Crosshair IV Formula vs. an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard (or any z68 board)

[itsme9003]

So, I currently have a Crosshair IV Formula with a Phenom 955 cpu and was wondering if it would be better to go with an Asus P8Z68-V board (or any z68 board). I have been thinking about getting an i5-2500K with this board, but was trying to weigh the pros and cons of switching. Either way, I would keep my 6970 and 8gb ram, but I'm just curious which option would be better (in terms of onboard audio, power, overclocking ability, etc.) If anyone with either setup or deep insight can give me any advice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ctk1981]

Just about anyway you cut it, a i5 2500K is an upgrade over anything amd has to offer. If you have the cash, go for it.

 

[itsme9003]

Just about anyway you cut it, a i5 2500K is an upgrade over anything amd has to offer. If you have the cash, go for it.

Thanks for the reply. I know the cpu is better, but I'm more concerned about the motherboard. The Crosshair IV Formula is one of AMD's top motherboards, whereas the P8Z68-V is a middle-of-the-road Intel board. I'm just wondering if one is better than the other, especially when it comes to onboard audio and NB/SB temps and performance.

 

[Mem]

2500K overclock well,I personally have a P8Z68 V/GEN 3 Asus board and you can easy get 4.4 to 4.6Ghz even as a noob overclocker,if you a get a very good 2500K maybe even 4.8 or above,SRT cache is cool feature on Z68 where you can use a small SSD as cache for your mechanical HD,so you get SSD like performance without paying a fortune for large SSD drive.


Onboard audio I don't think you'll hear any difference,better going for separate sound card like Asus Xonar DX which sounds great and far better then onboard sound especially with good speakers.


UEFI BIOS is nice too,obviously its down to what you need and reason for changing/upgrading.

Read this review here http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/10/asus_p8z68v_motherboard_review/
should give you a good idea on features and OC etc...

 

[ctk1981]

Ah I see what your getting at. For that I would just study the many reviews that people leave over at newegg and determine what motherboard/chipset seems to be giving people the least amount of problems. From there when you narrow it down to a few you like, maybe google them and see if there are any "professional" reviews on them..although lately I haven't really seen any website actually bad mouth a motherboard. Makes you wonder?

About the SRT...I've read many people complain that it doesnt work worth a crap?

 

[Mem]

Ah I see what your getting at. For that I would just study the many reviews that people leave over at newegg and determine what motherboard/chipset seems to be giving people the least amount of problems. From there when you narrow it down to a few you like, maybe google them and see if there are any "professional" reviews on them..although lately I haven't really seen any website actually bad mouth a motherboard. Makes you wonder?

About the SRT...I've read many people complain that it doesnt work worth a crap?

Sure it works,I'm using Crucial M4 64GB as SSD cache with my 1TB Samsung F3 HD,more info with SRT and benchies here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Intel-Smart-Response-Technology-Explained/1292 .

Remember SRT is designed for 64GB and smaller SSD drives.

 

[ctk1981]

Sure it works,I'm using Crucial M4 64GB as SSD cache with my 1TB Samsung F3 HD,more info with SRT and benchies here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Intel-Smart-Response-Technology-Explained/1292 .

Remember SRT is designed for 64GB and smaller SSD drives.

Cool thanks for the info. While doing the above method of research it seems like I ran across many users complaining that they couldn't get SRT to work properly. Good to know!

 

[Taft12]

So, I currently have a Crosshair IV Formula with a Phenom 955 cpu and was wondering if it would be better to go with an Asus P8Z68-V board (or any z68 board). I have been thinking about getting an i5-2500K with this board, but was trying to weigh the pros and cons of switching. Either way, I would keep my 6970 and 8gb ram, but I'm just curious which option would be better (in terms of onboard audio, power, overclocking ability, etc.) If anyone with either setup or deep insight can give me any advice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The Crosshair IV is indeed the best AM3 board on the market -- a shame that AMD CPU's are inferior to their Intel i5 and i7 bretheren (this coming from an AMD fan).

The LAN and audio chipsets will be superior on the Crosshair board. A lot hinges on what you do with your system. Check the benchmarks of the games you play. Just overclocking the Phenom might get you within spitting distance of a stock speed 2500K

EDIT: Never mind, the P8Z68-V has an Intel LAN chip. Howzaboutthat?

 

[Arcanedeath]

I just picked up the Asus P8Z68-V motherboard and an I5 2500K. the board has the same VRM's as the rest of the high end Asus boards so your not really losing anything by going with that board plus it has an onboard Intel NIC, both boards have realtek audio although the one on the crosshair board is better, but overall it's a solid board with the same feature set as the much more expensive P8Z68-V Pro / deluxe minus some add on controllers.

 

[Meghan54]

About the SRT...I've read many people complain that it doesnt work worth a crap?

Odd. When I used it on my Z68 board before "paying a fortune for large SSD drive," it worked flawlessly. The reason I bought a big SSD was because the SRT function worked so well....it really sped up the system very nicely. But, since I had some spare cash, I decided to go ahead and just move to a full SSD hd for my OS and crap.

The small 40GB Intel SSD I was using for SRT is now in my wife's computer and still working well....wife loves how fast it's sped up her system.



As for it not working well, the problem is that SRT is certainly NOT a plug-n-play setup. It does require specific steps in installation that if not followed in order can and will cause it to either not work at all or work badly.

First, your onboard SATA controller has to be configured to RAID in the BOIS, not AHCI. While AHCI is a subset included within RAID, one cannot simply change the controller from AHCI to RAID and still have a working system. The vast majority of complaints I've seen revolving around SRT is that users stupidly just change the SATA controller setting from AHCI to RAID in the mb's BIOS and then are faced with a system that won't boot.


Done correctly.....SATA controller configured to RAID, fresh OS install on hd connected to that controller, Intel SRT software installed, then add the small SSD to the system---the last step.....it works very, very well. Definitely does speed up the OS boot time and app load times.

But realize, the small SSD only holds so much data, so if you use a lot of different programs a lot of the time, some will be pushed off the SSD cache drive and they'll act like they've never been on the SSD when you try to access them again. For this sort of user, a large SSD dedicated to the OS and programs is the only option that makes sense.

But for someone who uses just a few programs routinely, those will reside on the SSD cache drive for a long time, until it fills up with cached programs and needs the space. My wife's the perfect candidate for SRT as she has routine programs......the OS and web browser of course, Word, Publisher, and Excel, Photoshop, and 4-5 puzzle/mystery type games she plays. That's about the extent of her programs she runs, all fit nicely on that 40GB cache SSD she has.


So, SRT does work and work well. It's mostly people without a clue who are having the most problems. Hard to convert an existing system over to using SRT, but for a fresh install, follow Intel's instructions and it'll work like a champ.