Gigabyte UD5H or the ASUS VII Hero?

[Amywalker730]

I’m having a bit of trouble deciding between motherboards. The ASUS Maximus VII Hero has been my choice for the past few months, but recently the Gigabyte Z97X UD5H has caught my eye with its NewEgg sale of $80 less. I’m far from experienced when it comes to MOBOs, but to me they seem pretty comparable, and going by this forum the Gigabyte seems very popular. Is there anything on the Hero VII to justify its higher price?

My biggest qualm against Gigabyte is that I cannot for the life of me find a QVL. I’ve searched for hours but turned up nothing. I have no idea how my RAM selection will work on it. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[faalin]

Here is their QVL http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-z97x-ud5h.pdf

But I would take the hero over the ud5h board but that's just me. Ive ran the ROG series boards for the past 6 years and never had an issue and they always overclock like a dream. Asus also has the Overclocker program that will find the highest overclock for you. I always do that then go in and manually set everything, then tweak it for lower voltages.

 

[holyrage]

it is a MOBO just buy the one that have the futures that u want if u want an AWESOME OC mobo just go with the HERO IMO

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I own both of the boards but my Gigabyte is the Black Edition.

I think the HERO has the edge.

Get some Gskill Sniper 2133.

 

[Amywalker730]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'll take your recommendations and stick with the Hero 7.

Here is their QVL http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-z97x-ud5h.pdf

Ah! I spent a solid half hour on their website looking for it! Thanks a bunch!

 

[Amywalker730]

I own both of the boards but my Gigabyte is the Black Edition.

I think the HERO has the edge.

Get some Gskill Sniper 2133.

Why the Gskill Sniper 2133? The timings on it look awfully high compared to the 2133 G.SKILL Ripjaws Z.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Matched my scheme and there is no real world difference in the speed.

 

[Amywalker730]

I own both of the boards but my Gigabyte is the Black Edition.

I think the HERO has the edge.

Get some Gskill Sniper 2133.

I can't argue with you about looks. That red heat shield fits in a lot better into the Hero's red scheme.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

The black Sniper with that small red patch looks sweet on the board , nice match.

 

[beekermartin]

I am torn between these two boards too. I just got an email from Newegg for 5% off the total order for the next seven hours if I use the mobile app to order. So the Gigabyte is down to $122.49 after rebate. The Hero is $174.99 through Tiger Direct today if you use Paypal checkout.

I am leaning toward the Gigabyte, not only because it is cheaper but it has an extra network port should one fail, it has both sata express and M.2 slots and it does have 12 phase digital power so it should overclock close to as high as the Hero. It also has old school PCI slots that I might use with my Xonar DG PCI sound card if the onboard 1150 isn't as good as it is cracked up to be. It appears the onboard doesn't have a headphone amp for the front port. The Xonar DG works great for that.

Anyway, I am still thinking it over. I can't imagine this deal getting much better. Total for the Gigabyte and i7 4790k is $427.48 shipped. Microcenter has the 4790k for $249.99 but the closest store is over an hour away and there is 6.25% tax. I really want to pull the trigger on this deal but I am afraid I will regret it once all the black Friday and cyber Monday deals are released.

 

[beekermartin]

I didn't realize the Newegg 5% coupon expired at 8pm pt and I missed it. Ohh well. Hopefully a similar good deal comes out over the next week or so. The more reading I do about the Gigabyte UDH5 the more I like it. It really seems like a great z97 mobo, especially for the money.

 

[beekermartin]

I went with the Gigabyte Z97X UDH5. Newegg had a $25 off of $200 if you used Visa Checkout. It is on sale for $149.99 - $20.00 rebate and then I used the $25.00 off $200 by adding a 2tb Seagate external drive for $79.88. I needed a small portable external drive so the timing was good.

Hopefully the UDH5 works out well. I like the looks of the Hero better but the extra nic, compatibility with the newest drive technologies, having old school PCI slots, and it being much cheaper made the decision easy. If it is as good as all of the reviews I've read it should be a great z97 mobo.