Help me pick a z68 board for my new build! Have it narrowed down to a few

[iTwins]

I'll tell you what NOT to buy...or at least buy with caution!

I cannot speak for the others 'cause I don't have much experience with them but ASUS motherboards are the ones that gave me very bad experiences.

Having used both the P45 and P55 chipsets and both were Asus motherboards, I have to say those were really bad designs. On paper they both sounded awesome that one could easily fall head over heels over, but once you use it you will feel like banging a hammer on it everytime you use it. I won't be surprised if Asus Z68 motherboards would have similar design flaws.

Here are some of the symptoms I experienced for the 2 Asus motherboards (different models) I've experienced:

- Windows crashes or you hit hard reset while Windows is running and the motherboard would claim your overclock failed thereby your custom BIOS settings are reverted back to default
- Windows hang while at the Windows logo bootup screen (Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7). When that happens, the system could - but not all the time - claim your overclock failed and you loose all custom BIOS settings eventhough you haven't overclocked.
- Windows bootup could take a long time. Windows logo screen would appear to have hung but in fact it's still running. It would take as much as a few minutes to continue bootup. Debugging Windows USERENV.LOG revealed no abnormalities.
- iPhone 4 plugged in while Windows is booting up, Windows could hang. (To be fair, my current ASRock Z68 Extreme4 would BSoD. I prefer BSoD 'cause I don't have to manually hit the hard reset button )
- 3rd mass storage controllers (SATA or RAID) will override the onboard Intel ICH RAID controller. You can only choose either one.
- There are a couple more but having a hard time remembering them on the top of my head.

PS. It's been 2 weeks and no issues with this ASRock Z68 Extreme4. There's nothing I feel dissatisfied with it....yet! However, I am starting to feel the Intel RST isn't all that cracked up to be.

 

[iconiK]

- Windows crashes or you hit hard reset while Windows is running and the motherboard would claim your overclock failed thereby your custom BIOS settings are reverted back to default

Windows crashing would be the result of bad drivers. The BIOS does not revert to default, it BOOTS with default settings to guarantee a stable POST, but once you enter it, your settings are STILL there. Besides, learn to use BIOS profiles.

- Windows hang while at the Windows logo bootup screen (Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7).

Driver issues. Update your drivers, preferably directly from the manufacturer, or better, if the board has JMicron eSATA, uninstall that driver.

- Windows bootup could take a long time. Windows logo screen would appear to have hung but in fact it's still running. It would take as much as a few minutes to continue bootup. Debugging Windows USERENV.LOG revealed no abnormalities.

Let me guess, HDD? That sucks, a little fragmentation (even under 1%) will kill the performance in that area. If the Windows system files are fragmented, you'll wait a LONG time.

- iPhone 4 plugged in while Windows is booting up, Windows could hang. (To be fair, my current ASRock Z68 Extreme4 would BSoD. I prefer BSoD 'cause I don't have to manually hit the hard reset button )

Bad USB driver.

- 3rd mass storage controllers (SATA or RAID) will override the onboard Intel ICH RAID controller. You can only choose either one.

Pretty typical. Those onboard controllers are horrible for RAID anyway, at worst run Intel RAID. Get yourself a cheap Intel SASUC8i (LSI 1068e controller) and run RAID 0/1/10 on that, it'll be much more reliable.

PS. It's been 2 weeks and no issues with this ASRock Z68 Extreme4. There's nothing I feel dissatisfied with it....yet! However, I am starting to feel the Intel RST isn't all that cracked up to be.

Reality check: ASRock is ASUS' budget brand. Did you know that? Probably not.

 

[iTwins]

Haha, you seem to have an answer for everything. I can assure you and for the sake of argument, none of what you mentioned are answers in my cases. You are assuming everything is so simple. Good for you!

The only think you nailed me is that ASRock = Asus. That I didn't know. And if I knew I wouldn't have bought it. But I am glad all is good so far. I guess they must be of different design teams.

 

[Derangel]

Haha, you seem to have an answer for everything. I can assure you and for the sake of argument, none of what you mentioned are answers in my cases. You are assuming everything is so simple. Good for you!

The only think you nailed me is that ASRock = Asus. That I didn't know. And if I knew I wouldn't have bought it. But I am glad all is good so far. I guess they must be of different design teams.

Everything he said is possible, also possible: Shit happens. I can understand being put off on a manufacture after having problems like that, but there is not one single mobo company out there that can claim they have never had a few bad boards. Even if we ignore bad chipsets every manufacture has made some bad boards at one point or another. ASUS quality seems to go up and down from time to time, but so does MSI, Gigabyte, and so on. It's not entirely uncommon to have a situation like you did and run across two bad boards. Out of curiosity which boards where they?