If you over clock, you'll only be happy with the top of the line AsRock. If you want value they are a good bang for your buck board, only there top tier boards overclock well. MSI has Great customer services................
If you do overclock then Asus.
No, this is an outdated way of thinking that was true 5-7 years ago before Intel brought almost everything into the chip itself. Now the most determining factors for high overclocks for 99% of PC gamers are CPU-bin lottery and your cooling capacity. The motherboard is no longer a limiting factor for CPU overclocking unless it's X99 Gigabytes with their unstable BIOSes or if you are using exotic cooling. But even then Gigabyte will improve their BIOS with time to allow their boards to be up there.
As a general rule of thumb, unless you are using exotic cooling (LN2, phase change) and just want to hit records with the highest memory + CPU overclock + lowest timings, only then will the top OCing boards such as ROG Extreme and Asrock Formula will actually give you that extra 3-4%. Otherwise, you are
far better off investing into better/faster system components rather than buying a $300-500 board:
1) Faster GPU or 2nd/3rd GPU
2) Larger/faster SSD / PCIe based SSD
3) Better CPU cooling - For example moving from CM212+ to Phanteks or Noctua NH-D15/Swiftech H-240X.
More or less the top boards in the least 2-3 generations have been more about features, not about performance.
$180 - Asrock Extreme 4:
- ASRock Super Alloy
- XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
- Premium 60A Power Choke
- Premium Memory Alloy Choke
- Ultra Dual-N MOSFET (UDM)
- Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps
- Sapphire Black PCB
- Supports Intel® Core™ i7 and Xeon® 18-Core Processors Family for the LGA 2011-3 Socket
- Digi Power, 12 Power Phase design
- Supports Quad Channel DDR4 3000+(OC) memory with max. capacity up to 128GB
- Supports ECC*, RDIMM Memory (*ECC is supported with Intel® Xeon® processors)
- 3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1
- Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Sound™ 2 & DTS Connect
- Intel® Gigabit LAN
- 10 SATA3, 1 eSATA, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
- 6 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 4 Rear), 8 USB 2.0 (4 Front, 4 Back)
- 1 COM Port Header, 1 Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector
- Supports ASRock HDD Saver Technology, Full Spike Protection, APP Shop
vs.
$330 - Asrock X99 Formula
- ASRock Super Alloy
- XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
- Premium 60A Power Choke
- Premium Memory Alloy Choke
- Ultra Dual-N MOSFET (UDM)
- Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps
- Sapphire Black PCB
- OC Formula Kit
» OC Formula Power Kit - 12 Phase CPU Power design + Digi Power, Ultra Dual-N MOSFET
» OC Formula Connector Kit - Hi-Density Power Connector, 15μ Gold Contact (CPU socket, memory sockets and PCIE x16 slots)
» OC Formula Cooling Kit - 8 Layer PCB, 4 x 2oz copper
» OC Formula Monitor Kit - Multi Thermal Sensor
- Supports Intel® Core™ i7 and Xeon® 18-Core Processors Family for the LGA 2011-3 Socket
- Digi Power, 12 Power Phase design
- Supports Quad Channel DDR4 3400+(OC), with maximum capacity up to 128GB
- Supports DDR4 UDIMM ECC*, RDIMM Memory (*It requires DDR4 ECC x8 (8 bit) RDIMM/ x8 (8 bit) UDIMM with Intel® Xeon® Processors E5 Series, but not include x4 (4 bit) RDIMM/ x4 (4 bit) UDIMM.)
- 5 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 Half Mini-PCIe
- Supports AMD 4-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 4-Way SLI™
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Sound™ 2 & DTS Connect
- Intel® Gigabit LAN + Qualcomm® Atheros® Gigabit LAN
- 10 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4), 1 M.2 (PCIe Gen2 x4 & SATA3)
- 11 USB 3.0 (4 Front, 6 Rear, 1 Vertical Type A), 6 USB 2.0 (4 Front, 2 Rear)
- V-Probe, Rapid OC, PCIe ON/OFF, 1 COM Port Header, 1 Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector
- Supports ASRock Cloud, HDD Saver Technology, Full Spike Protection, APP Shop
As you can tell, the core of the near entry level Extreme 4 is 95% identical to the flagship Asrock Formula. What you are paying for are "fluff" features like a 3rd party LAN chip which is worse than Intel's, a lot more USB ports but who needs 11 USB 3.0 ports? An extra M.2 slot but it's limited to Gen 2 PCIe, slightly higher memory OC option but DDR3400+ is crazy expensive.
Another major argument against flagship top-of-the-line boards is that instead of spending $350-500 on an X99 board, one is way better off grabbing a $180 board, and then simply reselling the parts and getting Skylake-E. With that will come more advanced features such as AVX 3.2, PCIe 4.0, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt III, better IPC, lower power usage, etc.
The extra money spent on faster DDR4 now beyond a certain sweet-spot is also money wasted. In 2-3 years when Skylake E comes out, DDR4 will come down and with the $170-320 saved from not spending it on a top board and another $100-200 on not getting DDR4-3000 now, one will be able to get way faster RAM and a more modern system.
Even the features argument hardly makes sense:
1) If you want much better quality sound than what's already available on $180-200 Realtek ALC1150, it's better to buy a standalone Creative Zx series, or get awesome speakers like Audio Engine A5s. If someone is listening to headphones, it's better to allocate that towards Schiit DAC/AMP stack and/or $200-300 headphones like AKG Q701/702/Sennheiser HD600.
All of these can be freely resold making cost of ownership cheap and quality far higher than what premium boards have.
2) If you want awesome WiFi, you can get it for $
50-60 with latest Bluetooth. Then you can carry this over for future builds or resell.
3) Linus, PCPer, HardOCP also state that going beyond 3 GPUs introduces major micro-stutter for SLI and Quad-Fire is not amazing either as GPU scaling for the 4th GPU is fairly poor. Instead of buying quad-980s or Quad 290Xs or 295X2 x2, it's better to keep upgrading more often. That leaves about 1-2% of the market who have high enough income and upgrade cycle to get the fastest Quad-GPU setups every 6-12 months.
More or less, in almost all cases, top of the line boards are a total waste of $. IMO, they only make sense for very specific workstation uses or for individual to whom a $500 board has the same affordability factor as a $180 board.
I would say the one area where each individual user can find a big difference is the UEFI interface. If someone has used Asus for 5+ years, well they will be more comfortable without having any major learning curve. That has an additional factor to some gamers that's hard to quantify in terms of $ value.
Again, this is my opinion but high-end boards no longer justify their premiums, unlike the old days.
Gigabyte is owned by Asus
I am pretty sure this is not true. Asus tried to merge with Asrock but Asrock, thankfully, backed out of that deal. Asus had a joint venture with Gigabyte but
Gigabyte is a standalone brand/company.
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I am not trying to hate on Gigabyte as I have used their
As I said the 12-power phases and 60A chokes actually do make the Asrock X99 boards the most efficient, but the differences are minor, we are talking 20-25 watts.
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/566...oard-review-part-2-20-boards-tested-power-use
Considering they also have the most features at their price levels, I truly think Asrock makes the best sub-$250 X99 boards. Their Z97 Extreme 6 also brings a ton of features/high quality components.
I am not trying to hate on Gigabyte as I switched from Abit/MSI to Gigabyte and used Gigabyte exclusively for 5 years with 965, P35, P55 builds. I loved their boards but the company has really been resting on those good old days with their quality falling off a cliff.
"Spot the differences: Gigabyte motherboard revisions present markedly different test result. Test: newer revisions perform worse than originals" ~ December 22, 2014I think Gigabyte has now found itself between the market leader premium UEFI Asus Deluxe/ROG boards and MSI/Asrock low-end mid-range MSI Gaming 3/5/7 and Asrock Extreme 3/4/6 series that bring a crazy amount of features and high quality boards at lower price levels. Gigabyte is no longer like Abit or the Gigabyte of 965-P55 eras where they provided some insane overclocking at budget to mid-range prices and are no longer a features leader either. They are basically in no-man's land at the moment imo.
The overall RMA rates between the mobo makers are also fairly close, although it can
vary a lot based on specific models.