Overclocking Motherboard, Any of these good? Z97.

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Primordial Genesis

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So i'm looking for a Z97 Board which has good OC Capability AND Crossfire Capability. I'm looking for £80 - £110.

I have a few picked out:
1.http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Z97-G45-Gaming-LGA1150-Motherboard/dp/B00K8KODYQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1403109074&sr=8-5&keywords=z97-a
2.http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Z97-Gaming-LGA1150-Motherboard/dp/B00K8KPXUO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1403109141&sr=8-6&keywords=z97
3.http://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-Z97X-UD3H-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K2VRAJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403109372&sr=8-1&keywords=gigabyte+z97
4.http://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-Z97X-SLI-LGA1150-Motherboard-USB3-0/dp/B00K9R1MCO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1403109372&sr=8-7&keywords=gigabyte+z97
5.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mod-1150-ASUS-Z97-A-Motherboard/dp/B00K80MMJ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403111708&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+z97+a

So the GIGABYTE Z97X-SLI Seems like the best option to me simply because it's the cheapest however the VRMs look small in comparison. (I haven't had a look at the Power design just yet)

So are the top 3 good for OCing?
And what is the 4th one like?

I haven't looked at Asus because they seem more expensive. However the Z97-A is on that list.

If you guys know of any others at this price range, fire away! 😀

Cheers,

Primordial Genesis.
 
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Is the Z97X SLI No good for OC?

Because I'd rather put the price difference towards the GPU xD which is about £28.
 
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If you want go ahead... The Z97 is a bit better than the Z87 if you look at them although they are both motherboards and do what they do.
 
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Would there actually be a difference between the Z97X SLI and the Z97X D3h? I'm just basing this off the physical size of the VRMS haha. Also since Asus give a 1 year warranty on their mobos (same as amazon's) Is it worth biting the bullet and getting it fro mthat seller? It's not fufilled by amazon so it's not covered under their warranty but ASus have their own anyway.
 
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Does that apply to all Asus MB's?

And is it worth it over the Gigabyte Z97X SLI for £93?
 
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Does that apply to all Asus MB's?

And is it worth it over the Gigabyte Z97X SLI for £93?
 
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All of these boards offer pretty much similar features.

Same goes pretty much for the VRM department as well. But if you really care about the VRM, here are some detailed information for you.

Gigabyte had the better vrm components and better overall vrm performance for z87 market but, for some reason, they downed their vrm complexity compared to z87 boards this time around. Z87x-ud3h was one of the best boards for the buck for example and had impressive VRM with true 8 phase all International Rectifier digital vrm design and IR 3553 powerstage fets. But now z97x-ud3h has only 4 true phases hybrid/analog (Intersil) doubled to 8 phases. Fets are also less efficient. They use some Vishay powerpaks this time. Decent stuff but no where near IR powIRstages.

But still, z97x-ud3h is enough for a mild overclock.

On the other hand z97x-SLI is a lot less powerful. Haven't seen with my own eyes yet though but it has only 4 true phases, no doubler and 4 pairs of the same vishay powerpaks which are actually not really efficient for an overclock imo. This vrm design will run unefficiently hot.

Asus z97-A and MSI Gaming 5 is similar to z97x-ud3h. 4 hybrid/analog phases doubled to 8. Asus z97-a employs some lfpaks while MSI-Gaming 5 has on-semi powerpaks. It doesn't always right to compare head to head though (since the switching frequency of pwm would be different) but MSI's mosfets are more efficient and better than the one Asus z97-A has. This might mean less load on each mosfet and less heat.

Interestingly enough, Asus decided to rename their pwm controller this time. They been using digital controller from IR on z87 but this time it's clear that it's neither an IR controller nor a digital one. They just chose to hide the actual manufacturer and specification for their controller. Probably, their engineers pick a cheapo controller and programmed it themselves. And in the end gave a weird name to that controller. I still trust Asus though, but they sure are doing some strange stuff this time.

Also MSI employs better inductors (8 of them on Gaming 5) each are capable of 60 amps. While z97-A has 8x 28A chokes (inductors) and Gigabyte z97x-ud3h has 8x40A ones. But that difference is really negligible, since it's really hard to fully load these designs. But that doesn't change the fact that MSI uses slightly better components here.

All in all; these three boards are enough for mild overclocking. But if you pay a little bit more Gigabyte z97x-Gaming 5 is better and it's one of the best bang for the buck boards atm. Digitally controlled 8 true phases (controller is International Rectifier), 8 of those Vishay powerpaks and 8x 40amp chokes.



 
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Even a 3 analog phase MSI z87-g43 runs a 4670K @ 4.7Ghz just very fine. That's not the case here I guess. At the end of the day you are most probably limited by your cpu chip. The point is getting the better bang for the buck. And I wouldn't recommend a board that has some unknown stuff with carefully skulked specs or kinda deceptive marketing.
 
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And what it boils down to is the individual components used don't really mean a whole lot in the power delivery, all the better manufacturers use quality componants that are more than sufficient to produce a quality mobo. And power phases don't really mean a lot unto themselves, there are great mobos that run well, OC well run cool, etc with all kinds of designs, so saying something is 'better' just because it has more phases doesn't make sense, if it did all the high end mobos that OC great would be running 12-18-24 phase designs and they don't...plain and simple, what it comes down to is the overall design and how it integrates into the mobo
 
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We basically said the same thing. :)

 
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Not really, you say "they downed their vrm complexity", as if it's a bad thing, I would say probably because regardless of the high end components they used it was a poor design, those Z87s didn't OC very well, at least the two I had some time to play with
 
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Well, as you know, overclockability and stability might change with a different bios (even more hardcore stuff like power consumption etc..). So that doesn't mean that z97s are better in overclocking. With most of the z87 boards you hit the limit of your cpu chip way before you hit the motherboard's limit. 4.6-4.7 GHz 7/24 is easily achievable with the right cooling solution on z87s. Even on entry level boards like msi z87-g43 or a gigabyte z87-d3h.

But generally speaking, I agree that z97s are tad more effiicient since manufacturers had some time to develop better and more efficient ways to design stuff. That's why almost all of them decided to down their component quality and vrm complexity, since they found out that they made some overkill and expensive choices before. Gigabyte, Asus, MSI all of them did that. (While ASRock upping their quality, since they really been using generic and cheaper components overall especially in low/mid-range.) Now we don't see lots of Gigabyte boards with all IR VRM or 32xIR3550 powIRstages and 32x60amp chokes on MSI boards. They basically learned to make stuff as efficient as before (or even more) with cheaper and less powerful components. This is a normal process and I don't have a problem with downed vrm complexity. But renaming the components and hiding the specifications is another story. And I just can't trust a brand doing that. Would you continue buying the same packed food, if they suddenly remove the ingredients list, production date or something like that? Even though you continue to trust the quality somehow, some suspicions would arise in your mind. I know this is not a perfect analogy but still I'd suggest a product that is more transparent to is customers with less deceptive marketing.
 
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As I've said for years, individual components do not make a good power delivery system or anything else, it's how they are designed and put together. As far as marketing and 'gimmicks' all the mobo makers do it..so dwelling on it isn't really worth the time....especially with the big 3, they basically are going to have good mobos....sure there will be a stinker here or there, but they are generally quickly identified...Best bet is getting hands on with as many as possible, that's one reason I try as many components with rigs as I have time for when I'm building or bring a rig in for upgrades or repairs
 
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I'd be aiming for around 4.5Ghz on the i5 4670k. Which board would you buy best bang for buck in that situation? if the 4.5Ghz (and it sounds like it from what you're saying) isn't a big Overclock will the Z97X SLI be able to achieve this relatively easily?
 
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It can handle 4.5GHz probably. But still the board will run hot. If you want the things run cooler, you need a board that is better in vrm department, like a Gigabyte z97x-ud3h at least, which has 4 true phases doubled to 8 and has more mosfets than z97x-sli. This means less load on phases and mosfets, and better heat dissipation.

 
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You Said the Z87 G43 could do 4.7ghz. Are you speaking of the gaming or non gaming version? I've heard the G43 is a SHIT board Overclocking (from a few posts on this forum) However they didn't specify Gaming or Regular.

I'm actually building 2 rigs. One which will need Overclocking (Crossfire would be nice for the future) and One that needs crossfire only.

What's the cheapest Crossfire 97 chipset Mobo? Doesn't need overclocking just needs at least 2x PCIEX8.

What's the cheapest Overclocking 97 chipset mobo which can comfortably achieve 4.5Ghz? Doesn't need Crossfire, it would be nice but if a non crossfire one is cheaper, I'd prefer that.


Cheers
 
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Okay guys, I've had a complete change of plan. i'm now only building one rig and overclocking is NOT needed at all. However Crossfire is needed 100%. What's are some cheap options of H87/H97/Z87/Z97 Sli/Xfire Chipsets out there?

I'd appreciate a few examples so I can take my pick (because things like fan headers ,USB 3.0 etc etc are still important to me.
 
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