MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming or MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt

[mzsista]

Please suggest a motherboard for Intel Core i5 3570K CPU
MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming or MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt?
Purpose is gaming but I have run out of funds and looking for reasonable cutbacks.

Actually I have to choose between these two, while Gaming board price is 40% higher.

What do I loose, when going to cheaper Thunderboard version?

CPU cooling planned Corsair H100i
Graphics controller is MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti.
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 RAM

Thanks.

 

[Feronix]

Gaming version supports a Killer ethernet NIC and better on-board audio as well as a different colour scheme.

If you don't need any of that, the regular (Thunderbolt) version will be fine. MSI had some of the best z77 boards on the market

 

[mzsista]

Sorry to be ignorant but what does this different colour scheme means?

 

[Feronix]

The gaming series motherboard are black and red while the regular ones are black and blue?

 

[NeverBackDown]

Get the cheaper one or the one you like more. The "gaming" boards have nothing over a regular MSI board. Personally using a Z77 GD55 and have had no problems.

 

[mzsista]

Does Thunderbolt supports overclocking?

Does Thunderbolt supports overclocking as well as gaming board?
It's an essential question, when going to cheaper solution.

 

[Feronix]

Erhmm... You do know what Thunderbolt *is* right?
It's basically an interface like USB on the back of the board I/O except it's much quicker and external devices with Thunderbolt tend to be a lot more expensive.

Overclocking-wise the boards should be about the same, as I believe the base for the board is actually the same. They just added some extra 'gaming' features on the Gaming motherboard.