Hi,
I currently have the 3770K overclocked to 4.5GHz stable with Gigabyte Z77 D3H motherboard but I'm going to downsize to mATX and I think only Z77, Z68 and P67 motherboards can support overclocking but correct me if I'm wrong.
These are the motherboards that I can find second hand but which one is better and can achieve the same overclock as my Gigabyte Z77 D3H motherboard?
Asus P8Z77-M
Gigabyte Z77M-D3H
MSI Z77MA-G45
Asus P8Z68-M
Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z68
Asus P8P67-M
Cheers guys
I was looking for similar boards in late 2014. I was actually considering either surplus-stock offerings of mATX boards when I wanted a full-size ATX, so I had seen all of the models by ASUS that you cite.
I finally found two corporate-IT-refurb P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 boards at Ascendtech, and snatched them up for $85 apiece. So I know the Z68 ASUS product-line well, and became familiar with the Z77 iteration of similar boards.
If the price is right on the Maximus IV and it hasn't been abused or damaged, grab it. Even a P8Z68-V Pro (1st version) will work with an IB i7-3770K with the proper BIOS update, so should all P8Z68 "M" board as well.
I can't compare these boards to your Gigabyte. However, the P8Z68-V Pro and Deluxe ATX boards were some of the best overclockers available at that time, and widely touted here in the forums by such veteran posters as Z15CAM and myself.
The Pro and Deluxe versions have 12-phase power design, as good as the Maximus boards. I'd suggest that spec as a measuring stick. Lesser versions of the P8Z68 and P8Z77 boards had either 8-phase or 10-phase specs. If the "M" boards have 12-phase power as mATX boards and will cost you something less than the Maximus, they would be good bets also.
And of course if you can get a Z77 mATX board, I'd take it over the Z68's. But the pickings are getting slim on the socket 1155 boards.
I have nothing too bad to say about the P67 board, but that was a chipset that didn't give you use of the onboard Intel 3000 graphics. It was the Z68 chipset that turned the tables for socket 1155.
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