SOLVED Z87 Motherboard Dilemma (advice needed)

[skorpien]

Hello all,

I have a bit of a conundrum and I was hoping you all might be able to help me out.

I was browsing on a website of a local PC shop this morning and saw (what I thought was) a great deal on a Gigabyte Z87 motherboard/4670K bundle.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_4670K_Z87XOC

Thinking this was the GA-Z87X-OC Force being offered for that price, I decided to order it. (I honestly had no idea that the "non-Force" version existed.)



After realizing it wasn't the Force, I'm faced with the choice of cancelling my order (it's still not too late) and going with the Sniper 5 or GA-Z87X-OC Force when the local store gets them in, or I can go ahead with this and just use the GA-Z87X-OC in my build.

The reason I'm leaning towards the Sniper 5 or the OC Force is that I'm building an orange and green themed PC that either would suit perfectly. Budget is sort of out the window at this point, so price isn't really an issue. And since my build will be watercooled, I thought the built in waterblocks would be great to incorporate into the loop.

Another thing I noticed is that the GA-Z87X-OC only has 1 PCIe x16 slot where the others have 2 (Sniper 5) and 3 (OC Force), and I'm running two 7950s in CrossFire.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What's the goal of your build? Because the OC and OC Force are designed for extreme cooling (dry ice, liquid nitrogen)

 

[skorpien]

Yeah I realize that. It really is mostly aesthetic. I haven't been able to find any other boards (bar the DFI LANPARTY boards of old) that have orange or green components. Everything nowadays is either blue, red, black or gold...

Edit: I plan on doing some OC'ing when I have everything underwater, but nothing too major.

 

[Xeon_KI]

that link is not working,
Gigabyte Z87X-OC supports 2,3 and 4way xfire

 

[skorpien]

It works for me?

I'm aware, but I'm worried I won't be getting the best bandwidth as it only has 1 x16 PCIe slot, 1 x8 and 2 x4.

I may be completely out to lunch on that aspect though.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Not even a GTX 680 or HD7970 saturates PCIe 2.0 x16. You're fine.

A Gigabyte Z87-UD3H has more than enough for an OC on water.

 

[Woomack]

Probably it will be the same as with IB so 95% boards will give the same OC results on water/air. I would look at additional options and warranty ... and of course price. Probably ASRock is going to win that again but we haven't seen most of the boards yet.

 

[skorpien]

Thanks ATMINSIDE, that's good to know about the PCIe x16.

I know that there are cheaper, more cost effective solutions out there, but I am really aiming for a strong colour theme.

This will be all in a clear acrylic case with other orange and green components.

Maybe I should hold off on upgrading just yet. As Woomack suggested, there's probably more boards in the pipeline.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I just wanted to know you had cheaper options for a gaming machine. But I agree completely that in an acrylic case the color scheme is important.