Picking a motherboard for benching.

[Pierre3400]

Hey guys

I am trying to decide one which motherboard i should get for my Pentium G3258.

Since this is a budget build, the budget being, it has to be cheap as possible.

So i have boiled my choices down to these three boards. I am going to list the Pros and cons that i like, and they are not specification related.

NOTE: mATX!!

What i need to know now, is why i should pick one board over the order for hardware reasons.

1. Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H (rev. 1.0)
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4970&dl=#ov

Pros -
I like the orange, it will give my an option for colors in the build.
I can get 4 years warranty

Cons -
There are only 2x SATA ports that have a 90degree bend - I would prefer all 6 having this.
Motherboard pcb is brown

2. ASRock Z97M Pro4
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97M Pro4/

Pros -
Black motherboard PCB
90degree angled Sata port on all 6 ports
I have liked ASRock bios's in the past

Con -
I have had an unhappy RMA experiance with ASRock, but it did work out in the end.
Not a big fan of the blue.
No extra long warranty.

3. MSI Z97M-G43
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z97MG43.html#hero-overview

Pros -
Sata ports are angled 90degrees
USB 3.0 is angled 90degrees.
M.2 socket
Cheapest

Cons -
PCB color, looks more brown than black
Still not a fan of blue
No extra warranty
Not a big fan of the MSI bios's i have used before.

As far as hardware, all the boards boast of uprated caps, and so on, so i really need help on making the right choice.

This is purely from a hardware point of view, which will perform the best.
They are priced within the same area +/- 10$

 

[Witchdoctor]

AsRock board

However I can't help but think you will regret any of these boards
If you truly going to Perdue benching as a hobby don't sell yourself short

Even if you have to delay getting it

You want a board that won't get in the way
The OCF and the SOC are the only two boards I would be looking at that are currently available for a benching platform
Not are reasonably priced for what you get. I am sure if the ROG Extreme hits the streets it will be steep

All that being if you simply cannot swing it no way no how at least pony up for an EX6

Sorry pecking this out on my phone

 

[Pierre3400]

AsRock board

However I can't help but think you will regret any of these boards
If you truly going to Perdue benching as a hobby don't sell yourself short

Even if you have to delay getting it

You want a board that won't get in the way
The OCF and the SOC are the only two boards I would be looking at that are currently available for a benching platform
Not are reasonably priced for what you get. I am sure if the ROG Extreme hits the streets it will be steep

All that being if you simply cannot swing it no way no how at least pony up for an EX6

Sorry pecking this out on my phone

I do understand what your saying, but my budget is already stretched, and i need to buy a PSU too.

Who makes the SOC board?

Oh and it seems you missed that i am looking at mATX not ATX boards.

 

[Witchdoctor]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128704

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157502

 

[Pierre3400]

Yeah, they will never fit onto a Dimastech Nano, they are made for mATX

 

[Witchdoctor]

if you can find one I have this board and it rocks , can vouch personally for it's performance

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157393

This board will not hold you back at any level of overclocking

http://hwbot.org/submission/2484522_the_witchdoctor_superpi___32m_core_i7_4770k_5min_23sec_609ms

 

[Pierre3400]

if you can find one I have this board and it rocks , can vouch personally for it's performance

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157393

This board will not hold you back at any level of overclocking

http://hwbot.org/submission/2484522_the_witchdoctor_superpi___32m_core_i7_4770k_5min_23sec_609ms

I can find the Z87M OC, but only in full yellow, not yellow and orange, i guess this is due to a revision?

 

[Witchdoctor]

It was not made in orange ???

possible just a crappy pic

it is yellow and the logo is more of a gold on the heat sinks, Mine have wet so many times the stickers are falling off

None of this matters for overclocking. it is about speed and power

leave the matching colors to the gamers and designer builds

This board was conceived for one thing and one thing only , taking abuse and setting world records

 

[Pierre3400]

It was not made in orange ???

possible just a crappy pic

it is yellow and the logo is more of a gold on the heat sinks, Mine have wet so many times the stickers are falling off

None of this matters for overclocking. it is about speed and power

leave the matching colors to the gamers and designer builds

This board was conceived for one thing and one thing only , taking abuse and setting world records

Ok, i will look into ordering one soon then.

Which OS should i be looking into, to start with, the setup will be used to setup the bios on all my mining cards, then the fun starts.

Should i use a standalone GPU when benching?

 

[Pierre3400]

Just wondering, why not the Z97m OC?

 

[Witchdoctor]

They took off the on board power and reset buttons as well as the de-bug LED to drive the price down. if you go z97 the full size board is where it is at. Woomack had mATX version and was not happy with it. A teammate of mine has the full blown z97 OCF and loves it

For a mATX the z87 OCF is arguably the best board availible for the 1150 socket. You may need to flash it for it to see the newer CPU's though

Board is also loaded with great profiles for memory that actually work with retail stix

 

[Pierre3400]

Ahh, ok, i mean i could live without the buttons, but the led debug, thats needed in thus case.
As far as price, they are prices less than 5 bucks apart here, and it took me ages to even find one, the Z87m ocf is easy to find. But i dont want to rip my 4770k out my main rig, just to update a bios :/

I will be using the G3258, which is a newer cpu, and odds are i will need to update before it works :/