Gigabyte Z97 vs MSI Z97

[TJReed]

Hello everyone, I have a little bit of a challenging decision to make here as I need a decent yet cheap Z97 mobo as an upgrade for my Pentium and 270x build, and I have found two so far: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard : http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97hd3 MSI PC Mate Z97: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97pcmate I have chosen to go Z97 because these two options honestly arent much more expensive than many H97s and allow me to get something like an i5 4690k, if I ever get enough money for that. So if anyone knows which one of these is just overall better or if both are just trash then please feel free to share, thanks!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Don't see many reviews at that price point, but if ya wanna compare the Gigabyte Gaming 5 and the MSI Gaming 5, ya can do so here...

As to the 2 boards themselves, you can use the compare function and it shows very little difference between the two feature wise.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=-1&IsNodeId=1&Description=MSI%20Z97%20mate&bop=And&CompareItemList=-1|13-128-715^13-128-715-TS%2C13-130-779^13-130-779-TS&percm=13-130-779%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

THG Forum software will cut the link, but if ya quote my post you can copy / paste the entire link out

 

[dudmont]

As somebody with modern boards from both companies(Z87 XPower and Z97 MX Gaming 5), I prefer the Bios of the MSI by a large margin. That being said, get the board with the features you want.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I have to agree.... doing a Giga Z97 SOC build and BIOS is a bear.....

-also disappointed that none of the 6 system fans are actually PWM.

-The Fan Control utility offers no where near the range of control as MSI or Asus and it was far from accurate in the Autotuning....it determined a speed range of like 509 to 666 on a 200m front intake fan tho doing manually I was able to get down to 222.

 

[dudmont]

I have to agree.... doing a Giga Z97 SOC build and BIOS is a bear.....

-also disappointed that none of the 6 system fans are actually PWM.

-The Fan Control utility offers no where near the range of control as MSI or Asus and it was far from accurate in the Autotuning....it determined a speed range of like 509 to 666 on a 200m front intake fan tho doing manually I was able to get down to 222.

I'm still trying to sort out the fan control, it's my biggest gripe with the bios. the Xpower's fan control is pretty good. In fact, I think the Xpower is easily the best board I've ever played with(also the most expensive 😉).
I don't hate the Gigabyte board, it was a very easy build, just the fan control is by far weaker.