What's your pick for best Z77 motherboard?

[Sean_actually]

As we all know, Z77s came out a bit ago and several brands have put in their bid.

What's your top pick for Z77 boards and why? Extra cool points if you can include comparative arguments with other products.

Thanks guys! As always your opinions are a thing of gold.

[kidsafe]

Asus Sabertooth Z77

* Best layout of any board. Fan headers all on the edges of the board. Right-angle USB 3.0 header.

* Asus UEFI and AI Suite II is second-to-none in terms of precise calibration, functional maturity. MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, etc. don't have features like Fan Xpert 2.

* Asus T-Top allows you to run four DIMMs without bumping up your memory voltage or running slacker timings. Conversely it should allow for more memory overclocking headroom.

[ApocolypticTampon]

ASUS Sabertooth
ASUS Maximus V Gene (even though its a mATX it still absolutely rocks)

When it comes out the ASUS Maximus V Formula will surely not disappoint.

[Sean_actually]

Hmm, damn

I don't have the cash for that Sabertooth ha. D:

[Saithes]

Sabertooth really doesn't bring anything worthwhile over say a P8Z77 Variant board. Modern LGA 1155 boards don't actually produce much heat even when overclocked so those boards are mostly for looks(Used a laser thermometer to test the VRM Temperatures lol)

[kidsafe]

He asked which board was best. The Sabertooth Z77 brings a few extras such as the ones I mentioned and additional thermocouples. I'm not including the TUF shield since it's mainly cosmetic. But yes, a P8Z77-V should do.

[Friendlychap]

From what I've been reading around the P8Z77-V is a all-round good choice.

In Australia PSZ77-V with wifi is like $225ish, the SABERTOOTH is about $275. Not that big of a difference. End of the day you're not going to see any performance difference in a PSZ77-V vs a sabertooth. It just looks awesome.

[Jeffv426]

I went with a Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H, because in all the research i did with z68(when i was going with a 2500k) and later with z77(because im gonna wait for ivy) boards it just plain had the most features for the price. It still all comes down to what board suits you best, there are many very good boards nowadays.

Im a few days i will actually be able to back up if i made a good choice or not

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

The Sabertooth is a pain in the behind to work with (screwing it on to the standoffs was a lesson in steady-handidness and patience in itself).

[Yeren]

but surely the 5 year warranty on the sabertooth is a big bonus too?

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

It is a really great product, awesome features, just getting it in the case is a pain in the ass. Like when the motherboard screws aren't magnetic enough and fall off the screwdriver and roll under a mosfet or something...yeah that is fun.

[Friendlychap]

but surely the 5 year warranty on the sabertooth is a big bonus too?

Is someone who buys a Sabertooth even going to need a 2 year warranty let alone a 5 year?

Surely someone who buys a sabertooth in the first place will end up replacing it within 18 months (for the next gens)...so the 5 year warranty is kinda pointless lol. Not to mention anyone who buys a sabertooth will be OCing it...therefore voiding the warranty.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I'm pretty sure my warranty booklet says nothing about it becoming void if I use the board for overclocking.

[Jeffv426]

So this is a Sabertooth thread?

[Friendlychap]

I'm pretty sure my warranty booklet says nothing about it becoming void if I use the board for overclocking.

I am 100% sure (not even gona say 99%, because I am 100%) that OCing anything connected to your motherboard renders the warranty void on the motherboard (and not just your CPU or GPU). I assume this is common knowledge...say someone tries OCing and goes so far that it ruins the motherboard as well....what is the company providing the motherboards supposed to be responsible? I doubt that they would say "SURE MAN, NO PROBLEM, LET ME SEND YOU ANOTHER ONE OVER FOR FREE SO YOU CAN TRY OCING IT AGAIN!"

People talk about Overclocking like it's something everyone does...fact is the vast majority of pc gamers probably don't OC their systems...most of that is done by min-maxers who love seeing big numbers in their applications scoring their computer...where as the average PC gamer couldn't give a fuck aslong as their games run.

Fact is overclocking = auto void warranty......& most people don't bother.

[Jeffv426]

Im gonna further examine my Mobos literature(Gigabyte Z77XUD5H) but im pretty sure that one of the main features of the board is the OC options. Dont see how they would advertise that if it voids the warranty.

[kidsafe]

Fact is overclocking = auto void warranty......& most people don't bother.

Except you don't know what you're talking about.

Almost all these boards FEATURE overclocking, going so far as to offer one-step/click procedures that automate the entire process. Older generation boards, especially in the Nehalem and Core 2 days would always run the BCLK or FSB a little over their default frequencies so they could advertise their products as the fastest.

Think about it for a second. When you overclock a CPU and RAM, what exactly are you overclocking on a motherboard? Nothing. At most you are raising voltages on the PCH, VRMs and some traces.

In addition if you're talking about voiding the warranties on CPUs, Intel officially offers you a no-questions asked extended warranty on its CPUs specifically aimed at overclockers. Select GPU partners also cover overclocking under their warranty policy.

[Drunkenvalley]

In terms of features, I'd say the P8Z77's series are very good. Apparently the Sabertooth board features supposedly a more robust set of components, which is apparently quite good for overclocking, but I can't say I'm familiar with that in particular.

However, I don't think there's any bad Z77 boards out there at the end of the day. 'The best' is a bit hard to quantify, given that for example the Sabertooth lacks some basic features the P8Z77 has, which is a little annoying imo.

---------- Post added 2012-04-28 at 10:42 AM ----------

In addition if you're talking about voiding the warranties on CPUs, Intel officially offers you a no-questions asked extended warranty on its CPUs specifically aimed at overclockers. Select GPU partners also cover overclocking under their warranty policy.

Where to get? This is something I'd be very interested in looking into.

---------- Post added 2012-04-28 at 10:45 AM ----------

Anyway, I personally bought the Sabertooth, but I also had a few rather weird reasons for choosing to do so anyway. Always wanted the Sabertooth board, but also wanted option for integrated graphics use... (Been throwing graphics cards back and forth a lot, and often I don't have any at all nowadays...)

[Devypoo]

Sabertooth

[kidsafe]

In terms of features, I'd say the P8Z77's series are very good. Apparently the Sabertooth board features supposedly a more robust set of components, which is apparently quite good for overclocking, but I can't say I'm familiar with that in particular.

However, I don't think there's any bad Z77 boards out there at the end of the day. 'The best' is a bit hard to quantify, given that for example the Sabertooth lacks some basic features the P8Z77 has, which is a little annoying imo.

---------- Post added 2012-04-28 at 10:42 AM ----------



Where to get? This is something I'd be very interested in looking into. [COLOR="red"]

http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/ - Looks like it's available globally.

Anyway I don't think a Sabertooth will afford you any more overclocking headroom. Asus is already using digital VRM/PWMs up and down its Z77 line, and I think The P8Z77 Deluxe actually has more power phases. Not that power phases mean anything, the 12 on the Sabertooth are plenty unless you're planning on benching with LN2 or something.