Any opinions on the Gigabyte Z87-HD3 for a modest OC?

[eidolmech]

Hello,

A first time poster here, hoping to get some informed opinion on a motherboard that seems to be largely overlooked by reviewers, the Gigabyte Z87-HD3.

I'm aiming to upgrade my current system (a Core2 Duo E8400 running at 3.6GHz) to something that can better handle photo editing programs (Lightroom, Photo Ninja RAW batch conversions). I have no intention to get back into gaming so I don't need SLI/Crossfire or even a discrete graphics card.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a Haswell i5-4670K, aiming for a mild overclock to 4.3GHz as I don't want to mess around too much with settings and heat management.

The basic Z87 board from Gigabyte appears to be the HD3, and I can find close to zero information on the net about it. Does anyone have any experience with the HD3?

From a clocking or long term reliability perspective, is it worth upgrading up one or two levels? As far as I can tell, I have to move up significantly before a board becomes more meaningfully suited to overclocking- it's not until the Z87X-D3H that Gigabyte moves from 4 to 8 voltage phases, and that is 50% more expensive than the HD3. All the other bells and whistles (more USB ports, Intel NIC, multi-graphics card support) that come with higher end motherboards don't really matter to me.

The other board that I'd be looking at would be the Asus Z87-K as it's also carried by the shop that I'm going to use. It looks pretty similar on spec, but I've not been wowed by my current Asus board enough to particulary feel like sticking with them.

Other system info:

• I'm going to run 2x8GB DIMMs of basic Kingston 1600 RAM- as far as I can tell, memory speed will have pretty minimal impact to photo work.
• Cooling will be via a CM Hyper 212X
• PSU is an old Corsair HX520
• Chassis is an Antec P183 so airflow is pretty good.

 

[eidolmech]

Hum. Almost fifty views and no opinions?

Is the HD3 just considered to basic to be of interest by the enthusiasts on Overclockers?

Oh well, I'll probably just go with this board anyway over the weekend and post up my results.

 

[EarthDog]

4 Power phases, and overclocking... I would look at something better personally. That board should not be of much interest to an overclocker, correct.

That said, it will probably be fine. Why I say to look elsewhere is because you mention long term stability and with 4 phases and a moderate overclock...not so sure. I would rather buy a more robust solution off the bat personally.

I would go this route (MSI Z87 G55).

 

[eidolmech]

Thanks for that. I shall have a look to see if that board is available locally (I live in Asia, where the retail situation is a bit odd- all the retailers seem to carry exactly the same range of stock with surprising gaps in their ranges the Z87-55 is missing from their online inventories).

Otherwise, if I do stick with the Gigabyte and it blows up, I'll post up the results

 

[eidolmech]

Well, I ended up going with the HD3 as the store only carried Gigabyte and Asus boards. The voltage regulators are damn hot to the touch with the CPU operating at stock speeds... though from what I've read these parts are designed to run pretty hot anyway.

I'm going to add some small fans in this area of the motherboard before attempting to overclock though.

 

[eidolmech]

Update:

So I went with the HD3. My overclocking is kind of sucky with a stable system only up to 4.3 @ 1.175V (I didn't fiddle with anything) but the VRM area runs cool to touch as long as there is directed airflow. It runs too hot to touch without airflow.

Given that 4.3 is what I was aiming for anyway, and that OC limits seem to be more dependent on individual CPU samples than the motherboard, the HD3 seems okay as a choice so far.