Microcenter Mobo choices for i5 build, help please

I chose the Asrock Z68 E4 G3 over all of the above, but If I had to choose, I'd probably get the Asus board.
 
Although no one board is perfect, I've read tons of problem with the Gigabyte board (search its name). I would go with the Asus as well.
 
outspoken said:
Saw a lot of bad reviews on the asrock but there are so few boards in stock where I live
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Only bad review I've seen on the Asrock is here and I've never had a problem with mine. Even with bad reviews, I wouldn't buy an Asus, their customer service sucks ass.
 
i have to say i've had better luck with gigabyte over asus, just so many Z68 boards out there. I've been reading reviews left and right ever since I made that post. still haven't bought the board yet, going to this weekend.

it's really come down to these two:

GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 vs GA-Z68XP-UD3

reason being that they are both available from Microcenter and both have USB 3.0 for a bit of future proofing.

the UD3H has more onboard video ports, not really important to me as it's going to be a headless linux server mainly used for transcoding/encoding. which is why I wan't the Z68 as it has a boost with encoding from what i've read.

the UD3 has more SATA ports and is $20 cheaper so i'm kind of leaning towards that one.
 
outspoken said:
i have to say i've had better luck with gigabyte over asus, just so many Z68 boards out there. I've been reading reviews left and right ever since I made that post. still haven't bought the board yet, going to this weekend.

it's really come down to these two:

GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 vs GA-Z68XP-UD3

reason being that they are both available from Microcenter and both have USB 3.0 for a bit of future proofing.

the UD3H has more onboard video ports, not really important to me as it's going to be a headless linux server mainly used for transcoding/encoding. which is why I wan't the Z68 as it has a boost with encoding from what i've read.

the UD3 has more SATA ports and is $20 cheaper so i'm kind of leaning towards that one.
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Only two reservations about the Gigabyte Z68 motherboards:

1) The BIOS is not fully EFI. It is, in fact, the old Award BIOS with EFI-like features slapped into it.

2) The onboard USB 3.0 controller that Gigabyte uses on its current Z68 motherboards is from Etron, not from NEC/Renesas. My testing clearly showed that the Etron controller is slightly slower than the Renesas controller. Worse, unlike the Renesas USB 3.0 implementation that also includes configuration software, the Etron implementation offers no way at all whatsoever to adjust the power-saving features: Power-saving is always enabled, and is permanently fixed at the exact same set interval all the time. On the Z79 (LGA 2011) boards, Gigabyte switched from Etron to Fresco Logic for the USB 3.0 controller.

Both the Z68X-UD3H and the Z68XP-UD3 have an HDMI out for monitor output from the IGP. The UD3H, however, also adds a DVI-D port and a D-Sub (VGA) out in addition to the HDMI port (the Z68XP-UD3 has only HDMI).

None of the four P67 or Z68 boards that you've listed in your original post have an onboard Intel NIC. Instead, all four (and the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3) make do with an onboard Realtek NIC instead of an Intel NIC. (All X79 boards from both Gigabyte and Asus have onboard Intel NICs - but the LGA 2011 platform is also well out of your price range.)
 
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Pitbully said:
Only bad review I've seen on the Asrock is here and I've never had a problem with mine. Even with bad reviews, I wouldn't buy an Asus, their customer service sucks ass.
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ASRock's customer service makes Asus look like EVGA. Yeah. It's that bad.
 
E4g1e said:
Only two reservations about the Gigabyte Z68 motherboards:

1) The BIOS is not fully EFI. It is, in fact, the old Award BIOS with EFI-like features slapped into it.
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what's the big difference?

E4g1e said:
2) The onboard USB 3.0 controller that Gigabyte uses on its current Z68 motherboards is from Etron, not from NEC/Renesas. My testing clearly showed that the Etron controller is slightly slower than the Renesas controller. Worse, unlike the Renesas USB 3.0 implementation that also includes configuration software, the Etron implementation offers no way at all whatsoever to adjust the power-saving features: Power-saving is always enabled, and is permanently fixed at the exact same set interval all the time. On the Z79 (LGA 2011) boards, Gigabyte switched from Etron to Fresco Logic for the USB 3.0 controller.
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i like the idea of just having usb 3.0, not really planning on using it for anything critical.

E4g1e said:
Both the Z68X-UD3H and the Z68XP-UD3 have an HDMI out for monitor output from the IGP. The UD3H, however, also adds a DVI-D port and a D-Sub (VGA) out in addition to the HDMI port (the Z68XP-UD3 has only HDMI).

None of the four P67 or Z68 boards that you've listed in your original post have an onboard Intel NIC. Instead, all four (and the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3) make do with an onboard Realtek NIC instead of an Intel NIC. (All X79 boards from both Gigabyte and Asus have onboard Intel NICs - but the LGA 2011 platform is also well out of your price range.)
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thanks for all your input, i have decided on the GA-Z68XP-UD3. unfortunately i'm just limited to what is available at microcenter since they're offering the $50 off deal when buying the i5 2500k. went with this board because i really dont need the extra video ports and i'd rather have more SATA ports than anything else. i'm also using an intel 82574L pci-e gigabit card for my internal network.
 
outspoken said:
hah, actually in a freak turn of events I did end up getting an ASUS. the UD3 was out of stock when I went in yesterday and I bought the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 and i5 2500k
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You did pick out a board that already has an onboard Intel NIC. Now, it's good for an onboard solution; however, a PCI-e Intel NIC is still a bit faster.

Anyway, congratulations on your new combo purchase! Now go pick yourself up a good CPU air cooler (such as a Cooler Master Hyper 212 series), and overclock that 2500K.
 
Congrats, I think you ended up with a good product.
I went through your same eval a month ago and went with the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro.

The board is rock solid, the driver CD was up to date and I'm overclocking to 4.4Ghz with hardly any effort (I'm running FAH 24/7 and the system has been up for weeks). A real contrast to some several MSI boards which have cranky Realtek audio chips. (I'm currently running 4 different MSI Mobo, a ECS and the new ASUS)
 
E4g1e said:
You did pick out a board that already has an onboard Intel NIC. Now, it's good for an onboard solution; however, a PCI-e Intel NIC is still a bit faster.

Anyway, congratulations on your new combo purchase! Now go pick yourself up a good CPU air cooler (such as a Cooler Master Hyper 212 series), and overclock that 2500K.
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That's rather strange - a discrete Intel NIC being better than Intel onboard PHY. Maybe the PHY is using the PCI bus (as a lot of non-CSA Intel PHYs were forced to do)?

MicroCenter has PCIe X1 Intel NICs in stock (most locations) for $39.99.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0360498

Further, unless you must have those unique-to-Intel QoS features, the current generation of Realtek gigabit PHYs (RTL8111D/E/F) are champ performers (they are used by a lot of motherboard makers, including ASUS) for a far lower price premium compared to Intel. (Even more appealing to the *Hack* crowd, there is actually driver support for OS X back to Leopard (SL and Lion are supported as well) - so much for the old issues.) I have zero complaints over the RTL81111E PHY in my P5G41M LX2/GB.
 
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