ASUS battle...which to pick?

[patater]

Hello Fellow Tommer's!

I have a question. looking at the z68 maximus IV Z-gene mobo, or the Sabertooth p67. its a tossup, and seeking further guidance.

I dont mind that the sabertooth costs more (10 bucks) and has older chipset.

I do like the color schemes on the z68 offering, but it doesnt really matter that much.

I was looking into doing a raid 0 setup with a pair of vertex 3 120gb ssd drives. which would give me better performance with that? i seen that the older p67 chips had slightly better performance, but is it worth it? Which one offers better DDR3 bw and performance?

also, z68 and uefi, is it all that it is cracked up to be? is it truly worth it?

the next rig will be one of these boards and an i5-2500k.

which would you choose for your build? they both are reliable and oc well...

Merry Christmas as well to you all and your families!!

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Why not just go for the P8Z68 series? Sabertooth is a total gimmick and so is Maximus, though less so.

 

[ko888]

If you plan on using more than one graphics card now or in the future then go for a full size ATX motherboard with proper PCIe x16 slot spacing for graphics card cooling.

The memory controller doesn't reside in the motherboard chipset, it resides in the CPU, so memory bandwidth depends solely on the CPU you will be using.

If you plan on using HDDs larger than 2TB then EFI BIOS is a necessity. I like the ability to use a mouse while navigating through the UEFI BIOS settings and being able to print each UEFI window to a USB flash drive so that I can refer to them later or post them on a website.

If you do video transcoding the Z68 chipset gives you access to the Intel Quick Sync feature on the CPU where the P67 chipset doesn't.

 

[patater]

i really dont transcode, nor would i use ssd cache. just pretty much basic functionality of a computer, and gaming. i would however be running a raid with two ssd drives, and looking at a 6950 to unlock (hopefully price comes down due to release of the next gen cards). im still leaning towards the sabertooth. its the cheapest of the bunch, and is very stable and nice board with great features.

update with info...this is what i found on driver performance including speeds.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/07/18/asus-maximus-iv-gene-z/5

it looks like the sabertooth bests it in that aspect and as well as gaming (especially oc'd)

 

[gam0reily]

gene-z is 20-30$ cheaper. And offers what u need - basic functionality and gaming, and even great at that.
I seriously think that sabertooth is just for show-off. It doesnt have a definable advantage over the maximus series. Only that it looks quite awesome. But that is only helpfull if u have a chassis with a transparent side wall and is quite noticeable. Otherwise, its a pain in the Ca$h ;-D

 

[theuniquegamer]

If you are going for 2500k cpu i think you'll overclock it so you need a good overclocking capability board that is the z68 board if you need multi gpu setup or ivy bridge as a future upgrade then also any z68 is the board to buy

 

[patater]

everyone seems to push the z68. so the 20 bucks would help out, but it seems that the sabertooth has the edge in overclocking and normal gaming

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/07/18/asus-maximus-iv-gene-z/6

it also has the "ugly" ceramic shield and multiple sensors to monitor temps and what not. it is also full size and the pci-e slot is a little further away from the processor compared to the z68 series. forgot about the 5yr warranty as well...

 

[patater]

If you are going for 2500k cpu i think you'll overclock it so you need a good overclocking capability board that is the z68 board if you need multi gpu setup or ivy bridge as a future upgrade then also any z68 is the board to buy

there are many people hitting 5ghz on the sabertooth with 2500k and 2600k. how is this chipset not meant for overclocking?

 

[gam0reily]

that depends on many factors.
z68 is more ivy bridge compatible as I hear.

 

[ko888]

that depends. Maybe they are getting it at the z68. sabertooth comes for both the chipsets, z68 and p67.
z68 is more ivy bridge compatible as I hear.

There's no such thing as a SABERTOOTH Z68 motherboard.

The only SABERTOOTH motherboards that ASUS put on the market are:

SABERTOOTH X79
SABERTOOTH X58
SABERTOOTH 55i
SABERTOOTH P67
SABERTOOTH 990FX

 

[patater]

i think im going with the sabertooth. apparently, fry's will price match ANY price you see on the web or store ad...ANY!! so im taking them up on that. i can get the sabertooth for 158 bucks online, and also the 2600k for about half price! thats 157.95 on a site...pretty good steal! so i will get the "more expensive" components and be set. this will allow me to get primo ssd drives for same price as original build...thanks for your inputs guys!

 

[patater]

Best answer selected by patater.