Motherboard reccomendation? Real or just sales talk?

[freshbuilder]

Okay so I bought my case today in preparation for building my rig. I'm happy with my purchase no problem there. I struck a conversation with the shop owner and I told him about my build. My current mobo of choice is a Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA1155, instead he recommended that I should go with an Asrock Extreme 3 Gen 3, which is cheaper and supposedly performs better. Can I get some feedback as to whether his recommendation was right or its just sales talk?

 

[jsc]

Of the two, I would go with Gigabyte.

I think AsRock boards are just a little too "budget".

Asus Z68 boards are the most popular here.

 

[tlmck]

I cannot speak to the actual performance of either, but I can tell you that Asrocks have a higher failure and DOA return rates. Gigabyte is about the best you can get as far as quality, and in 18+ years of using them, I have never gotten a bad one. Not to say they did not make any bad ones, I just did not get one of them.

You can also examine the build quality of a Gigabyte vs. an Asrock or any other board. Even inexperienced folks can see the difference.

With any such components it is always a good idea to Google the board name and model number followed by the word "problems". You can then sort of sort through the valid from the invalid.

 

[sosofm]

Asrock do verry good motherboards. I had Asus - no problem in 3 years
Gigabyte some problems , and after 2 years it must be replaced.
New build Asrock P67 Extreme 6 in one year not even the smallest problem , run verry good.
Even with big brands you need to be lucky too.

 

[freshbuilder]

Yeah, reliability and quality feedback would be awesome not just performance. The issue I have with the Gigabyte that I'm picking is that its slot only run at 8x for GPUs since I might go with a crossfire setup in the future whereas the asrock has two 16x slots.

 

[tlmck]

Here is the specs from the Asrock web site. Note the section on slots.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3&cat=Specifications

And here is the one from Gigabyte for comparison.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3853#sp

The advantage of the Asrock seems to be the PCie 3.0 slots for future use with Ivy Bridge CPU. Gigabyte has a similar board, but at higher cost.

You might also look at ASUS. Usually pretty good quality, although I have had two bad ones in the past at different times.

 

[jaquith]

Review of GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 and ASRock Z68 Extreme4 -> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z68-extreme4-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3,2939-18.html ; in this case the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 was chosen the 'winner.'

Further, for high OC'ing I prefer the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro, or Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5; 12+ Phases in my experience is the minimum of SB 'K' CPUs.

However, if you do not have a SB 'K' then none of this matters -- get the one that's the cheapest, offers what you need, and offers the best warranty. In addition, about the best service/warranty is EVGA.

 

[freshbuilder]

Agin extreme 3 not the extreme 4

 

[jaquith]

Yeah, I know and noticed I don't recommend or like the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 at least not on any SB 'K'. Clearly, I noticed ASRock Z68 Extreme3 and GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3...both lack the ability to OC efficiently. Frankly, none of what you posted are anything for a SB 'K'.

If you're looking at a non-K SB then it doesn't matter - cheap is fine. ASRock Z68 Extreme3 or GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 take your pick with non-K's.

Q - What SB CPU??

 

[freshbuilder]

i have no idea what the heck SB means man

 

[jaquith]

SB = Sandy Bridge CPU / LGA 1155.
SB-E = Sandy Bridge Extreme CPU / LGA 2011.

Upcoming is the IB = Ivy Bridge CPU / LGA 1155.
Upcoming is the IB-E = Ivy Bridge Extreme CPU / LGA 2011.

Sandy Bridge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
Upcoming Intel CPU's - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_microprocessors

Hope that helps

 

[freshbuilder]

Best answer selected by Freshbuilder.