Help me decide: MSI Z97 Gaming 5 or ASUS Maximus VII Hero ?

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leito361

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Coming from AMD (Phenom 2 965 mounted on a Crosshair III Formula) I've decided to move to intel, the CPU will be a i5 4690k... now that has been settled, I need an acceptable board to run it.

Having discarded the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2, and after reading some reviews, I think the MSI Gaming 5 is the way to go... it's worth mentioning that I plan to do a mild OC to the 4690k, the idea is to make it run at 4.0GHz, and see how it reacts from there.

Between the Hero and the Gaming 5, there's a difference of 70 USD (in my country). Both mobos are more or less the same in terms of hardware and general performance, but the difference relies on the software and the BIOS, both of them in favor of the Hero.

Besides, I THINK (personal opinion here) the Hero is a better overclocker than the Gaming 5, but I could be terribly wrong.

Does it worth paying the difference and grab the Hero?
 
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Considering your location, and the minimal price differences, I'd seriously consider just going with the Hero. It's a great board, a lot of our mod's use it and I've used it on about ten builds now. I've seen no issues aside from one board that I got not long after it's release which had a compatibility issue with some hardware that a bios update cleared right up. None of the others have had any issues at all and are running strong. I know MSI has a much better track record lately than they used to have, but I've still had hit and miss success with their hardware. Again, that's just me and also what I see here on a daily basis as well.
I would choose the Hero every day of every week of every year. The ASUS board has better bios support and ASUS seems, at least to my experience which may not reflect the experience of others, to have better customer support. The last two times I needed support from MSI for a customer board, it took two weeks before I even got a reply and they never made any real attempt to help satisfy the issue in my mind. The last time I contacted ASUS on a board problem, I had another board in a week.

That's not to say I'm often having to replace boards, because I usually only choose boards that are reliable (Hint, ASUS and Gigabyte) , but sometimes customers bring you a box of goodies and say "get after it".

Honestly though, for my money, unless the color scheme is an absolute must, I'd go with the ASUS Z97-A which has all the features of the Hero, and a couple it doesn't have, but just doesn't look as pretty. Same power phase, same overclocking qualities. Almost the same board minus slightly different VRM heatsinks and color scheme.
 
All z97 boards are made with overclocking in mind, the gaming 5 is the best choice for a budget gaming system imo, the hero has some pretty on board LEDs if you like that sort of thing, the gaming 5 can handle a 4690k @ 4GHz with no problems. save the money.
 


Really? Try overclocking with a Z97-Pro3 or Anniversary. There are a few, that while they CAN overclock, probably shouldn't be bought for that reason and only purchased if you want the SLI or Crossfire support.
 


I have always used ASUS as well, never had a problem, but it never hurts changing brands, I've had MSI Graphics Card and they were flawless.

Regarding the Z97-A I couldn't find it anywhere... Is that model still in production?

(EDIT: Nevermind, found it, it's cheaper than the Hero, but only 25 bucks cheaper. Can you tell me more about it, I listened it's extremely good.)

Thank you for your response :)

I'm still listening opinions.
 
What country are you in? Pricing for some models is curiously off kilter in some countries, between board models. Seems like they simply price them on the fact that they're difficult to bring in or are in demand, in some places. The Z97-A and Hero in the US have a 55.00 price difference here, which could easily be the difference between a bigger GPU or other hardware choices on some builds/budgets. The Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 is another really good choice, that usually doesn't come with a premium price tag like the ROG boards do.
 


Argentina, now everything will be more clear to you xD

It seems Z97-A is more expensive because the seller ships the board on demand... so he has to "buy" the board in the US and then re-sell it here. And at that price point, I'd just go for the Hero, since the vantage point of the Z97-A is the price/performance ratio, which is nullified here.

The Gigabyte Gaming 5 was my first option, but then I started to read reviews and I did a side-by-side comparition with the MSI and I discarded the Gigabyte quickly... the difference here between the Giga and the MSI is aproximately 20 USD in favor of the Giga.
 
Considering your location, and the minimal price differences, I'd seriously consider just going with the Hero. It's a great board, a lot of our mod's use it and I've used it on about ten builds now. I've seen no issues aside from one board that I got not long after it's release which had a compatibility issue with some hardware that a bios update cleared right up. None of the others have had any issues at all and are running strong. I know MSI has a much better track record lately than they used to have, but I've still had hit and miss success with their hardware. Again, that's just me and also what I see here on a daily basis as well.
 
Solution
Have you taken a look at the z97x-ud5h yet? It's feature set and build quality is unmatched here (germany) for it's price. Other than that, for that little price difference between the -a and the hero, might as well get the hero.
 


Thank you for your suggestion, here, the difference is about ~40USD against the Hero, so for that price I'm sticking to the ASUS Board. Besides, and I can't believe what I'm about to say, the color scheme kinda put me down xDDDDD, First time I say something like that.



It seems that the hero is the winner, thank you :)



I posted the exact same question in several other forums, and at Tom's was the place where people help me the most. I appreciate for all your comments and suggestions. It seems I'll be going for the Hero and stick to the ROG board, besides, I still have my Crosshair III, which is like 5 years old and it's alive and kicking.
 
ASUS, like ALL board manufacturers, usually have some issues with their boards when the platform is in it's infancy, but after the platform has matured and the bugs have pretty much all been worked out, seem to be just about neck and neck with Gigabyte on reliability and support, and pretty much in a different class than ASRock and MSI. Just basing that off what I see on a weekly and monthly basis. Others may see things differently, but that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
 


I would like to know, if you've ever encountered this sound problem before? Because I really want to buy this motherboard, but if the motherboard has that sound, I guess i need to find another motherboard. https://youtu.be/MZyvOUdbUqY?t=4m30s

Alot of people say that they also have this problem, and I really don't wanna spend 270$ on a motherboard, if I can't use the onboard sound..

(Sorry for my spelling, I'm from Denmark).

Thank you!
 
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