Z68 board selection questions

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm trying to pick a Z68 board to go with an i7-2600K build I plan to do soon. I'm pretty frustrated because there seems to be TOO MANY options to choose from and I'm having difficulty deciphering between all the possible choices. My budget for the board is roughly $280 but obviously, the lower the better as long as I get everything I need.

Important Factors
Easy overclocking is important to me, as is longevity. My goal is to hit 4.5 Ghz and anything higher is just icing. I expect that this system will not be replaced until 2015 unless something REALLY big happens between now and then.

In terms of hardware that I'll be using in this system, here is the plan:

Cosmos S case (reused)
16 GB of GSkill Sniper DDR3-1600 RAM
Intel 120 GB X25-M SSD
Xigmatek RS-1283 cooler (reused)
Samsung DVD burner of some sort (reused)
Sony USB DVD burner of some sort (reused)
Visiontek Radeon HD6870 (reused)
OCZ ModXstream 600
One or more hard drives (not yet acquired)

Crossfire (or even SLI) is a possibility down the road but I don't see a need for it now.

Also, BIOS support is important; if we have a socket 1155 IB down the road that is a good leap over the 2600K, I might be willing to replace the CPU to get more time from the system. Here are some of the choices I'm looking at:

ASUS
My current board is an Asus Rampage Formula (x48) board and it has been superb. I built this system in early 2008 and it has been great. However, the Rampage was pricey ($300) and I'd like to avoid spending that much on a board unless I know I will get huge benefits from it. Here are some that I am looking at:

Asus P8Z68 Deluxe

Asus P8Z68-V Pro

I really don't see much difference here except the Deluxe has a second LAN port and some extra ports (like coax). Any insight or opinions on these two boards? Are they significantly better than the ASUS P8Z68-V, for example?

GIGABYTE
I've had decent luck with Gigabyte boards as well but generally, I've gone lower-end to mainstream on their boards so I am not familiar with their upper mid-tier or high-end boards. Here are my choices here:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5

Again, here we see minor differences in SATA ports (fewer SATA III ports on the UD5) and USB (1 less on the UD5); however, the UD5 seems to have a more robust power system and this feature (DualBIOS 3TB+ HDD Support (Hybrid EFI Technology)) which I'm not familiar with. Is the UD5 worth the premium over the UD4 because of these features?

I also toyed with the idea of getting the Gigabyte board with the included Larson Creek SSD (GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD), but it seems like they're effectively charging $100 for the 20 GB SSD and that seems high even though I realize it is supposed to be a very fast SSD.

Cliffs:
-Confused with all the Z68 motherboard choices
-Want easy overclocking of i7-2600K and solid, reliable board with good support
-See links above for what I'm considering and please feel free to recommend others
-Motherboard budget is $280 but I'll consider going much lower if a board fits my needs

 

[IndyColtsFan]

36 views and no one has an opinion?

 

[Zargon]

if you check out gigabytes site, the ud4 does the uefi, 3tb+ and dual bios.

that being sid, while I am partial to gigabyte, the asus plain v seems like the best deal

 

[Binky]

The differences are mostly small features that you may or may not use (bluetooth 3.0), and extra ports that you use but might not need any more of (SATA 6gb). Buy the cheapest one that seems to fit all of your needs. If you don't know why you should be spending more than ~$200 on a board, you probably don't need it.

Overclocking to a moderate level is super easy on any decent Z68 board - they will only differ in overclocking at extreme levels. I have an asus, but i understand that the gigabyte bios is very different.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I have the Asus P8Z68-V Pro and happy with it as it's given me zero issues.

The Deluxe wasn't worth the money, mostly just for the USB3 box and reading the reviews for the gigabyte boards, people seem to have little issues with their Z68 boards.

 

[Ike0069]

Just about any Z68 board will overclock the K series chips. First you need a budget and decide what you are looking for.

How many SATA 6.0 connections are you looking for?
Do you need USB 3.0 header vice only back panel connections?
Any advanced features you are specifically looking for? Maybe built-in SSD?

IF your answer to each is don't know or don't care and your main concern is OC'ing, I can't see reason to spend more than $150 and maybe closer to $100. But everyone has their own budget.

I typically purchase ASUS of Gigabyte myself, but just went with the ASRock Extreme 3 board. It just arrived today and I will be building this weekend.

 

[Spikesoldier]

i like asrock boards for inexpensive performance. havent had a quality issue with them yet, and they OC very well.

edit: if i had to choose a z68 board from their lineup today, i would probably go with the Z68 EXTREME3.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll review the features once more and try to focus on the $200 and below boards. I think the Asus Asus P8Z68-V Pro is probably my choice so far but I want to take another look.

 

[Ike0069]

The P8Z68-V Pro is a nice board with alot of positive reviews.

However, I'm curious why you would choose it over its little brother (non-pro version). Definitely not knocking the choice - I truly am curious.

 

[darckhart]

testing an asrock z68 extreme4 here. VERY pleased. they have an updated gen3 version of it too. you should give it a look. =)

 

[MTDEW]

testing an asrock z68 extreme4 here. VERY pleased. they have an updated gen3 version of it too. you should give it a look. =)

I agree.
I have an Asrock z68 Extreme 4 and an Asus P8Z68-V Pro and although they are both great boards and overclock great, if i was buying today i'd grab a Gen3 board since the costs are similar.
But according to Asus, the Gen3 boards still don't guarantee PCI-E 3.0 compatibility.
Read my last post HERE.
But hey, if you can increase your odds of future PCI-E 3.0 compatability for about the same price, why not.

I'd grab the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 if i was buying today since their PCI-e 3.0 Gen3 switch looks like the best solution so far.
ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 Newegg Link

 

[IndyColtsFan]

The P8Z68-V Pro is a nice board with alot of positive reviews.

However, I'm curious why you would choose it over its little brother (non-pro version). Definitely not knocking the choice - I truly am curious.

That's a good question. For this initial post, I was targeting the boards around the $200 mark and the next model up from that; the P8Z68-V looks good as well and at first glance, the only difference I see is that it doesn't include a USB bracket (I have tons of those) and has 2 fewer SATA III ports. What am I missing here? The Pro seems to have newer Bluetooth as well (v3.0 vs. v2.1) but I don't think that's important.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I agree.
I have an Asrock z68 Extreme 4 and an Asus P8Z68-V Pro and although they are both great boards and overclock great, if i was buying today i'd grab a Gen3 board since the costs are similar.
But according to Asus, the Gen3 boards still don't guarantee PCI-E 3.0 compatibility.
Read my last post HERE.
But hey, if you can increase your odds of future PCI-E 3.0 compatability for about the same price, why not.

I'd grab the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 if i was buying today since their PCI-e 3.0 Gen3 switch looks like the best solution so far.
ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 Newegg Link

How is overclocking on the Asrock? How is the BIOS?

I'm a little uneasy buying an Asrock to be honest; I know they're supposed to be Asus' low-cost brand, but my brother had one a few years ago (the one with AGP and PCI-e) and while it was a good board while it worked, components on it mysteriously just died and stopped working.

 

[Ike0069]

I'm a little uneasy buying an Asrock to be honest; I know they're supposed to be Asus' low-cost brand, but my brother had one a few years ago (the one with AGP and PCI-e) and while it was a good board while it worked, components on it mysteriously just died and stopped working.

FWIW, I have that same ASRock board (Dual SATA II). I bought it back in Jan 2006 and its still working well in what is now my kids PC using a third different VC and a second CPU. That's the only ASRock board I've ever owned until this Extreme3 I just purchased.

 

[Mem]

How is overclocking on the Asrock? How is the BIOS?

I'm a little uneasy buying an Asrock to be honest; I know they're supposed to be Asus' low-cost brand, but my brother had one a few years ago (the one with AGP and PCI-e) and while it was a good board while it worked, components on it mysteriously just died and stopped working.

I read Asrock now left Asus are now their own company,their boards have improved over the last few years,personally I would go with the Asrock Extreme4 Gen3 board,review here http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z68_extreme4_gen3_review,1.html .

I know a lot of owners in OCUK forums that use this board and think its brill,for the price and features it can't be beat,it also uses quality chokes and solid capacitors like you see on Asus/Gigabyte boards etc....
It would be my first choice,infact it might be next month depending on how well AMD Bulldozer CPUs do compared to Intel.

Asrock part of Asus debate can be found here http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151469 .

 

[Ike0069]

That's a good question. For this initial post, I was targeting the boards around the $200 mark and the next model up from that; the P8Z68-V looks good as well and at first glance, the only difference I see is that it doesn't include a USB bracket (I have tons of those) and has 2 fewer SATA III ports. What am I missing here? The Pro seems to have newer Bluetooth as well (v3.0 vs. v2.1) but I don't think that's important.

Well, having 4 SATA III ports lets you RAID two drives and run SRT off of SATA III. That's not a requirement of mine, so I went with the cheaper board that only has 2 SATA III ports.

 

[MTDEW]

How is overclocking on the Asrock? How is the BIOS?

I'm a little uneasy buying an Asrock to be honest; I know they're supposed to be Asus' low-cost brand, but my brother had one a few years ago (the one with AGP and PCI-e) and while it was a good board while it worked, components on it mysteriously just died and stopped working.

Asrock is no longer owned by Asus, they split last year and Asrock is striking out on its own making great performance boards instead of just budget boards.
Seems that info is hard to find online, but its true. (edit: looks like Mem beat me to posting that info)
The Asrock z68 Extreme4 is my first Asrock board and i'm VERY impressed.

The ASRock z68 Extreme4 is an awesome board and overclocks just as well and just as easily as my Asus z68.

ASRock's bios/UEFI is great also, just as good as the Asus.

I consider the Asus and Asrock so close , I actually had a VERY rough time deciding which board to use in my main rig. (and im still not sure i made the right decision)
See my opinions and build pics HERE.

So long story short, i had the luxury of trying the ASRock z68 Extreme4 and the Asus P8Z68-V Pro with the same cpu, ram, SSD and other hardware and I can honestly say you cannot go wrong with either of those boards with a 2600k.
Both would crank my 2600k to 5.0ghz easily.
Obviously i'm not running daily at 5.0ghz because i dont like the voltage, i run my 2600k at 4.6ghz for daily use, but it does show that both boards maxed out my cpu with ease.

 

[Zargon]

thought i would point out that newegg dropped the price of the gigabyte ud4 and added a 10 buck promo code bringing it to 149 with free shipping

I am not sure I would make a huge deal of PCIE 3 unless pcie3 card wont run on pcie2.

cards arent generally maxing out pcie2x16( to my knowledge, if someone knows better please let me know) so it should be important if for some reason there isnt backwards compatibility, right?

 

[RobertR1]

Unless you will be needing the features of Z68, the AsRock P67 Extreme 4 Gen 3 is a cheaper and like for like in components.

I was all for Z68 also but as I've done extensive research in the last few weeks, I realized that I have no use for the Z68 features (SSD Caching, onboard GPU).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I am definitely going Z68 -- no question there. I will take advantage of SSD caching.

My debate now is whether or not to go i7 or i5.

 

[Binky]

2600k gives you more epeen
2500k is a far better value

I wen't for the 2600k on the P8Z68-V Pro. You can never have too much epeen.

Also consider that some of the Asrock boards support older cpu coolers without an adaptor. Going with a socket 1155 board that only supports 1155 coolers might cost you $10 or more additional to buy an adaptor for your cooler, or buy a new cpu cooler.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

2600k gives you more epeen
2500k is a far better value

I wen't for the 2600k on the P8Z68-V Pro. You can never have too much epeen.

Also consider that some of the Asrock boards support older cpu coolers without an adaptor. Going with a socket 1155 board that only supports 1155 coolers might cost you $10 or more additional to buy an adaptor for your cooler, or buy a new cpu cooler.

Thanks. I had already anticipated reusing my Xigmatek cooler so I ordered an 1155 bolt-thru kit from Newegg.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Thanks guys. I ordered the Asus P8Z68-V Pro and an i7-2600K last night. The price difference between the Pro and non-pro shrunk to $20 and I thought the extra ports were worth that.

 

[StrangerGuy]

How is overclocking on the Asrock? How is the BIOS?

I'm a little uneasy buying an Asrock to be honest; I know they're supposed to be Asus' low-cost brand, but my brother had one a few years ago (the one with AGP and PCI-e) and while it was a good board while it worked, components on it mysteriously just died and stopped working.

My Abit NF7 a long time ago was a lot cheaper than the Asus offering and yet it far better Rubycon caps vs leaky caps on the Asus. Price doesn't automatically means quality.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My Abit NF7 a long time ago was a lot cheaper than the Asus offering and yet it far better Rubycon caps vs leaky caps on the Asus. Price doesn't automatically means quality.

I'm not an Asus fanboy, so I am not sure what your point is. In fact, if I could be called a fanboy for any motherboard brand, it would have been Abit. I've used or built systems for others using Intel, Abit (several), Gigabyte (several), MSI, Biostar, Foxconn, FIC, Epox (remember them?), ECS, Asus, and Asrock boards. Out of all of those, I've seen inexplicable issues with exactly one brand. Care to guess which one? (hint: look at the last name in the list)

Would I buy an Asrock board for a second PC or a cheap one for someone else? Sure. Would I buy one for my main system? Not this round, but maybe next round. I want to give them a little more time and see how that plays out.