (I've had my 2600 sitting in its box for 3 months now): http://www.vortez.net/news_story/asus_maximus_iv_gene_z_sneak_peek.html

I might add that Gigabyte's early offerings of Z68 don't implement virtua for quick synch, which helps with transcoding. I myself, in addition to other features, am sick of having two seperate disk drives, so will welcome SSD caching.

 

[Doclife]

I went with the Gigabyte mATX board myself because of the build quality. I have been using Gigabyte MB for the last 4 or 5 builds with the oldest one about 10 years old and still running. They gave me no problems. In addition, Gigabyte is pretty good with updating their BIOS.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Doclife, that said, when they do have a systemic issue with their boards, they are very, VERY hard to get to fix without a LOT of external pressure. Case and point was the whole GA-N680SLI-DQ6 fiasco. There is a thread around here somewhere about it if you want to read up on it (it is like 200+ pages long due to how many issues there were and it even took Anandtech editor/reviewer Gary Keys to write an article on the front page about the issues before Gigabyte even started to respond.

 

[ViperV990]

I'm in the same boat. Got a bunch of parts on the way but still need to decide on an mATX mobo.

Looking at Newegg there are 4 choices right now. The $125 Asrock board is the only one that doesn't have dual x8 capability (which I want), but it does seem a lot more feature-rich than the Gigabyte board at the same price point.

I'm also considering the two $160 boards but honestly have no idea if the extra $35 gets me anything I care about.

 

[shrimpsiumai]

I would hold out for this board, which is what I've been doing (I've had my 2600 sitting in its box for 3 months now): http://www.vortez.net/news_story/asus_maximus_iv_gene_z_sneak_peek.html

Do you know when this is coming out? Waiting for a good matx board as well.

 

[Massive Overkill]

Supposedly June/July:

http://www.nordichardware.com/news/76-motherboards/43147-asus-launches-maximus-iv-gene-z.html

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

I might add that Gigabyte's early offerings of Z68 don't implement virtua for quick synch, which helps with transcoding. I myself, in addition to other features, am sick of having two seperate disk drives, so will welcome SSD caching.

Only about half of Gigabytes boards they didnt implement any support for IGP (intergraded graphics processor). The board the SeanFL posted has both support for IGP and comes with the Virtu software. I personally have had a lot of success with Gigabyte boards in the past and I have never had a chance to use an ASRock board but I have never heard a bad thing about them. Overall I wouldnt have a problem getting either of these boards.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Pigbristle]

Waiting on an Z68 matx roundup before deciding.