MSI G55 SLI vs MSI Z97 Krait edition vs ASRock Extreme 3 or Extreme 4. Halp

[Solrac Oreca]

I'm also including the MSI Guard Pro because I don't really plan to run SLI since the 960 being not recommended to SLI anyway.

Soo I'm curious as to which board said above has higher quality and trusted longevity? Anyone has experience with these boards and encountered problems?
I need opinions and experiences with said boards please.

Thanks!

 

[sincreator]

grab the MSI z97 G55 SLI. The krait has issues in 3d performance. See the gaming results, and the 3dmark results here: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z97_sli_krait_motherboard_review/12

MSI recently started renaming their motherboards. Before the gaming series boards came about MSI had the gd series boards. There was a GD-45(msi gaming 3), the GD-55 sli(msi gaming 5), and the GD-65(msi gaming 7). They reworked the boards a little by adding a couple features, adding the killer network card, and changing the color scheme from black+blue to the red+ black color scheme found on the gaming series boards.

Basically they are the same. A couple of non essential features were added to spruce them up a bit is all before they renamed them to the "Gaming" series.

 

[Solrac Oreca]

grab the MSI z97 G55 SLI. The krait has issues in 3d performance. See the gaming results, and the 3dmark results here: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z97_sli_krait_motherboard_review/12

MSI recently started renaming their motherboards. Before the gaming series boards came about MSI had the gd series boards. There was a GD-45(msi gaming 3), the GD-55 sli(msi gaming 5), and the GD-65(msi gaming 7). They reworked the boards a little by adding a couple features, adding the killer network card, and changing the color scheme from black+blue to the red+ black color scheme found on the gaming series boards.

Basically they are the same. A couple of non essential features were added to spruce them up a bit is all before they renamed them to the "Gaming" series.

I'm sorry I didn't quite get that, were you suggesting I go for the gaming series or that the G55 SLI is an old version of the gaming series?

Anywho, is the G55 SLI recommended for long term usage? I'm planning to run the 4690K with it. I might not overclock too soon (maybe 1-2 years to give it time before I get the "free performance") to reserve warranty. I'm curious if this board is reliable for BIOS errors or corruption, maybe bugs or connector breakage (cheap hardware?) compared to the market leaders, Gigabyte or Asus.

I would go Asus (Z97-A or K) but they're expensive here and Gigabyte has red color scheme but I could take their normal or "BK" edition if you could recommend me one to compete with the G55 SLI

Thanks in advanced!

 

[sincreator]

The gd55 is the older version of the gaming 5. Either board would be excellent, but the gd55 is a fair amount cheaper.

I was going to suggest the Asus z97-a as well, but the price was pretty high from the site you linked.

I'm sure you will love the gd55 either way, and when you do decide to overclock, it should do a very good job.

IMO MSI outranks Gigabyte, and is now starting to close in on Asus. Maybe not in their budget boards, but at least in the mid range to high end. I would place the gd55 in their upper end hardware, and you should have no worries.

I have owned 2 MSI boards so far. One of them is still going today, 5 years later(msi 790fx gd-70. The other I bought christmas time(MSI z97 GD-65 Gaming) and I love it. Both boards have been rock stable for me and very good overclockers. I have not had one issue with them. MSI's quality has vastly improved over the last couple years and it shows IMO. Just make sure to register your product, so if any issues arise(i doubt it) you will be covered. The board still earns MSI's Military class 4 award, which means it is just as high of quality components as their gaming series. Hope this info helps.

 

[Solrac Oreca]

The gd55 is the older version of the gaming 5. Either board would be excellent, but the gd55 is a fair amount cheaper.

I was going to suggest the Asus z97-a as well, but the price was pretty high from the site you linked.

I'm sure you will love the gd55 either way, and when you do decide to overclock, it should do a very good job.

IMO MSI outranks Gigabyte, and is now starting to close in on Asus. Maybe not in their budget boards, but at least in the mid range to high end. I would place the gd55 in their upper end hardware, and you should have no worries.

I have owned 2 MSI boards so far. One of them is still going today, 5 years later(msi 790fx gd-70. The other I bought christmas time(MSI z97 GD-65 Gaming) and I love it. Both boards have been rock stable for me and very good overclockers. I have not had one issue with them. MSI's quality has vastly improved over the last couple years and it shows IMO. Just make sure to register your product, so if any issues arise(i doubt it) you will be covered. The board still earns MSI's Military class 4 award, which means it is just as high of quality components as their gaming series. Hope this info helps.

I almost forgot that my friend also uses MSI around 3 years and still running with no problems. I am convinced with MSI's quality and thank you for sharing your experience with MSI and I just hope that registering their products does help if I ever encounter problems and that their Military class rating is not just a gimmick but I would that know soon enough as
I will be building this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6zD3vK maybe when or if nvidia releases a Ti version of the 960
but forgive me though for being a little paranoid but if we're talking about BIOS or UEFI, will I get any problems updating and getting errors or BIOS corruption of some sort and should I be worried?

 

[sincreator]

Naw, you should be fine. That board has been out for a while now, and I suspect it will have a bios that should support even devil's canyon chips no problem out of the box. Usually newer batches of motherboards will ship with newer releases of the bios as well. That board is probably at version 1.4 or something like that by now.