Should I go with Gigabyte z87 or Asus z77?

[pedrohfranco]

Hi guys,
First some background: I've been traveling a lot for the last couple years so I got myself a Macbook Pro after 20 years with a PC desktop. Now that I've finally settled I want to build a decent gaming desktop.

Problem is, I have some music software and hardware that is Mac only and I really like mac osx in general, so I started looking into dual booting Windows 8 and Mavericks so I can sell my macbook.

After some research on hackintosh I came up with the following config

Gigabyte z87x ud3h
i5 4670k
EVGA gtx 770 sc
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Pro
Corsair HX750
Corsair Force SSD 120GB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Corsair Carbide 400R

But after seeing a lot of issues with gigabyte z87x motherboards being unstable, specially with 4 sticks of memory, I started having second thoughts.

So I found the Asus P8Z77-V and with the price difference I could get an i7 3770k instead.

So my question comes down to:
Is it worth to go with Sandy Bridge this late into the 4th generation? If so, is this Asus a good MB if I want to upgrade later to a SLI configuration, water cooling, more memory and ssd/hdd? Does asus support well a hackintosh system?
Or should I stick with the gigabyte and get 2x8gb of memory to minimize risks of instability?

Keep in mind that I'm a student, so I can't overdo my current budget and it's important that the build looks good (that's why the blue MBs).

Thanks in advance.

PS: I'm from Brazil and prices are weird. So links to amazon, ebay and newegg are almost useless.

 

[spooky2th]

I would go with the Z87 board. But then again, that 3770K CPU is great. I have the non-K version and simply luv it. I plan on using this board and CPU for years to come.

 

[pedrohfranco]

I'm really torn on this, since I don't know much about neither Haswell or Sandy Bridge
Do you know anything about OCing on this boards?

 

[spooky2th]

OCing is good on both board types. Z87 boards are slightly faster but not by much at all. Not enough to make anybody want to upgrade. The main difference in board types is that the manufacturing is smaller for the Z87 boards & cpu's. The Z77 1155 socket has 1155 pins while the Z87 1150 boards & cpu's have only 1150 pins. Which means they do the same and slightly more with less. I don't think you can lose with either choice.

EDIT:
If you can afford it, get a z87 board and an i7-4770.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116900

Or an i7-4770K. They are the same price now at newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901

 

[pedrohfranco]

Thanks for the help. I think I will save some more and go with the 4770k.

Do you think Gigabyte will be a good choice? They say its the better one for hackintosh but those BSODs are scary man!

 

[spooky2th]

Gigabyte uses more metal in their MB's than other manufacturers and they usually last and last. Set up the BIOS and especially the memory speed and timings before you install windows. Memory is probably the main cause of problems in new builds.

 

[pedrohfranco]

Cheer, mate. Maybe I'll save some more for the i7 4770k.