Should I go for ASRock Z68 motherboard?

xlzhsteven

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I am looking at a variety of Z68 chipset motherboard, I think the most outstanding feature for the Z68 is both GPU and CPU are overclockable,ssd caching , and virtu support. The three big name manufacture for motherboard are ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte I think. I was looking at Z68 boards (around $200) under these names, It looks like most gigabyte high end motherboard does not support virtu, and MSI only has 2 6G/s SATA, ASUS is out of stock at newegg.

However ASRock Z68 does look really attractive, looks like it has all the functionality that Z68 supports, should I go with this brand or I should wait for ASUS Z68 V-PRO or other brands? (I had a P8P67 Pro motherboard and having issue with not waking up after put computer to sleep, do you guys think the new ASUS Z68 motherboard will have the same issue?)
 
Solution
Can not say, Have not loaded the operating system yet. No HDD connected yet, still waiting on case (probably have on frid). Still tring to decide on which SSD to get. In no hurry as my I5-750 OC @ 3.2 does pretty good. Also has SSD for boot drive. When first hit the power button to opening email - 40 Sec (20 Sec is Post time).

But I can say - NO it will NOT have a problem. Reason; I use an SSD so I disable Hibernation, and deleted the .sys file.

xlzhsteven

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I read *** lot of article about asrock, and they all claim that asrock is *** lower quality brand. However it's one of the top rated P67 motherboards in newegg, I read some reviews and seems like most people are happy with what they get and no sleep/wake issue was mentioned. Which side should I trust? Is asrock really worth getting, it's only $199 for the Z68 Extream4 version. Will I face quality issue later? I have *** ASUS P8P67 Pro board, and I am suffering from the sleep/wake problem, it looks like other companies like Gigabyte and MSI also have the same issue.
 

fullofzen

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The ASRock Z68 Pro3 on newegg has no price diff with the Pro3 P67. That being said, I would avoid it for now -- there may be some issues that pop up with the first batch of boards. Problems such as with your P8P67 that would not wake up after sleep...

Again, if it were me, I would hold off on Z68 for *** few months. That being said, you'll do just as well with ASRock as you would with Asus or MSI.
 

ASRock used to be a tier-two brand, but within the last few years they have increased the quality of their products to the level of the first-tier brands. Instead of being the younger step-brother of ASUS and forced to walk ten steps behind, now they stand side by side with them as the "budget enthusiast/overclocker" alternative.
 

cburtea

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I just put together a new build with an ASRock Z68 Pro3-M (micro ATX) using the i7 2600K and all seems OK. I am pretty happy with the board, especially for the sub 150 price. No major issues. So far only a small OC to 4.2 GHz but that was realy easy and seems stable. I only got about 1 day using the new build so issues may crop up.

I would not hesitate to pick ASRock over MSI or Gigabyte. I would have liked an Asus but no micro ATX is available yet and I am not sure they justify the premium in price.

It's allways better to wait a bit and not jump on the first offerings but if you are like me and been waiting for the Z68 ever since Sandybridge came out, ASRock is a asolid choice.
 
Myself, I prefer Gigabyte. But only their LOW end boards provide for the IGP to be connected to a monitor. Main reason for getting the Z68 was to allow for back up video capability.

So went with the Asrock Extreme4.
Looks good, Not one problem in getting it up and running (limited). Put one stick ram in it booted off the get go, added 3 more sticks, booted without a hiccup. went in to Bios specified XPM, Profile 1 reboot. can not ask for more, WELL mayby I like the Gigabyte Bios Much better. Not sure on the new gigabyte GUI bios on the Z68's, could be no better. Seems like they are tring to make idiot proof, but in doing so lose soom functionality.

From One of my posts earlier today
Received my I5-2500K and Z68 Asrock Extreme4 MB on Friday (Was not suppose to arrive until Monday). So on Saturday I put together on the Kitchen table. Used a Corsair TX 650 PSU and 8 gigs of Ripjaw DDR3-1600, CL7, and Zalman 9900Max HSF. Powered up (using IGP), only change to BIOS was to allow XMP Profile 1. Ran Memtest for a couple of Hrs, No errors, Just wanted to confirm it was working before installing in a case. No HDD and bought Windows 7 3 user pack on Sunday. That 9900max was a PITA to get on. I’m going to look into modifying the installation too simplify!!!! The temps in BIOS looked good, low 30’s, But this is not in a case, so I would expect mid 30’s. Need the operating system so that I can look at individual core temps @ idle and under load.

 

xlzhsteven

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I had a ASUS P8P67 Pro before and I was having problem wake windows 7 up after sleep (after OC), do you have the same issue with your ASROCK Z68 board, and how's the CPU and Motherboard temperature looking on your board?
 

xlzhsteven

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Did you have the sleep wake problem? because there are lots of P67 motherboard had that problem, I just want to make sure this problem does not exist before I order the product.
 
Can not say, Have not loaded the operating system yet. No HDD connected yet, still waiting on case (probably have on frid). Still tring to decide on which SSD to get. In no hurry as my I5-750 OC @ 3.2 does pretty good. Also has SSD for boot drive. When first hit the power button to opening email - 40 Sec (20 Sec is Post time).

But I can say - NO it will NOT have a problem. Reason; I use an SSD so I disable Hibernation, and deleted the .sys file.
 
Solution

YHR3900

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I have an Asrock P67 Extrene4 motherboard that has NOT been overclocked and I have sporadic issues with the video not coming on when I wake it from hibernation. Then I have to hold down the on/off key until it does a hard boot, then it behaves normally. It really seems the longer the sytem has been in hibernation the more likely it is to have a wakeup problem. I haven't kept a log to prove that though. From what I have seen on the web, both ASUS and Asrock have this problem in the P67 series. Could be bios, or might even be Win 7.