Best mAtx z77 motherboard

[dmoney1980]

Needs to be mATX!

Want:
Fast post times
East oc or user friendly uefi options (2500k CPU)
Intel nic preferred
Windows 8 ready (meaning they have w8 drivers available)
Decent fan control options
Good gaming performance on my 7950

Dont need:
Dual gpu
Wifi
Thunderbolt
Hdmi (using discrete gpu)

So far I'm looking at the gigabyte sniper m3....not sure what else is out there, maybe the asrock xtreme4 m?

 

[cantholdanymore]

http://rog.asus.com/motherboard/gene/maximus-v-gene/

 

[dmoney1980]

http://rog.asus.com/motherboard/gene/maximus-v-gene/

how are the post times on this board? I heard it's slow..also, is it worth the price premium over the Gigabyte board?

 

[kleinkinstein]

DP

 

[kleinkinstein]

Asrock Pro4-M. Nothing boots faster. Has all the I/O ports of ATX. No Intel nic, Realtek instead. But Xfast LAN oils all hiccups. The ROG Gene is overrated, especially since this board can be snagged for a quick $60 at MC.

 

[Termie]

how are the post times on this board? I heard it's slow..also, is it worth the price premium over the Gigabyte board?

I can say that the POST times aren't quite as fast as something like the AsRock Extreme4, which I also built up with, but the board is definitely the highest-end mATX board on the market. It has Intel nic, mSATA, great overclocking at low volts, and excellent fan control (although the dual CPU fan headers cannot control 3-pin fans, only 4-pin PWM fans).

Honestly, boot times and features do not go hand-in-hand. If you want all the features that the top-end boards offer, you're not going to get class-leading POST speed.

Edit: To the above poster, the Pro4-M is a fine board, but it's not even remotely in the same class as the Maximus V Gene. If the OP wants fast boots, yes, the Pro4-M is the winner. Everything else, Maximus.

 

[dmoney1980]

I can say that the POST times aren't quite as fast as something like the AsRock Extreme4, which I also built up with, but the board is definitely the highest-end mATX board on the market. It has Intel nic, mSATA, great overclocking at low volts, and excellent fan control (although the dual CPU fan headers cannot control 3-pin fans, only 4-pin PWM fans).

Honestly, boot times and features do not go hand-in-hand. If you want all the features that the top-end boards offer, you're not going to get class-leading POST speed.

Edit: To the above poster, the Pro4-M is a fine board, but it's not even remotely in the same class as the Maximus V Gene. If the OP wants fast boots, yes, the Pro4-M is the winner. Everything else, Maximus.

thanks, I'll take a look at the Gene V....also interested in the Gigabyte sniper m3. Seems to have most of the features and it has a decent rebate now on NE

 

[kleinkinstein]

thanks, I'll take a look at the Gene V....also interested in the Gigabyte sniper m3.

It's obviously your money but both boards are such overkill since you only want one gpu. You're paying a huge premium for PCIE that you won't use.

 

[dmoney1980]

It's obviously your money but both boards are such overkill since you only want one gpu. You're paying a huge premium for PCIE that you won't use.

Consider my options so far...

Asus Gene V $199 - nice board, overkill perhaps unless I decide to max my OC. Good sound and LAN too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131830

ASrock extreme 4m $139 - good board, fast post, but Realtek LAN and audio
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157294

Gigabyte sniper m3 $139 after rebate - I consider this a Gene V lite - good sound, intel NIC, good OC. I am concerned about the CPU power being 4 pin though, anyone want to chime in on that? I've read reviews and people don't seems to have issues OC'ing their CPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128551

my current board is the ASrock z68 pro 3m. nice little board but limited OC capabilities and I sometimes get high ping and I'm not very happy with the audio. I also hate the layout of the SATA ports since i have 2 SSD's, 1 ODD, and 1 HDD.

 

[Termie]

Consider my options so far...

Asus Gene V $199 - nice board, overkill perhaps unless I decide to max my OC. Good sound and LAN too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131830

ASrock extreme 4m $139 - good board, fast post, but Realtek LAN and audio
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157294

Gigabyte sniper m3 $139 after rebate - I consider this a Gene V lite - good sound, intel NIC, good OC. I am concerned about the CPU power being 4 pin though, anyone want to chime in on that? I've read reviews and people don't seems to have issues OC'ing their CPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128551

my current board is the ASrock z68 pro 3m. nice little board but limited OC capabilities and I sometimes get high ping and I'm not very happy with the audio. I also hate the layout of the SATA ports since i have 2 SSD's, 1 ODD, and 1 HDD.

Honestly, the Maximus V Gene at $200 is too much money. It has been much cheaper before. The Sniper at $140 is a good deal, so I'd probably go in that direction, but it's not the equal of the Maximus. Fewer USB3 ports, fewer SATA III ports, no mSATA, no onboard power/reset buttons or display, and yes, the 4-pin motherboard connection probably affects max overclocks a bit. The Maximus V Gene was found by HardOCP to overclock better than every ATX board out there, let alone mATX boards. At the same price, it would be no contest, but at the current prices, the Sniper is probably the best compromise.

That being said, I personally wouldn't buy a Gigabyte motherboard due to the problems they've had in recent years with reliability.

 

[dmoney1980]

I was under the impression the gigabyte made great motherboards???

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I was under the impression the gigabyte made great motherboards???

They do but not as good as Asrock

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

Pretty much the mobo hierarchy is this (imo)

Asus~Asrock > Gigabyte~MSI~BIOSTAR > other brands such as ECS

ASrock is currently one of my favorite manufacturers (this is coming from a long time Asus fan). They essentially promote the same quality as Asus, except at a much cheaper price. Asus just includes more bells and whistles on their boards (good UEFI, fan software, etc..)

Gigabyte can be good (making it better than msi and biostar). But lately they have been flaky in terms of reliability.
And to the people who say that ASUS is bad because has the most RMAS ....it's because they sell the most boards lol. What you look for is the % of boards sold which are RMAed.

 

[996GT2]

Without a doubt, the Maximus V GENE is the best Z77 Micro-ATX board.

I have the Z68 version (IV GENE), and it runs my 2700K at 5.0 GHz without a hitch. Not a single hiccup in almost a year, with the CPU at 5 GHz this whole time!

Sure, it's expensive, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.