High-quality but simple Z77 board for 3570K

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XTF

Gawd
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Oct 11, 2011
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My Q9450 / P45 system is still broken and my G620 / H61 system is too slow for new games (CARS, BF3), so I'm looking for an update.
The 3570K CPU is a no-brainer, but what's the 'best' motherboard for me? I've got a Radeon 7950 and a X-Fi (PCI). PCI (and the X-Fi) might be problematic, so it's not a hard requirement. Good fan control would be nice, does that limit me to Asus? It's hard to find info on supported fan controls.
I'd like to avoid extra network / SATA / USB controllers if possible, but most brands insist on including them.
I might want to OC (without too much extra voltage).

Asus P8Z77 M and LX seem ideal, except I heard it's VRM is less-than-high quality. Does VRM really matter?
 
Pick a board from MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte that's within your budget and has the features you want. If you're overclocking, make sure it has a heatsink on the VRMs.

Any Z77 board from those three will be capable of overclocking the 3570k to 4.4+ ghz. The 3570k really does not pull that much power. VRM quality only really matters if you're watercooling trying to get the max overclock.

Those features are added in usually because 1. It's part of the chipset or 2. It's an expected basic feature to have. More expensive boards = more features.
 
Tsumi said:
Pick a board from MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte that's within your budget and has the features you want. If you're overclocking, make sure it has a heatsink on the VRMs.

Any Z77 board from those three will be capable of overclocking the 3570k to 4.4+ ghz. The 3570k really does not pull that much power. VRM quality only really matters if you're watercooling trying to get the max overclock.

Those features are added in usually because 1. It's part of the chipset or 2. It's an expected basic feature to have. More expensive boards = more features.
Click to expand...

It depends on how tall you want to overclock.

Since I have no plans whatever to get anywhere close to the IB heatwall, pretty much any Z77-based motherboard was in the running. In the interests of being able to actually make a decision, I first off eliminated all mATX Z77 motherboards. (I don't hate mATX - my current motherboard, and the one it replaced, are mATX; however, full-sized ATX, even with a Z77 chipset, is no longer pricey.)

Next, I eliminated all ATX motherboards priced above $200USD (pre-bundle savings) at MicroCenter. This chopped off the entire high-end of Z77, and also kept me from buying too many features I'd never use at all - yes, it also shot down the excellent ASUS P8Z77V-PRO. (Overkill, overkill, overkill.). Next cull factor were all ASRock motherboards (quality issues - especially at [H], and even at Newegg - scared me silly) and, surprisingly, MSI motherboards (the issue with MSI was availability, not QA/QC). That left a surprising number of low-end, mainstream, and midrange ATX Z77 motherboards that met all my needs, and then some in a LOT of cases
 
PGHammer said:
(I don't hate mATX - my current motherboard, and the one it replaced, are mATX; however, full-sized ATX, even with a Z77 chipset, is no longer pricey.)

Next, I eliminated all ATX motherboards priced above $200USD (pre-bundle savings) at MicroCenter.
Click to expand...

What's the advantage of normal ATX for you?
I generally just order by price descending and then pick the least expensive product that fills all requirements.
 
PGHammer said:
It depends on how tall you want to overclock.
Click to expand...

Only overclocking on exotic cooling (high-end water, sub-ambient cooling, LN2) requires a robust VRM system. Any overclock on air is achievable with a halfway decent VRM system on any reputable Z77 board.

PGHammer said:
Next cull factor were all ASRock motherboards (quality issues - especially at [H], and even at Newegg - scared me silly) and, surprisingly, MSI motherboards (the issue with MSI was availability, not QA/QC).
Click to expand...

Indeed, MSI boards are surprisingly scarce at Microcenter. As soon as they get a shipment, they all seem to be sold out within ~2 days.

XTF said:
What's the advantage of normal ATX for you?
I generally just order by price descending and then pick the least expensive product that fills all requirements.
Click to expand...

I have an ATX case, so might as well use that full space in my opinion. Plus, if you're going SLI/crossfire, generally ATX boards allocate more space between the cards than mATX boards. Also, ATX boards have significantly more room for expansion (might or might not be important to you).
 
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H seems like a strong competitor in the budget arena... it was one i was looking at -- anyone have a better options?
 
XTF said:
What's the advantage of normal ATX for you?
I generally just order by price descending and then pick the least expensive product that fills all requirements.
Click to expand...

Aside from it going into a standard ATX case, it's PCI (not PCIe) slots - one is required, but two are ideal. I have a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer in PCI that I normally use, and I have an original ATI HDTV Wonder I'd *like* to use - contrary to belief, Windows 8 in x64 supports both (something I have personally tested and proven).
 
SidewinderX said:
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H seems like a strong competitor in the budget arena... it was one i was looking at -- anyone have a better options?
Click to expand...

MSI Z77A-G43

PGHammer said:
Aside from it going into a standard ATX case, it's PCI (not PCIe) slots - one is required, but two are ideal.
Click to expand...

Ah, why didn't you say so?
mATX boards with a PCI slot exist too.
 
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XTF said:
MSI Z77A-G43
Click to expand...

Yes and no: No if you want to OC as high as reasonably possible since the G43 is a bit limited in overclock capability compared to other Z77 mobos (Bit-tech.net showed it having a 400Mhz lower OC than other mobos). Yes if you don't want to deal with some of the quirkiness of the UD3H. With that said, the UD3H is still a solid mobo IMO despite the issues.

If you're willing to take a chance in dealing with Asus' customer support, my personal recommendation would be the Asus P8Z77-V LK.
 
Danny Bui said:
If you're willing to take a chance in dealing with Asus' customer support, my personal recommendation would be the Asus P8Z77-V LK.
Click to expand...

What companies don't have bad customer support?
It's a shame that MSI G43 has such limited voltage control.
 
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Danny Bui said:
Yes and no: No if you want to OC as high as reasonably possible since the G43 is a bit limited in overclock capability compared to other Z77 mobos (Bit-tech.net showed it having a 400Mhz lower OC than other mobos). Yes if you don't want to deal with some of the quirkiness of the UD3H. With that said, the UD3H is still a solid mobo IMO despite the issues.

If you're willing to take a chance in dealing with Asus' customer support, my personal recommendation would be the Asus P8Z77-V LK.
Click to expand...

It seemed to me the LK seemed to lack a number of features that the other have... I don't have the specs in front of me, but does it have the limited audio and only a couple of USB3.0 ports? Or I am I thinking of the LX?

I guess the better question is: what does the "-V" have that the "-V LK" doesn't? I haven't been able to find a good comparison of the P8Z77 family out there...
 
XTF said:
What companies don't have bad customer support?
Click to expand...
True but it seems like Asus is getting the lion's share of bad customer support stories lately. Then again they are more popular which means high rate of people complaining about issues.

SidewinderX said:
I guess the better question is: what does the "-V" have that the "-V LK" doesn't? I haven't been able to find a good comparison of the P8Z77 family out there...
Click to expand...
The -V has a larger number of phases which means a high chance of a higher OC. In addition, the -V has wifi capability, an Intel NIC, two extra SATA 6.0Gb/s ports, one extra VGA port, and the ability to flash the BIOs automatically from a USB drive. Not bad for $40 more especially considering that a separate Intel NIC alone costs~ $30.
 
XTF said:
MSI Z77A-G43



Ah, why didn't you say so?
mATX boards with a PCI slot exist too.
Click to expand...

Both the X-Fi and HDTV Wonder are PCI - neither is PCIe or USB; therefore, to use both, I need two PCI slots.

Multi-GPU isn't important - it's not even a factor; therefore the CrossFire/SLI debate (for me) is pointless. The bigger issue is slot placement (PCI) - which a lot of ATX motherboards flat out get wrong. (Throw in that Z77 doesn't even support PCI natively and the issue is actually worse the more the motherboard costs - that's why culling the high end of Z77 hurt far less than you would think.)
 
It's too bad PCI was deprecated too soon, but yeah, PCI slots are getting harder and harder to find.
 
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