Should I buy a used z77 mobo or choose from these two

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Hi everyone, I should have purchased a motherboard last year but I didnt, originally I was going to go with a friends msi z68 but after I updated the bios it caught fire... honestly dont know how that happened, so iv been stuck with my old mobo for awhile but really want to find a Z motherboard. Problem is there are practically none left new that are a reasonable price. So its either I take a risk buy one from ebay or I choose from either this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...57304&cm_re=asrock_z75-_-13-157-304-_-Product
or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=z77_motherboard-_-13-138-351-_-Product

The asrock is not getting good reviews from the last 3 months so am worried about that and biostar is a ? to me so am not sure, just looking for opinions and I also wont be able purchase till the end of july when I have the money.

 

[Agent-A01]

They are cheap boards, i wouldnt expect much of them.. Whats your budget?

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Only looking to spend up to 100 dollars so if its 130 or more for a decent board I think ill just upgrade early to skylake. My 3570K is only a year old and I got it on sale for 180, would probably sell it and wait for skylake.

 

[Ketchup]

What Z features are you wanting to get? I am all for waiting until you need a full upgrade, unless your current board dies on you.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Only looking to spend up to 100 dollars so if its 130 or more for a decent board I think ill just upgrade early to skylake. My 3570K is only a year old and I got it on sale for 180, would probably sell it and wait for skylake.

If it's matter of a socket 1155 board for a 3570K, I'd look at this one, but it costs more at the Egg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...57293&cm_re=AsRock_Z77-_-13-157-293-_-Product

If you want to avoid some of the risks for buying used at EBay, I'd urge you to find outfits like Ascendtech (www. . . . .com) who sell IT-asset exchanges from corporations and other sources -- with their own capability to fix and refurbish items before putting them in their store-front. But Ascendtech doesn't have what you want or need at the moment.

I can't guide you about spending money and your budget, or whether it's "worth it" to get the Z77 board.

There are, no less, likely to be some good possibilities at EBay, but you'll have to minimize imagined risks by looking closely at the seller, his sales-pitch, and other factors. There are, even so, promises and guarantees from EBay itself in the event you don't get what you want. Here's a Sabertooth Z77 (used) for "$110 or make offer:"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-SABERT...-90-MIBI30-G0EAY0KZ-Motherboard-/121691042347

There are a few others, but they're getting sparse. You could also look at a P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 which is Ivy-Bridge-ready. I saw one of those, possibly for around $90.

 

[Z15CAM]

I still use a 3 year old ASUS P8 Z68 ProV-Gen3 with CF XSPC Razor 290X's and an Corsair H110 cooled i7 2700k at 4.8Ghz 24/7 - Go figure why I'm not about to Update to given a promotional 4K system when I got a 27" 120Hz $300 Korean Qnix 2510 EVO I I1440p 120 Hz IPS Display.

No Single 980Ti or FURY X has yet to beat me in Benches when it comes to Gaming or Video Rendering at + 1440p on a 27" 60Hz + IPS Display.

If the price is in your realm by all means buy that Z77 MB. They are fast enough and wait out a proven 4K platform.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I still use a 3 year old ASUS P8 Z68 ProV-Gen3 with CF XSPC Razor 290X's and an Corsair H110 cooled i7 2700k at 4.8Ghz 24/7 - Go figure why I'm not about to Update to given a promotional 4K system when I got a 27" 120Hz $300 Korean Qnix 2510 EVO I I1440p 120 Hz IPS Display.

No Single 980Ti or FURY X has yet to beat me in Benches when it comes to Gaming or Video Rendering at + 1440p on a 27" 60Hz + IPS Display.

If the price is in your realm by all means buy that Z77 MB. They are fast enough and wait out a proven 4K platform.

It was my understanding that the Pro/Gen3 board is equipped with PCI-E 3.0 slots, or at least the two that would matter for 4K. Am I wrong about this?

The benchmark stressing programs don't need a 4K monitor to test at 1440p or 4K resolutions. I don't have a 4K monitor, but I've run 3DMark Advanced FireStrike Extreme @ 1440p on these two GTX 970 cards and they don't miss a lick. I'll probably try the 4K setting soon, but it was enough now to get a 3DMark rating on these "better than 95% . . [yada yada]" The only next-best performance was a 2x SLI 980 setup, better by 800 points out of 10,000.

I DO NOT DOUBT that your 290X-ers perform very darn well.

Tell me if there's some caveat to the PCI-E 3.0 spec on these boards -- I'd like to know of any.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Do I need one really, no, but considering at the time I was convinced to pay a little extra K processor I feel like I should get a new mobo to have the option to oc. Frankly im ok with keeping this motherboard but the other thing is this board being h61 doesnt support turbo even which was fine for my i3 but kinda sucks more in this case.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Do I need one really, no, but considering at the time I was convinced to pay a little extra K processor I feel like I should get a new mobo to have the option to oc. Frankly im ok with keeping this motherboard but the other thing is this board being h61 doesnt support turbo even which was fine for my i3 but kinda sucks more in this case.

Like I said, I can't offer profound advice on this.

I can only say -- having mentioned 3DMark scores -- that a comparable configuration with an i7-4790K processor was roughly the same as my i7-2700K @ 4.7Ghz in score comparison.

I just built a 3570K system for my brother, having obtained the year-old processor in an EBay bundle for ~ $100, if the CPU were properly evaluated against the retail price for the other three components. I was impressed with the processor at stock settings.

The forum-skinny and various reviews seemed to favor the i7-2700K (what Z15CAM and I have) just slightly over the 3570K or 3770K for over-clock-ability in absolute raw Mhz* (see below), but they still clock up pretty well as I understand it.

If you can find a P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 board, you should be able to drop the Ivy Bridge into it and go crazy. The one I found for $85 (AscendTech) had the very last BIOS revision, but I was dead set on using the Sandy processor, and Bro got the Ivy. The board I used for his system was a budget-level ASUS Z77-A, and I tested the 2700K in it previous to building his machine with the Ivy. I was able to push the 2700K clock to 4.7.

However, that board only had a 5-phase power design, or 4 +1. I advise finding a board with at least 8, and hopefully 10 (Sabertooth) or 12 phase power design like the Pro/Gen3 board we've discussed.

====
* FinFet technology and other improvements in newer processors make simple Megahertz comparisons insufficient. Another basis would be benchmarks. For instance, my sig-rig's 2600K @ 4.7 just barely keeps up with a Haswell 4770K @ 4.4 Ghz in Cinebench.

 

[Ketchup]

If you want a good Z77 board, look for a good ebay seller with good feedback, like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-Te...611?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1ea0c252c3

You will almost always run into people wanting to upgrade.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you want a good Z77 board, look for a good ebay seller with good feedback, like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-Te...611?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1ea0c252c3

You will almost always run into people wanting to upgrade.

I'd encountered one very reliable fellow who offered me the bundle I might have mentioned earlier (here or somewhere . . ). I wanted it for the Sabertooth Z77 board, and then I proceeded to break a socket-pin/spring which I had crumpled to creases myself out of carelessness.

I looked up the board you linked. Usually, if Egg doesn't show "phase power design" at the end of the spec page, it's because they have nothing to brag about. But here, neither Gigabyte's "overview" or "spec page" revealed it. Also, on those two Gigabyte pages as well as what I recall seeing at Egg, it only says it's enabled for Crossfire with no mention of SLI.

Obviously the board might be good for a budget desktop-tower and modest overclocking expectations, with a single dGPU of either type in mind.

 

[Ketchup]

Since the OP is running one AMD card now, I don't think SLI is a big concern.

Since the OP is wanting something less than $100, he probably isn't going to get a higher-end board with all the features. From the small amount of searching I have done, Z77 boards are holding their value pretty well right now.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Since the OP is running one AMD card now, I don't think SLI is a big concern.

Since the OP is wanting something less than $100, he probably isn't going to get a higher-end board with all the features. From the small amount of searching I have done, Z77 boards are holding their value pretty well right now.

I won't contest that. But except for the AsRock board, I see few new ones I'd want, even for "Mom's new build." The used and refurb options are getting scarce.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I came across these at Ascendtech today:

http://www.ascendtech.us/ecs-z77h2-a2x-deluxe-v2-0-sata3-usb-3-0_i_mbecsz77h2a2xdl.aspx

http://www.ascendtech.us/ecs-z77h2-a3-v1-2-ddr3-intel-motherboard_i_mbecsz7752a3v12.aspx

I'm not familiar with ECS except to know that they've been making motherboards for a while. But a Z77 chipset . . . is a "Z77 chipset."

The price also seems right. Don't know about the phase-power design on those, but you should be able to get some clocks out of 'em.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Thanks everyone for the advice, ill consider paying more but will probably just look for a refurbished boards. Not sure about ECS either, they make alot of boards for oems but not sure about their overall quality but its worth considering.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Thanks everyone for the advice, ill consider paying more but will probably just look for a refurbished boards. Not sure about ECS either, they make alot of boards for oems but not sure about their overall quality but its worth considering.

If it's built with the Z77 chipset, then the BIOS would certainly have the overclocking features. I'd be interested in knowing the phase-power design spec on those boards. Also, I'm surprised I didn't volunteer those two board links earlier. I myself am almost blind to anything other than ASUS or AsRock as a close second, although for current gen I might consider MSI.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Thanks everyone for the advice, ill consider paying more but will probably just look for a refurbished boards. Not sure about ECS either, they make alot of boards for oems but not sure about their overall quality but its worth considering.

ECS is hit or miss. The good news is their customer support is top notch.

Not sure why folks are recommending used boards when brand new under warranty Z77 can be had for less money and under budget : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138351

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

ECS is hit or miss. The good news is their customer support is top notch.

Not sure why folks are recommending used boards when brand new under warranty Z77 can be had for less money and under budget : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138351

That was actually one of the boards I was asking about but I dont think they consider them very good or just cheap and questionable

 

[Ketchup]

ECS is hit or miss. The good news is their customer support is top notch.

Not sure why folks are recommending used boards when brand new under warranty Z77 can be had for less money and under budget : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138351

If you look at the Newegg reviews, only about half get 4 or 5 stars, and at least one of those received a DOA board and got a replacement. And Biostar boards are not known for overclocking.

For the same money, I would rather get a good board with "pre-testing" and decent overclocking potential, which seems to be what the OP is looking for.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you look at the Newegg reviews, only about half get 4 or 5 stars, and at least one of those received a DOA board and got a replacement. And Biostar boards are not known for overclocking.

For the same money, I would rather get a good board with "pre-testing" and decent overclocking potential, which seems to be what the OP is looking for.

. . . which, according to the Egg's "Not available" notice for the Biostar, leads back to the AsRock Z77 Extreme 4.

But that's $44+ over budget. I bought one before returning it for socket-pin defects I would not have discovered had I not inspected it closely with a magnifier after opening the box. And I took refund over replacement as an option. But the board had good reviews, and decent OCing potential.

I still think something better will pop up on EBay or appear in Ascendtech's storefront. If you bought one of the ECS boards from Ascendtech, they would've tested it and refurbished it before putting it in their storefront.

 

[escrow4]

Don't buy used parts. You don't know how they've been spanked and abused nor what's been spilled all over them. Biostar and ECS are bottom of the barrel boards, stick with Gigabyte for decent all rounders or Asrock for cheap.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Don't buy used parts. You don't know how they've been spanked and abused nor what's been spilled all over them. Biostar and ECS are bottom of the barrel boards, stick with Gigabyte for decent all rounders or Asrock for cheap.

Until June of last year, I would've given a chorus of total approval for your maxim. But the corporate refurbishers like Ascendtech are very careful and reliable on this angle. It's more likely they'd get parts from sources not inclined to abuse them.

On EBay, a mixed bag. It's not entirely a crap-shoot, but risks and uncertainties are higher, and more troublesome to analyze or anticipate before pulling the check-out lever.

For a board replacement with a 4-year-old processor, I'm inclined to suggest that "used/refurbished" at the right price is a useful option. If he wants new, he'll have to pay, as with the Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 board I linked.

There's also another source I forgot to check -- Rakuten. They manage to gather up surplus stock of items still in shrink-wrap. But you aren't going to get them for a song, either. I see they also proffer "used" and "refurbished." But for "new," this item is totally ridiculous for the price: the board would have originally sold for maybe $220:

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/asus-p8...tel-z77-express-chipset-socket/229374170.html

If the OP could find one of those "used" offered for less than $100, I'd at least urge him to investigate further.

 

[Agent-A01]

OP i have a asus z77 ws board Id be willing to sell to you

 

[piasabird]

Sell the CPU. Not worth buying those old motherboards. I have an Intel Z68 board at home and it works great, but I am using it to watch TV in the basement. A newer Haswell CPU Should run a lot better.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

I appreciate the offer but I wont have the money till roughly the end of the month maybe a little after