Which z68 mainboard should I choose?

[M1992]

Hi fellow overclockers and geeks

I want to start out by saying merry christmas to everyone of you

I have decided to change my motherboard and CPU, when the new year arrives. I've decided to go for a z68-motherboard, but I am having some trouble figuring out which one I should choose.

I've narrowed the field down to only a few boards:

MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) (or the GD80 version)

ASUS P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3

Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3

What do you guys/girls think?? Any expiriences with any of the ones?? Comments??

Greetings from Me

(sorry for the grammar... I'm from Denmark)

 

[Ravious]

It depends what you are trying to do. How many graphics cards are you going to run? Are you going to do any overclocking and so on. Please give us some more info.

I would say the Asrock Z68 Extreme7 as it looks to have the most features and is the best looking board of the three.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Avoid the dirty Asrock garbage.

Asus are usually best for overclocking as far as possible but MSI will probably land you a higher stable clock. You can't go wrong with MSI and Asus, always good solid parts on their boards. Asus usually include better onboard audio too. Power delivery is more or less identical and the same goes for customer support but I think Asus are a little more reliable IMO

 

[yassarikhan786]

Tom used an ASRock mb on the Bengal Project so they must be doing something right. All 3 would be good choices imo.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Tom used an ASRock mb on the Bengal Project so they must be doing something right. All 3 would be good choices imo.

I am yet to see an Asrock board that looks better than it's competitors and even if Asrock have upped their game since I last checked (board does look half decent upon a quick Googling) I'd still be very wary of them - they remind me of ECS

Had a look at all of them and I think the Asus would be best

 

[yassarikhan786]

ASRock don't have the best reputation when it comes to reliability so I guess it's better to be safe and go with a more reliable brand like Asus.

 

[Blackwhite]

Avoid the dirty Asrock garbage.

Asus are usually best for overclocking as far as possible but MSI will probably land you a higher stable clock. You can't go wrong with MSI and Asus, always good solid parts on their boards. Asus usually include better onboard audio too. Power delivery is more or less identical and the same goes for customer support but I think Asus are a little more reliable IMO

LOL. Probably you never had any AsRock board.They are good and I'd say much better than MSI

Asrock is made by Asus anyway

 

[nex-s]

LOL. Probably you never had any AsRock board.They are good and I'd say much better than MSI

Asrock is made by Asus anyway

Unfortunately AsRock really isn't a reliable manufacturer. The fact that you got lucky doesn't mean that everyone else is wrong. I have several friends that were unlucky with theirs...

 

[nothingspecial]

Have a look at the Gigabyte Z68-UD5. Is a quality board, and I've seen it on sale for £130 at Dabs.

 

[Lollipop]

Asrock is made by Asus anyway

Not anymore.

 

[BaMb1N0]

Happy with my Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 in my workhorse rig. understated looks, no click-myself-to-death UEFI-BIOS.

 

[M1992]

Gone for a few days and see a large discussion in the thread... This gets me thrilled

Well i'm not going to use any sli/cf-features... On-board audio doesn't matter to me (descrete sound card)... Overclocking will not be an important topic for me. I'm the lazy type and loves the one-button-overclock-feature

I've chosen these manufactorers specificly because of their marketing. I'm not really into gigabyte and evga, which was the reason I didn't mention those as competitors.

I like the asrock because of the looks and the large number of sata-ports. a lot of features at a low cost.

I like the asus-board because of the reliabiliy of a large brand as asus as well as personaly experiences from previous purchases. The asus board has a large amount of features, which migh come in handy.

I like the msi-boards because of their color scheme as well as my own experiences with MSI.

 

[Blackwhite]

Unfortunately AsRock really isn't a reliable manufacturer. The fact that you got lucky doesn't mean that everyone else is wrong. I have several friends that were unlucky with theirs...

Well I know many people using their boards and they are happy users.I have red a lot of forums and most of people saying that Asrock has good Boards, so where are these people saying that Asrock Boards are bad?

Not anymore.

I didn't know, sorry.Who is making them now, Asrock themselves?

 

[yassarikhan786]

ASRock have carried a bad reputation from the past and I don't think it applies to them anymore as complaints about the boards seem to have died down and many people are having good experiences with them now.

And yeh, ASRock are a completely separate company now. It would not be a bad idea to go with ASRock dude.

 

[MaXiMiZe]

The extreme 7 got great reviews and they're all great boards, however the ASrock board is £230 where as the Asus board is £30 cheaper, so it depends if you're willing to spend the extra cash. Personally I would go with the Asus because of their reputation but that's just me and you can't go wrong with the ASrock board if you're willing to spend the extra cash

 

[Ya93sin]

Having had a good experience with the ASUS P8Z68V-PRO, I'd recommend the ASUS mobo, but there is little need for the Deluxe version imo, save yourself a bit of cash

 

[marsey99]

asrocks cheap boards are no worse than anybody elses, they got a bad name because they only did low end boards for years but they are also one of the most innovative board makers ever.

add in cards to change cpu sockets and new chipsets to older eol cpu sockets are just 2 of the ways they have made a market for themselves and its still something nobody else has done.

for that alone i like them

shows they care about all segments of the market and not just about the latest and greatest cpu buyers.

anyway, they have been making top class boards which have been as good as any out there since x38 days now.

 

[Rastalovich]

anyway, they have been making top class boards which have been as good as any out there since x38 days now.

Agreed. From the 775 generation and below, they used to be my go-to manufacturer of consolidation type mobos. (the type where a computer is effed and you got no chance buying an enthusiast replacement cos the range is too old) ASRock would be no messing about, cheap, no frills - but did the job adequately, in my massive experience of using them as these.

Gigabyte now make great older mobos for this sort of situation I find. Mostly in mATX, which can be handy.

Since ASRock's move to make mobos in their own right, they do get really good reviews and reports from those using them intensively, based on performance and reliability. We installed dozens, in almost each region of the uk, for a diy-tapeless-camera-injest-server-system-type-thing (grossly over spec'd) and to be fair, they've kept their pricing down of the mobos despite the switch.

I'd certainly look at Gigabyte first (I have an anti-ASUS grudge for mobos out of experience), and wouldn't negate the ASRock option.