Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Force Questions

[Netirix]

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Questions

Hello

I'm looking at the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Force motherboard and have a few questions if the CPU, CPU cooler and memory will work together.

The CPU is: Intel CPU Core i7 4770K Haswell 8MB Cache 3.5Ghz
The CPU cooler is: Intel BXTS13X Liquid Cooled Thermal Solution

I assume these will be ok, the sockets are, or support, LGA 1150. It's the memory I'm the more unsure of.

The CPU says it supports memory up to 1600MHz, I was thinking 2x8GB DDR3 1600MHz modules. Can I just grab any, or do they need to support the motherboard/chipset?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my noob questions.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

That cooler is not worth buying.

Everything else is okay.

 

[Netirix]

Ah ok, so any 1333 or 1600MHz memory should be good?

And about the cooler, what makes it not worth buying?

Would you recommend any of the following:
- Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler
- Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler
- Cooler Master V4 GTS
- Thermaltake NiC C5 Multi Socket CPU Cooler

Thank you

 

[ATMINSIDE]

For RAM, 1600 CL9 1.5V. Most people seem to use G.SKILL or Corsair.

The cooler is a cheap AIO. They're just not made well, and a lot of air coolers do a better job for the money.
Also, AIOs have more parts than an air cooler that can fail.

The PH-TC14PE, NH-D14, PH-TC12DX or 212 EVO are all great coolers. Those are in order of best performance first.

 

[Woomack]

@Netirix, If you won't use additional features from Force version then really better take cheaper Z87X-OC board ( without Force ). It's nearly the same board for half price.
These boards are easily supporting ( probably ) any memory up to DDR3-3000 and with current prices I would think more about something DDR3-2133-2400. Some other forum members will probably tell you that there is no difference between 1600 kits but really there is up to 5GB/s memory write and about 2GB/s read. Real difference isn't so high but you may see something in highly multithreaded applications. Still for not much higher price I would get faster memory.
Haswell CPUs have official support for DDR3-1600 but they are working without issues at higher clocks.

About cooling ... good air cooler will be better than AIO water kit on these CPUs. Also as it was already mentioned, less parts can fail. If you are going to try higher OC than 4-4.2GHz then better stick to something like PH-TC14PE or NH-D14 or something similar. 212 EVO is not really best cooler. It's good for its price but that's all.

 

[Netirix]

Thank you all for the help, tips and feedback.

I went with the GA-Z87X-OC instead of the OC Force and the Noctua NH-D14.

I just have a small issue, about 50% of the time when I start or restart the system, the SSD I have isn't detected but the two HDD's I have are.

The SSD is plugged into the first (port 0 in the bios) and is where Windows 8 is installed.

I was going to update the firmware but that would wipe the entire drive, I thought maybe ask here before doing that to check if it may be another issue.

Anyone had this happen to them before?

 

[Woomack]

What SSD do you have and what BIOS version is installed on the board ? Did you try other SATA cable ?
I was using Crucial M4 ( 64GB and 256GB ) only on this board and was working without issues. Depends from SSD it may wipe all data or may not but it's better to make backup anyway.