Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 replacement

[Aerpelding]

I had planned on building a new PC last year, mainly for overclocking, a little gaming, and just to get myself back into the game. I havent built a PC in a few years, and my desktop needs a major upgrade from a Dell that is now about 6years old or so.

Anyway, i was looking at the Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 MB, however things came up and i wasn't able to start piecing parts together. Now the board is discontinued along with the i5-2500K i was going to use.

now i'm planning on going to an Ivy Bridge i5-3570k, but what is a good mother board that is comparable to the P8Z68-V Pro? I don't have to stick with ASUS, i just mainly picked that board because it was a good board to use when i was really into this kind of thing about 12-13 years ago.

Please help! I'm really excited about getting back into the PC world and doing a build again. So, your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[EarthDog]

If you are building from scratch, you would be better served by going to a Haswell CPU. Namely, the 4670K. As far as boards go, if you like ASUS, the Z87-A is a solid choice as is Asrock Extreme 6 among many others.

 

[Aerpelding]

I've thought about going to the new Haswell, however i've heard that the main difference between it and the Ivy bridge is power consumption, which will mainly help in laptops.
I'll look at the 4670K though, and if the price is similar to the 3570K i'll go with the latest CPU.

Thanks for the recommendation on the Z87-A. I don't have to stick with ASUS, i just know that was a good overclocking board to use years ago and i see they're still pretty good. If there are others out there in the $200ish price range that are better i'll go that route.

 

[EarthDog]

Its a bit faster, 5-10% or so, give or take a bit depending on what is being tested.

Thing is, with today's CPUs being unlocked, you can easily run overclocked with a $150 board. Just make sure the power delivery area has heatsinks on them and an ambient air type of overclock can be achieved with proper cooling.

 

[Aerpelding]

is the ASUS Z87-A comparable to the P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 or is it under it?
I don't mind spending over $150 if it has all the same capabilities of the P8Z68 and has all the necessary heatsinks etc to last a while. I don't want a board that will burn up in only 2 years.
With the P8Z68-V i was planning on spending around $240 or so. $150 sounds a little on the cheap end to me. Unless prices have just come down since i was last looking at parts.

The Haswell is only about $10-15 more so i'll go that route, so i'll need a MB with the 1150 socket instead of the 1155 for the Ivy Bridge.

 

[EarthDog]

That Z68 board was overkill honestly. There was no reason since P67 on forward to spend more than $150 on a motheboard unless it was missing features or ports...

The Z87-A is a solid choice among others at that price point. If it has all the ports and such you need, I wouldn't spend more just because it 'sounds a little on the cheap end'. It will last.

Review: http://www.overclockers.com/asus-z87a-motherboard-review/

If you want a selection (overkill) in the $250 range, grab the MSI MPower, or the ASUS Maximus VI Hero. But again, those are really kind of overkill for your listed needs. CHoice is yours.

 

[Aerpelding]

awesome, i just wanted to be sure. I know you get what you pay for these days.

Thanks a lot! you've been an amazing help.

 

[EarthDog]

I edited in the mean time...

And while that 'you get what you pay for' is mostly true, the warranty is 3 years on boards from $110 to $450 with one straggler increasing to 5 years because it has a dust cover (armor), LOL!

 

[Aerpelding]

I just looked at the Asus Maximus VI and the MSI board, and they look cool and have a ton of features. A few more USB 2.0 ports, but i feel like the Z87-A really is the better choice because it has more PCI slots and USB 3.0 ports, so the expandability seems better, especially for the price.

As long as the Z87-A has all the overclocking options in the bios then that's definitely the route i'm going to take i believe. Thanks again man, you've been a tremendous help.

 

[Aerpelding]

one More question, i'm going to start out with 8GB of RAM, was looking at some Corsair DDR3 1600mhz stuff. I've always been confused about Non-ecc and all the different kinds out there.
What memory do you recommend? especially when overclocking.

 

[Knufire]

ECC is sever stuff. You'd be looking at regular, non-ECC stuff.

RAM doesn't affect CPU overclocking anymore.

 

[EarthDog]

DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5-1.65v. ECC are for servers and have no place in this type of system.

 

[Aerpelding]

that's what i thought, but again i'm going through a bit of a refresh since it's been a while.

 

[False Christian]

I'd go Asus. I have an Asus Z68V-GEN3 with an i5 2500K at 4.5GHz rock-solid for the past 3 1/2 years. You might as well go with Haswell as it has new 512-bit instruction sets and should overclock to 4.2GHz or more.