Have to chose between 3 motherboards:

[Davste]

I have a choice between these 3 motherboards:
Gigabyte 20H61M-USB3-B3
Gigabyte 20PH67-DS3-B3
Asus P8H61-M LE/USB3 SKT1155

It's for my new 2600K. Does anyone have any experience with any of these, or would recommend/ not recommend any of them?

I might also be able to get a motherboard from this store: http://www.simarksupplies.com/ I'm not sure about it yet though. It has to be skt1155.


I have a 6850 and I might consider throwing another one in sometime in the future, but I'm not sure if it's worth it, or if I should just get a 69xx. I also don't know if USB 3.0 is a must. It's been out for ages and it's not like USB 3.0 pendrives are flying around everywhere. So I'm not sure if it's really required either. That's where your opinion comes in

Thanks for any help or suggestions, they are greatly appreciated!

 

[Duvie]

Do the research by reading user reviews but I believe the Gigabyte boards seem to be having some issues with sandy bridge chipsets....Things like reboot loops kept me away from them until they get their act together

I would go with the Asus board if those were my choices.

 

[Meghan54]

I'm just curious why you're choosing between boards that are going to essentially cripple any OC'ing you'd be able to do with that cpu you have? H61 and H67 chipset motherboards don't allow any OC'ing of your chip, making your purchase of a "K" series SB cpu a needlessly expensive purchase. If you never had plans to OC your cpu, why did you buy the series specifically created/allowed to OC? You could have saved some $$ by buying a plain 2600 instead.

I'd personally be looking only at P67 or Z68 motherboards, both chipsets admittedly more expensive than the H61 and H67 chipset based boards, but the P67 and Z68 motherboards will allow you to fully "utilize" your unlocked 2600K cpu.

Second, I've run a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H board for several months with a 2500K cpu, OC'd to 4.6GHz, and had NO issues whatsoever with that board. While true there are some Gigabyte boards with some teething problems, most are working without a hitch. The one board, of the four SB-compatible boards I've purchased so far, that had a problem was with an Asus P8Z68-V LX, which was put into my wife's computer. First, it started to give BSOD's randomly, thought it was memory or ps, but testing both proved fruitless as both were in perfect condition. When the first PCIe 1x slot died, it was evident the motherboard was just crapping out. Switched her to an AsRock Z68 Pro3-M and the computer's working beautifully, OC'ing her 2500K to 4.6GHz without a sweat.

I'd honestly be looking at Simart for this board when it arrives:

http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowP...k-P67-Pro-LGA1155/Category/C195-Intel-LGA1155

P67 chipset, which means you can OC your cpu with it. Unfortunately, it won't let you XFire or SLI with it, and has no video outputs at all, but a much better choice than any H67/61 based motherboard.

Nor would I hesitate to look at Simark's other two choices:

http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowP...260-ASUS-P8P67-LE/Category/C195-Intel-LGA1155


http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowP...e-Z68PDS3-skt1155/Category/C195-Intel-LGA1155


The Asus will allow XFire of two ATi cards, can OC decently, but lacks the added features of a Z68 chipset---QuickSync and Intel's RST.

The Gigabyte, being a Z68 chipset, is the most complete chipset of the group in features, but is saddled with a parallel and serial port on the I/O panel, costing more USB/video output ports.


And about USB 3.9, wouldn't buy a new board today that didn't have that included. It's not about thumb drives so much as external backup speed. USB 3.0 is showing up everywhere on external backup drives.

 

[mrjoltcola]

I don't recommend any of those. I agree with Meghan54, if you buy a 2600K, you are looking at the wrong boards.

For budget, the best cheap board I've used with 2600K is the P8Z68-V LX.

For all around performance and options, I like the midrange priced P8Z68-V standard board.

For micro builds, the Gene-Z is without peer.

 

[Duvie]

I disagree with Meghan54 on the Gigabyte motherboards....

I have been doing this for years and I never read soooo many reviews in different forums and user reviews at several stores talking about the same problem over and over....It is too much smoke not to be fire...I know most issues are overwhelming user error and can be traced to hardware incompatability or straight up user's inexperience in builds...
but this was more than I have ever seen...

I use to say look at the number of open box deals and stay away from those boards....however if you think about it, those are usually the returns that newegg takes back and then rechecks them and if they post and do not have issues or have the issue the user states they likely repackage and chalk it up to user ignorance.....I am not seeing a lot of Gigabyte open boxes for all of those RMAs listed in the user reviews across Gigabytes H67, P67, and Z68 lineup.....Makes me think the issue is real and newegg doesn't F with them.

I would avoid Gigabyte boards in this chipset if I were you...

This is coming from a guy who has built many systems for others and hasn't used anything other than Gigabyte since 2006 and core 2 duo....

 

[Davste]

This is the one I got: http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowProduct.aspx/Product/P14728-Asus-P8Z68V-skt1155

Expensive, but I don't regret it.
It's the best motherboard I have got in my life. Boots up fast, really nice and easy UEFI BIOS, and very very good OCing capabilities. Bluetooth, 6GBps Sata, USB 3.0. What more could I ever want?

 

[pitz]

For a H61 board, why bother with the i7-2600k? Why not just buy the i7-2600 instead?

I agree with the others, Z68 is where its at. This is one of those cases where saving $20 might not be worth it.

 

[Davste]

For a H61 board, why bother with the i7-2600k? Why not just buy the i7-2600 instead?

I agree with the others, Z68 is where its at. This is one of those cases where saving $20 might not be worth it.

The last link I posted points to a Z68 board. I don't know what you mean exactly.