Socket 1155 Motherboard for £75-£100

WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
Some of you may have seen my thread about the issues I've had with my new system.

I've since tested the system and found the motherboard to be the faulty component, so have sold it on.

In the next few weeks I will be ready to buy a new board, and would like to spend between £75 and £100.

System Specs:

i3 2100 3.1GHz
8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme 1600MHz
128GB Samsung 830 SSD
2TB Storage drive
GTX560Ti 448
550W OCZ ZT

I'm not specific about the brand, but looking for ATX boards only.

2xSATA3 ports in a must, USB3 would be handy

Any suggestions?
 
Shlouski

Shlouski

VIP Member
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WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
Thanks for the suggestions, my budget is now solid at £80!

I've seen a used, and also a new Asus P8Z68V-LX (the same I did have) on eBay well within my price range.

I am pretty tempted, as I had all the cable management sorted out and everything, got it how I wanted it.

I tried 3 different sticks with that board and know that slots 3 & 4 were bad.

What's the chance of getting another bad board? :p

Also, any other suggestions of boards?
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
I decided to go with another P8Z68V-LX from Asus, I figured what's the chances of the 2nd board in a row being faulty.

This time I am going to install it straight away, and not leave it in the loft to get cold, plus I'll be extra careful when handling it.

The reason I went with the same board is because I pretty much had my cable management sorted to a tee with that board. I don't really want to spend another 3 hours re-doing all my cabling for a board with a new layout :p

I think I'm going to go off and prey now, that the board isn't a dud like the last one :D
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
I just got a email from the supplier, the board is a reconditioned unit with no I/O Shield, manual or accessories. :rolleyes:

Requested a refund, have had it accepted and processed through PayPal, just waiting for it to hit my account.

This weekend I will get paid again, and I my new budget for a board will be around about £100. I was looking at Scans website and I'm now interested in ASRocks Extreme4.

What is the difference between this and the Fatal1ty board?

I've just noticed these are the first 2 boards you suggested, so I seem to be on the right track (finally) :p
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
Thanks Spirit, these Gigabyte & MSI boards keep getting recommended to me, so they must be good.

Is the specific GB board you mentioned the best for the price from their brand?

I have noticed that the ASRock is quite common now, I like it because of its gold caps and black design :p Are there any bad points about it? Apart from the brand, because all brands can have iffy customer service :)

I am not fussed about how 'fancy' the BIOS is, as long as its functional, and the board is too then that is good, aesthetics are a big plus for me :D

The last time I built gaming machines was back in 2008, and ASUS was one of the best board brands, now people seem to think they are not so good, and the board I bought was faulty, plus the second one ordered was reconditioned.

Has ASUS gone downhill?
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Bootup05 said:
Thanks Spirit, these Gigabyte & MSI boards keep getting recommended to me, so they must be good.

Is the specific GB board you mentioned the best for the price from their brand?

I have noticed that the ASRock is quite common now, I like it because of its gold caps and black design :p Are there any bad points about it? Apart from the brand, because all brands can have iffy customer service :)

I am not fussed about how 'fancy' the BIOS is, as long as its functional, and the board is too then that is good, aesthetics are a big plus for me :D

The last time I built gaming machines was back in 2008, and ASUS was one of the best board brands, now people seem to think they are not so good, and the board I bought was faulty, plus the second one ordered was reconditioned.

Has ASUS gone downhill?
Click to expand...
Yeah the Z77X-D3H is the best value for money board Gigabyte do. It usually costs around £100 give or take a little. Novatech have it for £110, Scan for £105, and Amazon for £100 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA...QFEI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364393109&sr=8-1

There's nothing really wrong with ASUS or ASRock. I love my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3, but I think for Z77 boards I'd go with Gigabyte over ASUS.

I've heard the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 doesn't have very good power phases, so for overclocking it's not great.

You can't really go wrong with ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI, but at this price point (£100 mark), I think Gigabyte win with the GA-Z77X-D3H. It's better than the equivalent boards from the other manufacturers I think.
 
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PCunicorn

PCunicorn

Active Member
Yeah, for sure get the UD3H if you can. I only said the MSI because it's only 80 pounds, and the UD3H was 115 pounds last i checked.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
Bootup05 said:
I have noticed that the ASRock is quite common now, I like it because of its gold caps and black design :p Are there any bad points about it? Apart from the brand, because all brands can have iffy customer service :)
Click to expand...
Yes, there are plenty wrong with their boards, in the price range you are looking at. First off being that they under report voltage without fail. If you get one, use a multimeter to check the actual voltage compared to what it says it is giving and you will notice a large gap between them.
Besides that, support is non existent. Not that any brand has a Good service, but I would be willing to bet that Asus or Gigabyte would at least send the right part when you pay for it.
Power setup is horrible. Not as bad as Intel Reference, but worse than any other board in the same price range.

All of that aside, it is not even ATX certified either. It falls about 1/2" short of the standard dimension, and lacks 3 of the necessary screw holes for certification.
 
PCunicorn

PCunicorn

Active Member
Spirit thinks Asus is great, but many users of the forum don't. Yes, Asus has gone downhill. ASRock doesn't make very good boards, especially the cheap ones like wolfeking mentioned. And Okedokey mentioned the D3H in his post, make sure to get the UD3H.
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
I will definitely be going with a Gigabyte board now due to you guy's advice.

I don't want any more hassle with motherboards so the safest option is the most sensible!

What is the difference between the D3H and UD3H?
I am going to look myself now, but id be interested to hear whether one board is considered better than the other or worth the price difference
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
the difference (well the most important) is the VRM count, which is only really important for overclocking.

Also the UD3H is missing the extra 2 SATA ports and Marvell controller. If you need them, then the D3H would be better. However take note that the Marvell can only max at 5Gb/s due to the PCIe x1 connection. Latency is also affected by it.

The PCIe x16 ports are different also. The UD3H carries 3.0 x16 main, 3.0 x8 secondary, and 2.0 x4 3rd port. The D3H is 3.0 x16, 2.0 x8 and 2.0 x4. This is not really an issue unless you want to run high end GPUs in SLI/CFx.
 
WeatherMan

WeatherMan

Active Member
I've finalized my budget now at £100

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

Um :D

BTW I can order tonight :)

In the real world how much does the different power setup affect overclocking?

Right now I will only be overclocking my RAM, seeing as I have an i3, but when I do upgrade the CPU, how limited will I be?
 
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chupacabra

chupacabra

New Member
Bootup05 said:
I've finalized my budget now at £100

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

Um :D

BTW I can order tonight :)

In the real world how much does the different power setup affect overclocking?

Right now I will only be overclocking my RAM, seeing as I have an i3, but when I do upgrade the CPU, how limited will I be?
Click to expand...

u won't be able to overclock it too much, so no biggie if u go for the gigabyte d3h
 
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