Motherboard ???

[ingeborgdot]

If I would go with an i7 2600K what motherboard are people recommending? Thanks.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Anybody know anything about the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3?

 

[ingeborgdot]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 and the
GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4

 

[RobertR1]

I am personally looking at the asrock extreme4 gen3. You should be able to do a side by side on the 2 GB models above on newegg.

 

[ingeborgdot]

What does the asrock give that the gigabyte does not?

 

[MrTransistorm]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 and the
GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4

The main difference is that the P version has on-board HDMI. IOW, it can use the IGP which is built in to the CPU.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Why would anyone want to use internal graphics?

 

[know of fence]

Why would anyone want to use internal graphics?

To avoid video games, noise, power consumption and costs associated with discrete video cards.

 

[ingeborgdot]

So, in other words anyone that really does not care about video quality will use this instead of a separate card.

 

[trollolo]

integrated graphics can play low-end video games and 1080p video playback fine.

 

[Shmee]

Op, what do you use your computer for? What peripherals would you be adding? What features would you like to have? This helps a lot when recommending a motherboard.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Don't want to interrupt Schmee's question and train of thought, but here's my two cents.

The iGPU will work with a dGPU PCI-E using Lucid Virtu. The performance gains and benches aren't too stellar, as I understand, but that's the setup I'm using. And I'm also using more power in "d-mode" with the monitors connected to the video card. Connecting your monitor(s) to the onboard iGPU and ports at the I/O plate is supposed to save you about 20W of power-usage with the dGPU socketed.

Depending on your pocket-book and over-clocking intentions, you might want to get a board that has the beefiest power-phase design. I can't vouch for the Gigabyte boards; the AsRock Extreme 4 seems to have many advocates here; my ASUS P8Z68-V-Pro has the same power-phase specs for a $200 mobo as their Maximus IV Extreme-Z $360 board.

But answering your original question while noting your focus in the successive posts following, I'd say stick with the Z68 chipset. And having no experience with Gigabyte Z68 boards, I can only say that Gigabyte has made some decent motherboards in the past, judging from my P45 "UD3R" board which I now use for a server system.

 

[Shmee]

Gigabyte has made some decent motherboards in the past

Gigabyte P45-UD3P I believe it got editors choice of 775 boards for anandtech.