MB problems and what MB to get/keep

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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
Hi All,

I bought and Asus P8Z77-V LK board this week. I posted in another thread that I have some issues with the board that I am not happy with. These are mostly aesthetics but none the less are bothering me.

1) The LED lights are slightly dimmer than the board that it replaced which was a Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4.
2) When in sleep mode the power LED keeps blinking...this is really annoying
3) Motherboard feels brittle and even plugging things in the back I am afraid that with all of the flexing something is going to break off.
4) Temperatures are showing much hotter than my old C2D. The case is the same so airflow would be exactly the same on both boards. I have also disabled the smart fan options in the bios

HW Monitor
C2D min 23C max 30C
CPUTIN i5-3570k min 33C max 66C

core1
CD2 min 44 max 49C
i5-3570k 34C max 43C


Now I am looking at the GA-Z77X-D3H. There are a few concerns here. The VIA sound...I have been using Realtek for a very long time and enjoy the sound. I've had some VIA chipsets in the past on older AMD boards and they really sucked. Does anyone own this and can comment? I have this issue on my other Gigabyte board the GA-EP35-DS3L, when it is in sleep mode and I switch over to my Asus P8Z77-V LK or my older Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 system, it turns back on. I have not found what is causing it at the moment. If I put either Asus P8Z77-V LK or my older Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 into sleep mode it doesn't turn on when I switch to the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L. I am worried that the Gigabyte may also do this.


I haven't had any experience with Asrock but their Extreme4 looks decent. I am willing to give that a try as long as the sleep mode doesn't have the power led lighting up.


Sorry for the lengthly question but I am at my wits end with this. I want to keep my budget to around $130 after rebate. I may bag my entire setup and just keep my old C2D and Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 system.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Big Roger

Member
Jun 16, 2008
85
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Well on a similar note, I had a Z77 D3H, I bought up the issue with someone else who had the same board, I by this point had returned it and spent a bit more to get the ASUS P8Z77 V Pro.

I'm pleased I did the upgrade but the D3H board was a lovely basis for my system. It felt sturdy, had a nice array of features and booted super quick.

Just one problem...I hated the VIA VT2021 chip.

The issue was with my Mic input. I had a strange problem where the Rec Level faders would snap to 0, no matter what I did. If I moved them up n down with the mouse I could hear the clicks from my desktop mic as I tapped it lightly, along with a load of other noise that shouldn't have been there but as soon as I let go of the faders they'd snap back to zero. So the port was working, just terrible drivers, or something just not right...

I tried a load of things, resetting defaults, disabling the devices, uninstalling/reinstalling/updating drivers and changing sample rates of all I/O options but to no avail and also updating BIOS.

It would sometimes/rarely, after a reboot, work. Mumble (mic chat program) would let me use the mic and I could see the input meters lighting up within control panel sound devices in windows, too.
However, if/as soon as I wanted to adjust the volume/amplification of the input, I'd get the same snap to 0 issue.

When I'd fully removed the drivers I was left with a system that would allow me to use the mic, albeit at a lesser functionality than I'd have liked, also it was very quiet. Saying that, it was also poor quality when it did work, low volume, even the normal optical output seemed way quieter than my previous set up, based on a Gigabyte EP45-UD3 (realtek).

The other guy who had the same board had rarely used the mic but said he tested and got some static type noises but it was functioning fine and didnt say much more.

I was wanting to get another similarly priced Giga board but their entire range use a VIA chipset. For me, and in my situation, I chose to stear clear and go with Realtek and also ASUS as I knew their V Pro and Deluxe boards were really highly regarded.

The HD Envy GUI was very clunky looking and just looked poor quality, and sure enough, for me, it turned out to be.

This may or may not not be the case for you, I'd certainly give the board a go, the version you are considering may be fine and if the VIA VT2021 had worked, I'd have overlooked the the more superficial aspects.

One other thing I'd bear in mind, although this seemed slightly inconsistent on the Gigabyte website, is that on the UK site there was only one revision of my Z77 D3H board. Elsewhere, on their US or far east site, I could see the same board had differeing revisions. I haven't checked if this is still the case but I'd be willing to bet that this update had ironed out a few problems, but ya never know...

Have no idea abouot why the DS3L is comming out of standby for you, this is I presume using a KVM switch? I have no experience with that. I did have an EP35-DS3L mobo, pretty decent P35 at the time. Sorry I can't be of any more help.

EDIT, just checked and there is indeed two different revisions of the board you're looking at.
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
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Thanks for the response. I honestly don't know where to go at this point. Gigabyte does sell Z77 boards that have Realtek audio but they are in the $180 range, for me since I don't overclock is worthless. The 8 SATA ports are nice to have but I can get those on the lower boards. To me Gigabyte is trying to throw more features at the mainstream users while sacrificing elsewhere such as the audio. If the VIA chipset was so good, why don't they use it in their more expensive boards?

Bagging this setup may be the best thing at this time. I may just opt and get something with a AMD chip for now and then look down the road if something looks appealing.

And the sleep issue is with a Trendnet KVM switch.

BTW do you recall if in sleep mode, did the power LED light on and off?


Also does anyone know if the Asrock Extreme4 flashes the power LED when in sleep mode?
 
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coffeejunkee

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2010
1,153
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1) So what?
2) Don't look at it.
3) Don't worry, a little flex won't hurt. It's a 'budget' model, probably uses thinner pcb but shouldn't matter much.
4) Your new cpu actually runs cooler than the old one? Ignore CPUTIN value.
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
coffeejunkee said:
1) So what?
2) Don't look at it.
3) Don't worry, a little flex won't hurt. It's a 'budget' model, probably uses thinner pcb but shouldn't matter much.
4) Your new cpu actually runs cooler than the old one? Ignore CPUTIN value.
Click to expand...

I can actually live with everything except the blinking LED in sleep mode. It's annoying as hell especially with a blue LED at night.
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
And I finally found the issue with my one Gigabyte board waking up after it is in sleep mode and I switch systems on my KVM switch. They had hidden in their secret options a "USB Device Wake-Up from S3" option. The only way to get the hidden options is with Ctrl+F1 but I had thought that was only for overclocking. This was quite annoying. I wonder if the current Gigabyte boards have this option and if you can disable it? I'm guessing it isn't there any longer.
 
SolMiester

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
5,330
17
76
npolite said:
I can actually live with everything except the blinking LED in sleep mode. It's annoying as hell especially with a blue LED at night.
Click to expand...

My asrock board does that too....however it's in it's own office, so doesn't bother us.
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
Ok so the Asus is out...I'm planning on returning it tomorrow. I'm looking at possibly either getting a GA-Z77-DS3H or GA-Z77X-D3H. I don't plan to overclock or even game. Actually the only reason I may want to upgrade is to encode video faster. I really don't think I need all of the features of the GA-Z77X-D3H, at the same time I think that the GA-Z77-DS3H may have enough SATA and USB ports if I add an additional PCI SATA card which I have from my old Nvidia setup. Is it a concern that the GA-Z77-DS3H doesn't have the heatsink to the left of the processor, and a smaller heatsink on the southbridge, or is this more for overclocking? I would appreciate any insight.
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
tweakboy said:
Ditching ASUS is a cardinal sin.
Click to expand...

Everyone has their own preferences and I just don't like the Asus board that I bought. It takes around 10-15 seconds coming out of sleep mode from the time I press enter to when it is on my desktop. My old Gigabyte is into the desktop immediately after I press enter.
 
ehume

ehume

Golden Member
Nov 6, 2009
1,511
73
91
tweakboy said:
Ditching ASUS is a cardinal sin.
Click to expand...

I have an As.s mb. I hate it. I'll Never buy another. I actually like the Gigabyte boards I've had.

These days I'd look at reviews before buying a board, and look at user experiences, and ask others on the boards . . .
 
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npolite

Junior Member
Jun 12, 2009
19
0
66
Aside from my decision for not going with Asus, from the two boards, going with the cheaper board, GA-Z77-DS3H which meets all of my current needs (no OC or SLI) is it a bad thing to get this board because of the Realtek 887 chipset and just the fact the board is cheap (no heatsink to the left of the CPU and a smaller chipset heatsink) or should I go for the GA-Z77X-D3H for $40 more?



GA-Z77-DS3H
http://www.microcenter.com/product/388327/GA-Z77-DS3H_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

GA-Z77X-D3H
http://www.microcenter.com/product/386363/GA-Z77X-D3H_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_Motherboard
 
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