MSi Gaming 5 or Asus Maximus VII Ranger

Saltire35

New member
I've been promising to build my daughter a new PC to replace her ageing AMD set up. But I'd like to hear OC3D's feedback regarding the choice of motherboard.

The new set up is as follows:

NZXT H440
Intel i5 4690K
Corsair H100i
16Gb HyperX Savage 2400MHz
750w SuperFlower PSU
2x 120Gb Corsair SSDs
2x 2TB Storage Drives
SoundBlaster Z Sound Card
MSi GTX970 Gaming Edition

The motherboards that it has come down to is either of the following:

  • Asus ROG Z97 Maximus VII Ranger
  • MSi Z97 Gaming 5
Aesthetically, they both match perfectly.

I like the MSi board but not sure of Killer NIC compared to the Asus's Intel NIC. I have googled the issue and a lot favour Intel but some say it doesn't really make any difference.

I like the Asus board too, I could even stretch to the Hero version but I think the Ranger offers better value for money but even that is still more expensive than the MSi board.

Lastly, I want to fit the sound card in the bottom slot... I know I can with the Asus board, but not sure about the MSi as it's set up differently from what I've read.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Cheers
 
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I own the gaming 5 and it performs great, I'd go for the motherboard which looks the best to you, thought I'd go for the MSI as you have an MSI GPU.
 
I own a Ranger, It's a awesome board but where i am it does cost more, I couldn't really say the MSI cause i had problems with MSI boards in the past but never had any issues with ASUS boards
 
I wouldnt go with the Asus just because of the intel NIC because normal users will never notice a difference. Id deffo get the MSI to match your GPU though
 
Yeah both NICs will do about the same thing. There really isn't any point in going Killer for any benefits..

But, as I mentioned, the software is bloody awesome. Streets ahead of any other tools I've used.
 
Not going to lie. My MSI gaming ITX is a really great motherboard apart from the killer lan crap. I personally think its awful software and its put me off getting anything with Killer LAN stamped on it. I've had several latency issues with it in games that never had issues previously (same server, I even put w8.1 on my old PC to test it)and I've only recently fixed it, along with the issue where my bandwidth would magically vanish when I downloaded something.

I'd happily buy an MSI motherboard if it didn't have Killer LAN. Excellent motherboards IMO.
 
Not going to lie. My MSI gaming ITX is a really great motherboard apart from the killer lan crap. I personally think its awful software and its put me off getting anything with Killer LAN stamped on it. I've had several latency issues with it in games that never had issues previously (same server, I even put w8.1 on my old PC to test it)and I've only recently fixed it, along with the issue where my bandwidth would magically vanish when I downloaded something.

I'd happily buy an MSI motherboard if it didn't have Killer LAN. Excellent motherboards IMO.

Wow that bad? remind me not to update the driver !
 
Killer LAN is excellent compared to what I had with my Intel NIC. When I experience the rare cases of lag when gaming online, I just block everything else except the game and I works super smooth
I have the H97 Gaming 3 though.
 
Got an MSi Z97 Gaming 3, same board more or less. Very pleased with it unlike the Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 that randomly gets dissorted sound, apparently a common 'feature' of that model, shame the warranty has run out. O_o
 
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