Widescreen Gaming Forum

Originally, I was aiming to get an ASUS P8P67 PRO motherboard when I start ordering parts for my Sandy Bridge rig. But as time goes by, and reviews get submitted, I start to have doubts. The reviews are starting to look pretty bad for that board and the Z68 equiv of it doesn't look any better. (3 of 5 eggs may be barely making by but that isn't acceptable for me)

So I started to browse, yet again, for a SNB motherboard... a good design, one that has 2 space between the first and second PEG slots, solid and stable, overclockable but not in the extreme, and at least a single PCI slot for my aging X-Fi card.

I've narrowed it down to 4 candidates... listed and linked below to their appropriate product page at Newegg:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P (yes, 1 review but I also have a Gigabyte board)
GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3
ASRock P67 EXTREME4
MSI P67A-GD65

I'm open to suggestions as well. A Z68 board would be nice as it would enable me to use QuickSync w/ the 2600k. But is there anything else I can use the on-die video chip other than transcoding videos? It would also be nice if I can use UEFI as well. But it's not a requirement, yet.

I'm torn now between jumping ship and going with one of the four candidates or taking the chance and going with the ASUS board I originally chose. I have never had a single problem with any of the motherboards I have chosen throughout the years. But like with all things, that luck may run out at some point. Call me paranoid if you want. But the original choice I have is starting to cast a very dark cloud.

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t3h bl0g | Old Warriors Soceity | my BFBC2 stats

How about the EVGA boards.

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=130-SB-E675-KR&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=Intel%20P67%20Series%20Family&sw=5

Interesting how I got one of the original P8P67 Pro boards back when everybody was telling me not to (my argument: I only needed one SATA port) and I have never had any of the problems bar the double-POST issue, which was solved by not overclocking the BCLK so aggressively. I don't intend on taking up my warranty replacement for a B3.

I guess if you want to use the onboard graphics, QuickSync or otherwise, you'll have to get a Z67 or H67 board. If you want overclockability as well then the choice is further restrained to just the Z67. My rig is for games only so even a potential 1-3% degradation in performance is enough for me to never want to use that, but I can see how it can be useful - I'm effectively not using a whole bunch of features that my PC is capable of!

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Rig 1: Intel i7-4790K Devils Canyon | ASRock Z97X Killer Intel Z97 Socket 1150 | Noctua D15 cooler | 16 GB G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 | 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD | Corsair AX1200i | 2x EVGA GTX980 4GB ACX2.0 (SLI)

Rig 2: Intel i5-2500K | ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel P67 LGA1155 | Corsair A50 cooler | 4GB G.Skill RipJawsX DDR3 RAM @1600mhz 6-8-6-24 2T | 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 SSD | Corsair AX1200 | 2x Palit GTX580 1.5GB (SLI)

I've always been happy with the 3 Gigabyte boards I've had. It can be quite a chore, choosing a mobo. It's always the component I spend the most time researching, hemming-and-hawing over...

I've always been happy with the 3 Gigabyte boards I've had. It can be quite a chore, choosing a mobo. It's always the component I spend the most time researching, hemming-and-hawing over...

Agreed.

I like Asus, and I like Gigabyte. Had poor experiences of MSI and DFI (although the latter is no longer an issue)...

The Asus P67 Sabertooth might be worth a gander?

The Sabertooth is out of the question. I'll be snagging two 6950 cards for Crossfire so that PCI slot down at the bottom becomes blocked. I can't tear myself away from my X-Fi card.

"Get a new one, using PCI Express."

Not an option, as my X-Fi also has the I/O module that can only connect to the first generation of X-Fi cards.

I like ASUS as well but they are overly expensive compared to their competitors like Gigabyte and MSI. I've had both before, an AMD board on MSI and my current Intel on Gigabyte.

As for EVGA boards... I have yet to find an EVGA motherboard that appeals to me. It seems their goal is to aim for the stratosphere. I just want one that is more down to earth -- simple, functional, but still flexible and powerful enough to perform.

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t3h bl0g | Old Warriors Soceity | my BFBC2 stats

Yeah, I'm big on EVGA for their customer support. RMA's are almost no questions asked, and you can even get away with sending things back with stock coolers included but not attached. (Nice for watercoolers to not have to re-attach the stock HS/F) They don't mind overclocking of their products, and they even once got the factory to send me a new BIOS chip in the mail after a bad flash, after I had refused RMA on the whole board because it was limited edition and the new ones didn't have the NF200 chips to beef up the PCIE.

I'll put my vote for Gigabyte as well. Been using their motherboards for 3 systems now and their quality, endurance and support have never disappointed. MSI and Asus however brings back troublesome memories, but they both seem to have shaped up since last time I used them, especially Asus.

It's getting hard however to keep that old PCI-slot available on new motherboards, especially the high-end ones ;) Wouldn't surprise me if this is the last generation.

I also have had many gigabyte boards that lasted with no issues. They do make solid stuff.

It's funny, I ran the troublesome old Asus warhorse, the A7N8X Deluxe into the ground for years, multiple BIOS flashes (including one that went bad and I had to blind flash to fix it!) without any real issues at all beyond the bad flash, it was a trooper.

Everyone else I spoke to had no end of problems with that board.

I'm running a Gigabyte X58 board ATM, it's good (it was their second highest end at the time) but it's really, really slow to POST. It also hates GF100 cards... endless boot problems if you put one in. GF104 is fine, though. *shrug* Made a review die, as I couldn't run the tests!

...

It's actually funny how slot positioning is becoming my biggest reason for not buying a mobo. Poor slot spacing made me avoid several boards when I was looking for an AM3 board to pair with a 1090T. It's most annoying how the only boards that seem to put slots in the right places (for my usage) are all £300+ monsters.

When the next round of GPUs come out, I'd probably go back to the single GPU route with AMD. Two cards is too troublesome.