Fast And Cheap? Five Sub-$160 Z87 Motherboards For Enthusiasts

[bas94041]

What is missing from these reviews is any discussion of customer and warranty support. From experience some of these venders have horrific support.
The time spent identifying minute differences in features and benchmarks is of trivial significance in comparison to when something fails and you you need tech support or driver updates.
In other words spend some time testing the support and less time revealing virtually indistinguishable benchmark results.

 

[InvalidError]

What is missing from these reviews is any discussion of customer and warranty support. From experience some of these venders have horrific support.
The time spent identifying minute differences in features and benchmarks is of trivial significance in comparison to when something fails and you you need tech support or driver updates.
In other words spend some time testing the support and less time revealing virtually indistinguishable benchmark results.

Drivers are simple enough to fix: generic drivers for most stuff on Intel-based boards are available straight from Intel and the same goes for AMD so for people who buy boards without third-party non-standard chips on-board, generic Windows Update and Intel/AMD drivers take care of just about everything.

Not sure how someone would go about testing tech support - most tech support these days are simply script readers with flowcharts to verify that you updated your drivers and rebooted your PC before deciding whether or not to tell you to RMA your hardware. Not particularly helpful even on a good day.

 

[computertech82]

It all boils down to what you want for your system. Even the layout, as each one is different.

 

[bas94041]

What is missing from these reviews is any discussion of customer and warranty support. From experience some of these venders have horrific support.
The time spent identifying minute differences in features and benchmarks is of trivial significance in comparison to when something fails and you you need tech support or driver updates.
In other words spend some time testing the support and less time revealing virtually indistinguishable benchmark results.

Drivers are simple enough to fix: generic drivers for most stuff on Intel-based boards are available straight from Intel and the same goes for AMD so for people who buy boards without third-party non-standard chips on-board, generic Windows Update and Intel/AMD drivers take care of just about everything.

Not sure how someone would go about testing tech support - most tech support these days are simply script readers with flowcharts to verify that you updated your drivers and rebooted your PC before deciding whether or not to tell you to RMA your hardware. Not particularly helpful even on a good day.

I've worked in tech support for years. It was not uncommon for technical reviewers to call and grade support.
Not so difficult to evaluate customer support. For example: Duration of warranty. Does the company provide domestic phone support? How much time does it take to speak to a live body? If the response is in fact an ineffectual script reader then that is lousy support. Give it a grade.
I have emailed or called motherboard support from some of these reviewed venders that was abysmal.
My point is largely that these comprehensive reviews fail to capture something very important. When something blows up what is the likely after purchase experience.

 

[JPNpower]

Are there any drawbacks to ASrock thin PCB? Will a tower cooler snap the thing?

 

[InvalidError]

When something blows up what is the likely after purchase experience.

In my experience: "support" numbers nowhere to be found online until half-way through the RMA process and the "support" reps are mainly there to complete RMA orders when the online forms fail.

 

[Crashman]

I've only had a bad support experience with one company, and that one company hasn't been in our reviews for a long time.

 

[axehead15]

Are there any drawbacks to ASrock thin PCB? Will a tower cooler snap the thing?

No, I have a cooler on mine and it is supported just fine. As long as you handle things smartly ofc, can't mishandle it when you put it on, but same for any board.

If you had something burn on the board (hopefully that never happens to you) then the ASRock board will be more likely to be irreparable, but the chances of that happening are slim to none.

 

[Onus]

I accidentally knocked a cap off an ASRock board I had (870 iCafe) when being a little overzealous with cable management. I was able to remove the damaged leads and solder in a replacement cap; worked fine.

 

[Novuake]

I accidentally knocked a cap off an ASRock board I had (870 iCafe) when being a little overzealous with cable management. I was able to remove the damaged leads and solder in a replacement cap; worked fine.

Impressive, that is almost NEVER possible. LOL...

 

[Onus]

I'm only 1/2 though. A friend sent me a nice Gigabyte Z68 board with a busted capacitor on it, and I had a real hard time even melting the ROHS solder on it. When I finally got a replacement cap soldered back in, it never worked. Oh well.

 

[RedJaron]

What is missing from these reviews is any discussion of customer and warranty support. From experience some of these venders have horrific support.
The time spent identifying minute differences in features and benchmarks is of trivial significance in comparison to when something fails and you you need tech support or driver updates.
In other words spend some time testing the support and less time revealing virtually indistinguishable benchmark results.

Drivers are simple enough to fix: generic drivers for most stuff on Intel-based boards are available straight from Intel and the same goes for AMD so for people who buy boards without third-party non-standard chips on-board, generic Windows Update and Intel/AMD drivers take care of just about everything.

Not sure how someone would go about testing tech support - most tech support these days are simply script readers with flowcharts to verify that you updated your drivers and rebooted your PC before deciding whether or not to tell you to RMA your hardware. Not particularly helpful even on a good day.

Strange, it's attributing that post to me when I didn't say it.

Are there any drawbacks to ASrock thin PCB? Will a tower cooler snap the thing?

The Q1 SBM actually had an ASRock board warp under a Noctua D14 cooler. Note that's a massive CPU cooler, so your mileage may vary. I've got an ASRock Z68 with a Xigmatek Gaia cooler hanging on it that's done well for two years ( with two fans, the cooling tower probably weighs close to 1.75 lbs. ) It's been moved around quite a bit with no damage yet. I think it's more a matter of not jostling a system with a tower cooler, regardless of mboard manufacturer.

 

[l_mckeon]

@POgli

The current online price for the Asrock board seems to be about $160-$165 in Australia, but that doesn't include freight.

Check out staticice.com.au

 

[Crashman]

@POgli

The current online price for the Asrock board seems to be about $160-$165 in Australia, but that doesn't include freight.

Check out staticice.com.au

Excellent! Thanks for the update!

 

[JPNpower]

Wow... maybe it's finally time for carbon fibre PCBs!!!

 

[sanilmahambre]

AS rock finally got a competition. Bring it on!

Happy that these companies like Bio star are following AS rock's footsteps.

 

[bas94041]

I've only had a bad support experience with one company, and that one company hasn't been in our reviews for a long time.

Wow. Your lucky...
Having dealt with customer support from most of these reviewed venders I can say that their support (from online forums to phone support) is not equally capable.
My point in commenting is partly that if a portion of the review process included a measure of support capacity it would provide value beyond such detailed and largely indistinguishable technical results. Most of these MANY pages of benchmark results on tH simply validate that the boards would provide a virtually identical user experience.
Until something goes wrong.
One of the reasons that manufacturers get away with having scripted and ineffectual support is that it goes largely unreported by folks like you.

 

[JPNpower]

Yo Bas, give us a list of best to worst companies. It'll help a lot.

 

[Crashman]

I've only had a bad support experience with one company, and that one company hasn't been in our reviews for a long time.

Wow. Your lucky...
Having dealt with customer support from most of these reviewed venders I can say that their support (from online forums to phone support) is not equally capable.
My point in commenting is partly that if a portion of the review process included a measure of support capacity it would provide value beyond such detailed and largely indistinguishable technical results. Most of these MANY pages of benchmark results on tH simply validate that the boards would provide a virtually identical user experience.
Until something goes wrong.
One of the reasons that manufacturers get away with having scripted and ineffectual support is that it goes largely unreported by folks like you.

OK, so here's a longer version: All of my support contacts have been pretty bad unless I knew exactly what was wrong. Most of my support has been favorable when I knew exactly what was wrong. And the one company that refused to provide support regardless of the fact that I had an obviously defective motherboard hasn't been reviewed in a long time.

What I say I've only had a bad experience with one company, I'm talking about RMA experience. I don't think any of them are any more capable of diagnosing your problem remotely than am I.

 

[InvalidError]

One of the reasons that manufacturers get away with having scripted and ineffectual support is that it goes largely unreported by folks like you.

And one of the reason why nobody reports on that is because it is practically standard. Most companies' tech support is limited to making you update OS+drivers, rebooting your PC and instruct you to call again for RMA if that didn't fix your problem.

Most consumer products are just too complex to diagnose over the phone so most companies don't bother going beyond determining whether or not RMA might be warranted. In many cases, most end-users would lack the required knowledge and equipment to safely execute some of the diagnostic steps anyway. For the manufacturer, it is often cheaper to cross-ship a replacement than try to diagnose over the phone.

 

[mick_32]

I believe it's a price for the smaller version (M) - ASRock Z87M EXTREME4, while the tested model ASRock Z87 EXTREME4 starts from 185 AUD 🙁

@POgli

The current online price for the Asrock board seems to be about $160-$165 in Australia, but that doesn't include freight.

Check out staticice.com.au

@POgli

The current online price for the Asrock board seems to be about $160-$165 in Australia, but that doesn't include freight.

Check out staticice.com.au

Excellent! Thanks for the update!

 

[masmotors]

i have the masi g41 pc mate and its good i had to get it for the deal but im happy next i will get a sabertooth when i findone at a deal also

 

[masmotors]

i also tried crx with a hd 7850 and a hd 7870 and was lag city on some game so i returned the 7870 and got a 7950 i had a use for my other card so that sgood but the crossfire x with a 16x x4 is not a good thing on the g41 x8 x8 would been nicer but the 4670k and the 7950 are a nice combo

 

[Calculatron]

Not to be "that guy" but I just wanted to point out, for the upcoming round-up, that the tested Biostar motherboard went on sale for 20% off on Newegg. ($120.)

 

[Gana Dalsia]

Good read...Interesting article..