Rig Upgrade: MoBo Question

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SawedOn

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May 9, 2009
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56
Hi Guys!

I posted to this forum way back in the day, looking for advice on which keyboard / mouse to pick and you all were amazingly helpful! (thanks again).

This is what I've settled on so far,

ASUS GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 770 2GB
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin
Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150

MSI Z87-G45 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130693

OR

ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131981

Which Motherboard do you believe is best? I can get the MSI board for only $10 more so I thought it to be the better option but I'm a little afraid their gaming audio system is going to produce some strange results when listening to regular music (not game audio).

Any thoughts would be appreciated!:)
 
Here is my question for you. Is this your first ever build? If so, then I would recommend going with the lga 1155 chipset instead of the lga 1150. The biggest difference between them is the fact that there may be some issues with the motherboards when you receive them (mainly when it comes to the firmware). Also ive read that there will only be a slight improvement on the 1150 chipset (were only talking 4-6% extra on the cpu itself). Therefore I would suggest saving a lil bit of $$ & going w/ the following: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
^i5-3570k

When it comes to the motherboard, I would suggest going with a z77 motherboard since theres no real big changes between the z77 & z87.
 
SawedOn said:
Hi Guys!

I posted to this forum way back in the day, looking for advice on which keyboard / mouse to pick and you all were amazingly helpful! (thanks again).

This is what I've settled on so far,

ASUS GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 770 2GB
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin
Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150

MSI Z87-G45 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130693

OR

ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131981

Which Motherboard do you believe is best? I can get the MSI board for only $10 more so I thought it to be the better option but I'm a little afraid their gaming audio system is going to produce some strange results when listening to regular music (not game audio).

Any thoughts would be appreciated!:)
Click to expand...

They are both similar (entry level high end boards). The MSI board won't cause any problems when listening to music.

If anything, feel free to select your board based on brand preference or color scheme.

Godspeed.
 
Awesome guys! Thanks for the info. Yeah Pillar you're right I think I will go with the Ivy-Bridge i5 with an unlocked multiplier.

As for the motherboard, guess I'll roll the dice but I'll probably land on Asus because of brand favoritism lol.
 
SawedOn said:
Awesome guys! Thanks for the info. Yeah Pillar you're right I think I will go with the Ivy-Bridge i5 with an unlocked multiplier.

As for the motherboard, guess I'll roll the dice but I'll probably land on Asus because of brand favoritism lol.
Click to expand...

Like I said, it's favoritism. Personally I would go with MSI because the color scheme is kickin' and ASUS RMA support is terrible if you need to replace your board due to a defect.
 
I've had good luck with Asus. I had an MSI board this last summer that I had to RMA 3 times before I got a working one. They were great to work with and very apologetic, but I don't think I'll use them again anytime soon just because I had to go through 4 boards to find one that worked. I'm sure it was a fluke thing and I've never had a problem with them before that, but it was very frustrating. Of course it was for a customer's computer, so that was even more frustrating.
 
Ya I noticed that sell as well. Too bad because I already bought my memory.

Anyways, to answer your question, you wont notice a difference since both those #s are actually the bus speed on those 2 sets of memory sticks. Now to a more hardcore person, they will notice a slight difference in speed, but its not enough to go "hey my system is faster than yours". You get the idea.

Now if you want to upgrade from 8gb & double it up, theres no harm in that. Your typical mid-range desktops range anywhere from 6-16gb now n days. Right now im @ 6gb, but I did buy a set of 2x4gb memory sticks, so I believe that 8gb will do me plenty fine for now. Of course I will upgrade in the near future to 16gb.

I hope this helps to answer your question.
 
Scortch said:
I've had good luck with Asus. I had an MSI board this last summer that I had to RMA 3 times before I got a working one. They were great to work with and very apologetic, but I don't think I'll use them again anytime soon just because I had to go through 4 boards to find one that worked. I'm sure it was a fluke thing and I've never had a problem with them before that, but it was very frustrating. Of course it was for a customer's computer, so that was even more frustrating.
Click to expand...

If you do some googling you should be able to find a lot of Asus RMA horror stories.
 
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