Which Z68 motherboard? Simple needs...

[Davegod]

Been out of the hardware scene for a while and I'm a bit lost in the Z68 roundups. I don't need loads of USB or SATA ports nor 3-way crossfire, which seem to consume a lot of the text in reviews.

Use is for gaming. No video encoding or whatever. A nice, solid, decent performing board is what I'm looking for.

Budget is flexible. The price difference between, say, the PRO and non-PRO Asus P8 Z68-V isn't going to be noticed, but neither do I throw money away.

Not a huge overclocker but seems to be so easy it's ubiquitous these days so I'd like some simple BIOS feature to crank the Turbo up to something conservative.

My preferred supplier has a decent range of Asus and Gigabyte boards, for ASRock I'd need to go elsewhere. I don't have any brand loyalties.



Rest of proposed system:
CPU : 2500K
RAM : 2x4gb GSkill RipjawsX CL9 1600 (I'm assuming not worth 50% more for CL8)
SSD : 120gb OCZ Vertex 3 (W7 + programs)
HDD : existing 1TB WD
GFX : existing ATI 6950
Case: existing Antec P182

Do I need a cooler? I didn't OC my current E8400 and was happy with the stock. There's room in the budget e.g. a Corsair Hydro H60 or Antec Khuler 620, though I'd be using the fan as an exhaust. Rather keep the noise reasonable than add another 5% to the OC.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Any Z68 board out there will put a 2500K or 2600K to 4.2-4.4Ghz. Above that, then you need to at least get a board with quality power.

For $130, the ASUS P8Z68-M PRO is hard to beat for value if you want a mild overclock. Would I use it myself, no, I'd look at a $180 board.

For the $180 - $200 range, you have a few like the ASUS P8Z68-V & V-PRO, and the ASUS Maximus Gene-Z (Mico-ATX and all around fun board with a lot of tweaking features like the more expensive Maximus Extreme-Z, and very good overclocking). I personally get more fun out of the Maximus ROG boards, so that would be my recommendation. Second would be the V-PRO.

Lastly, before I'd spend $60-70 up front on one of those coolers (which I do own and they are nice, I'd recommend the Antec at that price point) I'd put the extra $$ into the 2600K, find out how you like performance with stock cooler - it will handle some overclocking itself, then go from there. You can always add a cooler later. But up front, you get 2MB more cache, 100Mhz more stock speed, and Hyperthreading. You may also want to look at the Cooler Master 212+ EVO for $35. There are several ways to save some $$ in your build and still start with the 2600K, and 2-3 years from now you'll be glad you did.

Good luck.

 

[Rvenger]

Biostar TZ68A+ - best bang for the buck. I hit 5ghz with my 2500k on this.

The board in my sig is on sale for $79.99 after rebate. (I usually buy the cheapest boards on the market to see their potential) I managed a 4.4ghz 24/7 stable overclock and the newest bios update supports the micro code for Ivy bridge

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128520

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you don't make hurried decisions, look at differences in phase-power-design between the different ASUS boards. If that feature is important to you, then you'll go with the P8Z68-V-Pro or (unnecessarily) the -Deluxe.

As for coolers, you might squeeze an extra 200 Mhz from a "serious" water-cooling kit. While the Hydro is more likely to just break even with a good heatpipe cooler ( it might actually be bested by the latter, but look for comparison reviews).

Mrjoltcola seems to be correct in every regard. The Coolermaster Hyper 212+/EVO is a decent choice for the money if you're "not a huge over-clocker" as you say. I'm planning to get two of those for twin Wolfdale LGA-775 systems that I've refurbished with SSD boot drives and extra memory. Some of the Intel cooler fans seem a bit noisy.

EDIT [5 minutes later . . ] In my opinion, your best use of an SSD for a Z68 board would derive from the ISRT feature (SSD-caching/HDD-acceleration). The SSD you've chosen is unnecessarily large for that purpose, and I'd recommend the Patriot Pyro 60GB drive (~ $100) SATA-III if that's what you choose to do. Looking at the Vertex 3 line, I see they have a similar drive with similar performance specs.

On the other hand, if you want to use the SSD exclusively as a boot-system disk, a 120 GB unit should be adequate. PErsonally, I don't want to find myself bound to an SSD size-limit down the road somewhere, and 3/4 the performance of an SSD for an ISRT "accelerated-HDD" setup is hardly a compromise.

 

[Davegod]

Thanks for comments, looking like it's the Asus P8 Z68-V PRO (No ROG boards found). 'Course then I found a thread about gen 3 boards out soon... bleh.

Bit of a decision with the 2500K vs 2600K though. This side of the pond the 2600K carries a $122 (50&#37 premium. 2-3 years from now I'll be upgrading again!

Gaming benchmarks indicate trivial performance difference at resolutions I'd play at. But then again I'm not seeing benches of a contemporary game like BF3...

 

[mrjoltcola]

If the P8Z68-V (non-Pro) is available in your area, it supposedly has the same power-phases and mostly same BIOS options as the PRO. I'm going to try the plain V board and see how it compares to the Maximus and the ASRock.

Here is a video where the ASUS / ROG rep compares 3 of the boards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131730

Hope that helps.

 

[FordGT]

Have a look at the Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3. For $119 you get a board that can easily overclock to 4.2Ghz+ with a simple ratio increase. SLI capable, USB3.0 and it is compatible with Ivy Bridge in case you want to upgrade to 22nm in 2012. I have been very happy with mine.


http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3856#sp

 

[wanderer27]

Thanks for comments, looking like it's the Asus P8 Z68-V PRO (No ROG boards found). 'Course then I found a thread about gen 3 boards out soon... bleh.

Bit of a decision with the 2500K vs 2600K though. This side of the pond the 2600K carries a $122 (50%) premium. 2-3 years from now I'll be upgrading again!

Gaming benchmarks indicate trivial performance difference at resolutions I'd play at. But then again I'm not seeing benches of a contemporary game like BF3...

I'm in the same status as the OP.

I'd really like to pick up this MB, but looking over the Egg there appear to be some QC issues - primarily with RAM slots and BIOS :\

I've some serious QC issues with this MB and ASUS RMA, so I'm really leary of going the ASUS route again when I see things like that.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=186822&highlight=

I've used MSI MB's as well (socket A), and they're still running fine with no issues.

I'm looking at a 2500k/2600k/2700k (targeting ~4.5 GHz), 16 GB RAM, and no idea what to go with for MB.

Seems picking a good MB is the hardest part about putting a new build together. Had the same problem back when I was putting this 939 build together, only then it was Chipset Fans failing (this MB uses Heatpipes/sink).


Yeah, I'm open for suggestions for a quality MB I can do the above with, not crazy about spending ~$200 for MB though . . . .



.

 

[mrjoltcola]

True, it can be a big decision, so you should do lots of research and talk to people who own multiple boards and/or work with a lot of them. The ASUS warranty is better than a lot of the others. ASRock, for example, has a 2-year, ASUS does 3-year. I've had zero issues with warranty on either, nor have I had any failures or bugs. ASUS's UEFI BIOS has builtin web update, so you don't even have to leave the BIOS to flash it.

The ASUS P8Z68 line are as high quality as any other manufacturer, but where I find it excels is the UEFI BIOS and bundled software. Top notch. The AI Tuner / Monitoring software is great, compared to Intel, Gigabyte and ASRock boards I've tried.

I've built 4 rigs in the last two months with ASUS and ASRock boards and had no problems with Z68 boards. The one issue I had was the rock bottom ASUS H61 micro-ATX board for $65, it ran stable, but the issue was it didn't power up by itself on reset. I didn't try to update it, I just RMAed it with no complaints, and I chose a different model. The other three were all Z68s, and not a problem. If you haven't tried their BIOS lately, you should.

The bottom of the line LX board in the P8Z68-V line basically lacks the fancy heat sinks, SLI and the DIGI-VRM, however, it tuned a 2600K right up to 4.6 with no complaints and smokes. Put it in my wifes new rig running at 4.2 on the stock cooler (which isn't very good by the way) and an SSD, and it is the first time she really commented on how much faster her Adobe apps run. When you figure I got the board for $45 with the Microcenter coupon, and I set her up with dual display support using the Intel builtin Sandy Bridge GPU right off the board, it was a lot of bang for a cheap build.

 

[evident]

I just purchased a Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H-B3 and it's been stable so far w/ my i7 2600k. no overclocking yet, but the bios seems pretty overclocking friendly. it runs for about $100 on newegg. best of all it's mATX.

 

[jacktesterson]

why Z68?

P67 is just as good if your not using onboard video. SSD Cacheing and Lucida chip thing are both gimmicks

 

[jacktesterson]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135283

My board. Rock solid @ 4.8 GHz

Dual Ethernet... Tons of features. Nothing in price range with same feature set. 8+1 Phase Power.

Yes its ECS but none have ever failed me. I still have a K7S5A running

Too bad wasn't yesterday, as had a $35 MIR for month of October.

 

[tweakboy]

Easy ASUS P867 if you want top notch company and a motherboard that will last and last and take a beating and never die. The only you kill the motherboard is if you tamper with it yourself.... or crapshooting a botched BIOS attempt.. gl

 

[jacktesterson]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p67-motherboard-roundup-lga-1155-sandy-bridge,2837-29.html

Good Article comparing $150-200 Boards

 

[bgc99]

I've some serious QC issues with this MB and ASUS RMA, so I'm really leary of going the ASUS route again when I see things like that.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=186822&highlight=

You realize that thread is 3 years old?

 

[evident]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135283

My board. Rock solid @ 4.8 GHz

Dual Ethernet... Tons of features. Nothing in price range with same feature set. 8+1 Phase Power.

Yes its ECS but none have ever failed me. I still have a K7S5A running

Too bad wasn't yesterday, as had a $35 MIR for month of October.

Ecs really turned me off back in the day when I was a noob. I updated a MB BIOS and it was the right model but wrong revision but the website was in such bad engrish it had no indication whatsoever. Never again afyer that

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[wanderer27]

You realize that thread is 3 years old?

Yes, I do, but from some of the comments I'm seeing on the Egg in regards to ASUS MB's, things don't look to have improved . . . quite the opposite in fact.

.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

why Z68?

P67 is just as good if your not using onboard video. SSD Cacheing and Lucida chip thing are both gimmicks

A better question to ask is why not the Z68 board.

With most of the Z68 boards you will find that they have 3 features that the P67 does have.

-Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) SSD Caching
-On boards that support the IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor) you will be able to the IGP for graphics. Also when you have Lucidlogix Virtu software you can switch to get the best performance on applications that can use the Intel® Quick Sync.
-Intel SATA controller said to outperform the old Marvell controller.

Now since there was only a $6 price difference between these two chipset and most of the motherboards don't past that along to the customer on boards with the same features, you have to ask yourself why wouldnt you get a Z68 board?

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[isekii]

Biostar TZ68A+ - best bang for the buck. I hit 5ghz with my 2500k on this.

The board in my sig is on sale for $79.99 after rebate. (I usually buy the cheapest boards on the market to see their potential) I managed a 4.4ghz 24/7 stable overclock and the newest bios update supports the micro code for Ivy bridge

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128520

I am running this too albeit stock speed~ and it's been solid.

Can you let me know what settings you changed around in the bios to hit your mark.
I'd be happy with a 15-20% increase in speed. I am however running stock cooler.

 

[Rvenger]

I actually have some screen shots here.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2177995

 

[Despoiler]

A better question to ask is why not the Z68 board.

With most of the Z68 boards you will find that they have 3 features that the P67 does have.

-Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) SSD Caching
-On boards that support the IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor) you will be able to the IGP for graphics. Also when you have Lucidlogix Virtu software you can switch to get the best performance on applications that can use the Intel® Quick Sync.
-Intel SATA controller said to outperform the old Marvell controller.

Now since there was only a $6 price difference between these two chipset and most of the motherboards don't past that along to the customer on boards with the same features, you have to ask yourself why wouldnt you get a Z68 board?

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

Don't forget that many of them do/will support Ivy Bridge so you have an upgrade path beyond Sandy Bridge. This also gives you PCI-E 3.0 so it's more future proof for video card upgrades also. It's an easy choice to get a Z68.

 

[Davegod]

o_0

I ordered the P8Z68-V Pro today. Was tempted by the Asrock equivalent but my preferred supplier didn't have it.