What to look for in a mobo?

[Orija]

So, I've decided to get the 2500k and am looking for a suitable, budget P67/Z68 motherboard. There are some options but I don't know on what criteria I should base my decision on.

I'll be overclocking only the cpu, that too not more than 0.5/0.6GHz. Maximum ram I'll use would be 8GB and won't be needing any extra SATA ports, gpu ports or a humongous amount of USB ports. Hmm, other than that, good integrated sound be good because I don't plan on getting a discrete sound card.

This are the mobos that I have locked in on:

Intel DZ68DB

ASUS P8P67-M

Gigabyte P67A-UD3R-B3

Gigabyte Z68X-UD3R-B3

Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3

Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3

Asus P8P67

Asus P8Z68-V

Which amongst them would be the better choice?

These are the rest of the parts I'll be getting.

HDD Seagate 1TB
psu corsair 650 txv2
ram 2x2gb drr3 ripjaws/vengeance
gpu msi 6950 twin frozr III power/oc edition
cpu 2500k
monitor dell u2311h

 

[videopho]

regardless which brand.
get yourself a Z68.
I had this decision to make three weeks ago and I'm glad i picked a z68 mobo (GA-Z68XP-UD3).
I now can do Intel SRT/SSD caching on my gaming 1TB HDD.
The price for this fast speed caching is relatively cheap.
Get yourself a 64gb or less SSD which can be found for less than $100.
My games load time is faster than ever.

 

[sangyup81]

If you are CPU overclocking, be sure it has quality VRMs and some cooling for them

 

[Ike0069]

I agree to go with Z68, but there are many nice Z68 boards available.
Any specific feature you are looking for besides overclocking? Budget?

 

[Orija]

Budget is 130-140ish. And, like I said, having good integrated sound would be good because I don't plan on getting a discrete sound card.

Another thing, does the Z68 SSD caching work only with Intel SSDs?

 

[nexusN]

If you are not overclocking very vigorously, I suggest an Intel board.
They have good optimization for BIOS loading that allows it to be as short as 3 secs before it comes to a Windows splash screen.

 

[Meghan54]

Budget is 130-140ish. And, like I said, having good integrated sound would be good because I don't plan on getting a discrete sound card.

Another thing, does the Z68 SSD caching work only with Intel SSDs?

In that price range, I really doubt you're going to see much difference in audio between the various motherboards. Just look at their specs and see what chip each uses for audio.

Same with LAN chip.....almost all in that price range are using the same exact chip for LAN. Very little variation.

And, no, you aren't limited to using an Intel SSD with SSD caching on Z68 motherboards.....any brand will work.

Decide on the features you cannot live without.

Then decide what features are completely irrelevant to you.

This will discriminate out a lot of boards. Then decide what features would be nice to have but you could live without.....you'll find some brands manage to pack in more features on the board than other brands. Of course, more features, such as various RAID functions, numbers of SATA 6 ports, USB 3.0 ports, numbers of PCI-e 16X slots, etc., come at a price.....boards with more of those at the same price as boards without the numbers of those ports/features cut costs somewhere else---maybe in layers of PCB in the board, or the quality/number of VRM's, quality of the capacitors (even within Japanese made capacitors, there are quality differences), etc.

Remember, all the motherboard manufacturers are paying pretty much the same for the Z68 chipset, audio chipset(s), onboard connectors (memory slots, power connectors, USB ports, SATA ports, etc.), LAN chipset(s) unless you're Intel and making your own, etc. So, the costs for materials is pretty much the same across all the manufacturers, so the end cost of manufacture is about the same. More features at the same price = either cost cutting where you won't/don't notice or smaller margins for the manufacturer.

 

[videopho]

SRT works with any SSD (minimum 20gb) and up to 60gb, any thing over 60gb will be used for storage.
I got myself a GA-68XP-UD3 during a recent MicroCenter bundle sale for less than $100.
(bundle sale: i5-2500k+mobo= $279).
I use a Microcenter branded 60gb SSD (A-DATA) for SRT caching on my 1TB Black Caviar HDD gaming storage.
My games load time is now faster than ever. For ex: the FSx (flight sim game) used to take between 1-2 minutes now only takes between 30-40 sec. I sometime still shake my head in disbelief when watching these numbers shrunk down to what it is now.
Yeah, get a Z68 and do not look back.