What is the best Z77 chipset motherboard currently?

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thetechnoobguy

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In your opinion, what is the best Z77 chipset motherboard, and why.

I have decided to go with a Z77 LGA 1155 socket since they're coming out with a new 1150 socket so investing in the 2011 socket would be a waste of money imo.

I don't really know about all the key fancy smancy bonuses that come with the z77 mobo's (z77 is the newest right?), so I need your guy's help in choosing a mobo that will fit my needs.
The Z77A MSI "military grade" mobos look really nice and intriguing. The Asus sabertooth is even sexier with the all black finish.

Important question; will these mobos support my old hard drives that I'm using right now? I don't know what the model is or anything i looked on dxdiag. (also I have never built a computer before)

Other info:

The MSI Z77A-GD55/ and 65 are $50 off.
There's an Intel DZ77GA70K ATX LGA1155 Z77 on sale for $210 regular $270, not sure if that's any good.
The sabertooth is on sale for like $20.
ASRock Z77 Pro 3 ATX LGA1155, ASRock Z77 EXTREME4/EXTREME 6 are also on sale, for $60, and the Pro 3 for $50.
These seem like top tier mobos that are on sale, so I'd prefer to get one on sale. Bottom line my max budget is $250.

Most important to least:
-Gaming (top priority by far)
-Video editing
-Coding in c++ / learning code and coding
-Making music/ playing instruments
-Server hosting (wont be doing a whole lot of this, might not even do any)
 
Solution



It is definately capable, and the of 3D, Gigabyte 680 OC is definately affordable in the $500 range. I haven't heard anything about DC2 matching DC2T after firmware...

sherlockwing

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I believe majority of those record & multiple 10.0/Editor's Choice reviews was set by the Factory OCed DC2T(for Top)-2GD5, which comes with 1059 Core/1137 Boost and their chips were all binned beforehand as well. It was a great card both in term of OC and Noise/Cooling, however they have been out of stock a long time ago with no sign of restocking.

The DC2(Not Top) that everyone is selling now come with stock 670 clock and probably won't be able to OC as much, although its Noise/Cooling are still marginally better than Gigabyte I wouldn't recommend it for $20 extra.

I use a VG 278H and can vouch for its great capability in both 2D & 3D, at $549 right now it is a good value. However VG 278HE offers 24Hz extra in refresh rate at $50 less if you don't need the 3D kit(if your GPU can push 144 FPS).
 

Well I wouldn't argue about the ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 but as you pointed out it's discontinued. Just screwing around I set a world record on my ASUS DC2's.

Again, the ASUS VG278HE seems fine though I'd like to see certification before pressing the 'add to cart,' but it's another net $85 (kit) for 24Hz or effectively in 3D 60Hz vs 72Hz -- I can see both sides. Frankly, I've considered the ASUS VG278HE as a replacement to our 3x Acer's ($1,650), but I just doled out over $2K upgrading.

/edit - Lets not forget the MSI Lightning and Power editions that allow over voltage...
 

sherlockwing

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I haven't seen the OC results differ much on MSI PE vs EVGA FTW/Gigabyte OC/ASUS Top on Overclock.net, all seem to have a 40-60% chance to get a stable 1300Mhz+ and the # of 1380+/1400+ Mhz you can count on 1 hand for any card. It is more Silicon lottery than anything the manufacture could do.
 

thetechnoobguy

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Alright so I put a deposit in so I can pick up my PSU and the GPU (the EVGA 680) tommorow.

There is a new sale however, and they will allow me to exchange some of the things I ordered to something else if I want.

Looking through the new sale I happened to stumble upon this;
http://www.ncix.ca/products/index.php?sku=71725&vpn=ZT-60102-10P&manufacture=Zotac&promoid=1267

Probably the most unique looking card I've seen, and with it running at 1110 MHz Base / 1175 MHz Boost and 6608MHz memory clock, makes it roughly 10% faster than the EVGA card. Plus it comes with 3 assasin creed games along with borderlands 2 :D.

The problem being, I rarely hear of this brand, the card has barely any reviews, no unboxing or videos on it, I have no idea what the customer service would be like, I don't know how good their driver support is. As far as aesthetics go, the fans look like they're extremely cheap although that may be because they're slighlty transparent, the heatpipes sticking out like that concerns me, I don't know if it is actually better for them to be out like that or if it would cause problems. It does come with a VGA adapter so it wouldn't have a problem connecting with my monitor.

I have until tommorow morning to decide, please help me. (The EVGA card is on sale for $480 now and the Zotac is on sale for $490)

Also, one thing that's really strange, is that up until yesterday, the EVGA card was advertise at $579.98, and now the exact same card is instead $529.99??? Did they just add $50 before to make it seem like you're getting a good deal?
 

sherlockwing

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The Zotac card does have a 9.5/10 review on Techpowerup.com.

Though if I were to recommend a factory OCed 680, I'd recommend Gigabyte/MSI Lightning/ASUS DC2 because their custom fan cooler are guaranteed to run at least 5-10C cooler and less noise than EVGA's stock cooler design, the Zotac is not bad and will also give you better thermal/noise performance compared to the EVGA.

MSI Lightning @ 9.8/10 from same reviewer


ASUS DC2 @ 9.7/10 same source

Gigabyte 680 OC "Recommended" at Guru3D.com

As for the EVGA card price change, are you sure you were looking at the 2GB card when you saw the 579.99? Because EVGA's 4G card is around that price while their 2G card is alot closer to the $529.99 you listed. They look exactly the same on the outside.

At any rate you wouldn't need more than 2G of Vram for a 1080p monitor.
 

thetechnoobguy

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So the Zotac is better than the EVGA? That's all I needed to know, I'll switch with it instead. I would go for those cards if I could afford $600 but I think the extra $100 isn't worth it.

Another thing;
" In our testing this results in a 7% performance increase when averaged over our benchmark suite. "
Does this mean 7% over the average 5% increase the GTX 680 has over the 670 making it a 11% average increase from a refrence 670? Or does it mean this is 2% faster than the average 680, which honestly isn't much, and I would rather go with the EVGA model if it's only a 2% difference.

Also, does this card OC better than the EVGA one? (EVGA GeForce GTX 680 FTW LE 1006MHZ 2GB 6.2GHZ GDDR5)

"Unfortunately idle noise levels are not improved, the fan emits basically the same amount as the GTX 680 reference design cooler." so how loud is it. Does it make an annoying whistle or buzz noise or what? But if you say it's better than the EVGA 680 I wouldn't care.

Nope, it's the EXACT same card. Wow so basically they where charging me for a 4GB version... I'm guessing it was a glitch in the system.

Vram... ram on the video card?

Also, "Pushing 3 22' 3D monitors @ 120hz and graphics are smooth as can be in everything." Is that seriously possible? This is a comment from the Zotac card.
 

thetechnoobguy

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http://www.ncix.ca/products/index.php?sku=71705&vpn=GTX670-DC2-2GD5&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1267

Thats the one that's on sale, is that the badass one you guys where talking about or the one that isn't that great?

But there's no point since theres 680s on sale. I would have gone for a 670 if 680's werent on sale. Plus like I said by the time I can get a second 670 (which is long) I'll be able to get another 680.

I think I'm going to go for the VG 278HE and use it's 144hz when I SLI. I can't use 3D with a single card anyway. It's 3D capable though right?
 
I wish 'ratings' from customers were always right or made any sense, but they don't; my favorite example is the 500R (same case different color) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=Corsair+500R&x=0&y=0

The ASUS DC2 (GTX670-DC2-2GD5) you linked is fine, and there's a firmware that increases the clocks and allows for additional OC - http://usa.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX670DC2T2GD5/#download

Updated specs:
GPU Boost Clock : 1137 MHz
GPU Base Clock : 1058 MHz

You can run 3D with the GTX 670 (disable vSync or use Adaptive) and lower the settings and you can get 'playable' but choppy frame rates. Here's a video review with the GTX 660 Ti and 3D vision (punch drunk Linus) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8Okq9p3KY
 

sherlockwing

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It is definately capable, and the of 3D, Gigabyte 680 OC is definately affordable in the $500 range. I haven't heard anything about DC2 matching DC2T after firmware update(though I did see a few OC to 1300Mhz recently), if you want to pay the $30 extra($429.99/549.99) to get it over the Gigabyte(399.99/504.99.99)(or $45 if you are talking about the 680 models) you should get better noise/cooling based on Tom's review.

Be warned though the DC2 Cooler is quite heavy so the ASUS DC2/T 670/680 card tend to sag little on the right side, I haven't seen horror stories where it falls off the slot of anything, but a lot of owners are trying to combat this by supporting it with a pencil or power cable on the far right side.

 
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thetechnoobguy

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I've decided to go for the Zotac card, it's roughly the second fastest 680 (it's side by side with the ASUS DirectII 680 and even beats it in some games), with the only con being it's cooling isn't the greatest (but that can be fixed if it needs to be) along with OC potential is limited (which is fine because I'm not going to OC it much anyway).

The thing is, I'm not entirely sure if it's going to fit in the ASUS sabertooth z77 im going for when I SLI. Heres my thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/369905-33-concerns
 
The Sabertooth Z77 is a triple width PCIe spaced MOBO, so sure any two (SLI) GPU's will fit with no problem.

I'm not a Zotac fanboy, and any of there cards can be OC'ed using MSI Afterburner. Right now I would stick with either the ASUS DC2 or MSI non-reference cards.

/Edit - I looked at your other thread. I recommend MX-4 and not AS5 (TIM), it's not necessary to replace the GPU's TIM, OC'ing will increase the temps, 69°C under prolonged OC is fine, and lastly IF you choose an Ivy Bridge CPU then the GTX 600 series runs at PCIe 3.0 and in this case PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 in SLI.