Best Motherboard for new build - Asus or Gigabyte

[johnmaupin]

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Motherboard $179
- or -
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard $199

The difference in price really isn't a concern...

Ill be buying at Microcenter with the core i5 - 3570 for a $40 discount
BUT... need to purchase in the next week so all quick responses are Helpful

I am building with previous parts with the plan to upgrade older parts within the next year.
I will be running: CORE i5-3570 - new,
Samsung 830 128 GB SSD - new,
2X wd640gb(not raid for now...),
XFX radeon 6850 (for now),
cooler master 690 case,
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular PSU (Will be upgrading soon),
RAM to be determined... probably 8-16 GB.
WINDOWS 8 OEM- new

I am primarily doing FPS gaming, and RAW photo editing.

 

[Hazle]

Asus, only for the assured build quality, though Gigabyte is no slouch either. comes down to the features (BIOS/UEFI update via USB, PCIe 2.0/3.0 8x/8x SLI/CF support, # of USB 3.0, etc.) you really like.

some disposable, ignorable advice, if you may; grab an H77 or even a B75 board, unless you plan to grab a 3570K to OC later, or the board features are extremely attractive and useful for you. otherwise, you can save up a bit on the board and grab a better GPU instead, like the 7870. kinda a sad waste to grab a Z77 board and not using it at it's full potential, when you can spend on better parts.

 

[bigcyco1]

Asus quality assurance number one in the motherboard game.Gigabyte is number two and solid as well.
Those boards are on par with each other get which ever you prefer.

 

[fred_up]

They are both excellent boards. Asus is a little fussier on memory. I once had two sticks of one brand and two sticks of another. Asus would not take it. The gigabyte would. My newest Asus board has a little switch that allows memory to work, boot up, if light flashes, push switch and problem is fixed.

Asus also has core-unlocker. Works great. Bought a Phenom II-X3 (cheap) and it unlocked the 4th core, and now I have a great running quad core box, very inexpensively.

Both have good tech support, can call and get help. Asus even has a linux guy.

 

[jerodpaul]

It's all dependent on what you are looking for in your board because each company has its strong points and its weak points, but between those two boards the Asus is obviously the winner becasue it has so many more optons and capabilities, I would go with the Asus in a heartbeat, if you're looking for performance you go with asus if you're looking for budget you look around, but the asus features so many more options, so go asus, thats my opinion.