Which Z68 Board?

[theskipper]

Hello everyone!

I am currently in the process of looking at upgrading from my Q9550/790i system to a SB-2500K system, The main reason being the current board (XFX nForce 790i Ultra) feels as if it's on it's way out and I think now is a good time to start looking at upgrading.

My question is which Z68 board to go for? The three boards in question - I have read some reviews on and all end up coming out with "It's just a good performer" however, I currently own an ASUS Xonar D2X soundcard that runs on a 1x pcie interface, I have read that SB supports a maximum of 16 pcie lanes and I am ultimately wondering that "If I install this soundcard will my bandwidth for the GPU drop to 8x?"

I have read some items on how the difference in 8x/16x is fairly minimal/if anything at all but is dependent on GPU - In this case it will be a GTX 570.

Here are the three boards:

MSI Z68A-GD65-G3

ASUS P8Z68-V-PRO-GEN3

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD4

For peace-of-mind it would be nice to see the GPU running at its full 16x bandwidth, If nothing can be done about the lanes, which board would you go for? (as the price difference is not massive)

Thanks!

Just for reference; This is what I hope to end up with:

CPU: i5-2500K

Mobo: ---

GPU: GTX 570

 

[Lollipop]

Get a p67 mobo imho and i am an ASUS fanboy so get the ASUS mobo

 

[theskipper]

Get a p67 mobo imho and i am an ASUS fanboy so get the ASUS mobo

I must admit the P67 boards do look good value:

MSI P67A-GD65

Asus P8P67 Deluxe Rev3

However I bought one of these: OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E a while ago and it would be interesting to see how the Smart Responce tech' impacts performance, but I'd like to stick with Z68 as long-term thinking once this board has reached the end of its gaming useful life, I'll just convert it into a HTPC or a backup.

 

[marsey99]

only reason to get a p67 today is if you get it dirt cheap, and they aint tbh so the extra features on the z68 are well worth it imo.

gigabtye btw, best after sales in the uk should the worst happen.

 

[Timbaloo]

feels as if it's on it's way out

On its way out as in dieing? If it's not dieing, i'd rather do some oc and wait until Ivy Bridge is out in 4-5 months. At least that's what i'm doing with a Q6600@3GHz and a GTX560ti. IB will give you even better performance at even lower power consumption and propably even more headroom for oc'ing. Then again you won't make any mistake getting a SB now either.

Get a p67 mobo imho and i am an ASUS fanboy so get the ASUS mobo

I agree on ASUS, but why a P67? O.K. Z68 might not have huge advantages, but alone the ability to use internal graphics (in case the gfx card dies) is worth the Z68 imho. Also the price difference is rather low.

 

[theskipper]

On its way out as in dieing?

Over the last 6 months it hasn't felt the same, sometimes refusing to post etc, however any overclock has been completely stable with a minimum of 48 hours on Prime/24 with Memtest.

But anyway, any light on the PCIe lane issues I might encounter by running a 1x Soundcard?

 

[Timbaloo]

Well, it will like you already found out it limits the gfx card to 8 lanes which should not (yet) be an issue. Maybe things change with AMDs 7xxx or nvidias 6xx.

 

[S_I_N]

I'll have to check again but I dont recall using a 1x slot making the pci-e 16x drop to 8x now if you used the second 16x slot instead of a 1x slot that would drop it to 8x. But again let me re-research it.

thought so this is on the gigabyte board but the 1x's have no impact on the 16x slot

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
   
   * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
   
   * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
   
   (All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4. 2 x PCI slots

I have the non XP model (no video) and I love it great board.

 

[fcb]

S_I_N, you're right. It won't affect the performance of the video card if a sound card is placed in the PCIE x1/x4 slots. It's only when the 2nd x16 (actually run at x8) lane is populated for XFire/SLI, then both video cards will run at x8 bandwidth. Truthfully, you won't see a major difference in performance either if both x16 lanes are run at x8 bandwidth.

As long as the sound card is rated for x1 performance and you have spare a PCIE x1 or x4 slot, it will have no affect on the other parts. Hope I'm making some sense?

 

[Timbaloo]

Sorry for the false info then

 

[theskipper]

Thanks for the info' guys.