GIGABYTE Z87X-OC LGA 1150 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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GIGABYTE Z87X-OC LGA 1150 Motherboard Review - GIGABYTE has brought us a few great motherboards over the years with most being just above average. On the surface the Z87X-OC doesn’t have much going for it aside from a Halloween inspired color scheme. All that changes when you dig just a little deeper, as Gigabyte is very much still in the motherboard game.
 
Don't understand.. a lot of people from last gen intel processors were pretty much all in agreement gigabyte had the most reliable boards, more reliable than evga by far and better RMA's then asus. But that review was good, great board I wish I could handle the halloween theme.
 
Why use v3 WinRAR when we're on to v5 that now supports multithreading? I'm sure this has been asked before but I didn't see it and I'm curious.
 
good for cases with no windows...and yes, thnx for the review...
 
In the conclusion under The Bottom Line. "It is an extremely good Ivy Bridge overclocker and a solid and stable motherboard"

That's meant to be Haswell not Ivy right?

Thanks for the review.
 
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Did you guys notice if the chipset was C2 fixed stepping?
 
Why does it have to be so ugly.. I need a board for my new build and this would be perfect other then the uglyness .. .
 
AllBlackFan said:
In the conclusion under The Bottom Line. "It is an extremely good Ivy Bridge overclocker and a solid and stable motherboard"

That's meant to be Haswell not Ivy right?

Thanks for the review.
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Derp derp derp. Damn kids and homework distracting me! :) Fixed. Thanks for the extra eyes.
 
jam3s121 said:
Don't understand.. a lot of people from last gen intel processors were pretty much all in agreement gigabyte had the most reliable boards, more reliable than evga by far and better RMA's then asus. But that review was good, great board I wish I could handle the halloween theme.
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We write reviews on our experiences, not based on what "pretty much all in agreement" thought.
 
SonDa5 said:
Did you guys notice if the chipset was C2 fixed stepping?
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I did not check but considering C2 started launching months ago, right after launch, I would not suspect any new motherboards to have a C1 since Intel recalled those in July.
 
....am I the only one who thinks this board looks great? I think orange/black works.

Either black memory or this orange memory, the orange Phanteks PH-TC14PE, Zotac GPU and you could put it in a black/orange Corsair 230T.
 
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I like the orange theme. The red and black is getting old now. Something different is always nice. Just hate the limited sata ports on it though.
 
This mobo would look good paired up with an INWIN D-frame orange case.
dframe-11b.jpg
 
I have this board...overall it works great (not a fan of the color but then again...it's in my home rig...not my show-off rig.

I do like the POST code read out and the buttons on the board itself which was useful when I was testing.

One issue I did run into was that the x8 PCIE slot do not like non-video cards (RAID cards, etc.)
(It also didn't work in the x16 PCIE or the first x4).
The only PCIE physical x16 (x16, x8, or x4) slot any of my non-video card would work in is the last x4 at the bottom (which does limit the speed of my card). I hope it's just a BIOS issue which they will get to in the future (I updated to the latest).

Overall, Gigabyte boards have improved from the days of the old P4's.
 
Is that black and orange? 'Cus I'd hate to see another black and red motherboard.
 
Farmer Boe said:
That would be nice! This mobo was my first choice for Haswell before I snagged a UD3H on a good sale.

Thanks for the excellent review guys!
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The UD3H has the VRM parts and design as the Z87X-OC. UD3H is a great value. I had this mb as well and I like the nice over clocking finger controls and BIOS support but for 99% of Haswell owners I think the UD3H is just as good for over clocking on water ... UD3H better value and IMO the Z87X-OC is more of a hyped up over priced MB. Price has come down since release but I think the UD4H is better as well and it cost less.
 
SonDa5 said:
The UD3H has the VRM parts and design as the Z87X-OC. UD3H is a great value. I had this mb as well and I like the nice over clocking finger controls and BIOS support but for 99% of Haswell owners I think the UD3H is just as good for over clocking on water ... UD3H better value and IMO the Z87X-OC is more of a hyped up over priced MB. Price has come down since release but I think the UD4H is better as well and it cost less.
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Yeah I knew the VRM section was the same which is why I went for the UD3H even though nowadays its the chip that determines a good overclock or not.

Hardocp's review of the board convinced me it was a smart buy.
 
Would love to see a review of one of the sniper boards. We've seen that most the GB boards perform the same regardless of it's cost. Those are the only ones with different audio/nic hardware compared to the rest of the boards.
 
Hi guys, which PSU did you test this system with? It apparently has problems with the Corsair AX series (digital) according to HWbot and AnandTech . I would like to know if it would have any problem with the Corsair TX750V2, which I've already purchased.
 
It actually beat all of the boards with the same overclock. It did lose to a 4.8GHz score and the Hexa score. It seems like it would have said: "It was ahead of most of the pack. And only lost to a hexa-core cpu and a 300 MHz faster overclock".

Our Z87X-OC scores a bit behind the rest of the pack in this test, but is still a perfectly acceptable score and shows that everything is working properly.
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That is just how Gigabyte did it. It will only support 2 Nvidia cards in SLI. You would want a PLX supported board to get the full benefits anyway.

Squall_Rinoa89 said:
So.. why does that say 4-way Crossfire but only 2-Way SLI? Can it not do 4-way SLI or 3-Way SLI?
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Gigabyte has a $30 rebate on these this month bringing it into that $150ish range so uh...
I bought one. :)
 
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