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Which motherboard to choose?

930 views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Tabinhu 
#1 ·
#3 ·
They are about the same. If you like the looks of the MSI, get it. I have used MSI in the past and they make great boards. I have just recently started using Asrock and they seem fairly reliable. Also, the MSI board has a 3 pcie slot in case you wanted an sli with physx set up.

For the Asrock board, it has more sata iii ports and more usb 3 ports.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabinhu View Post

I will only have 1 ssd and a HDD so the sata doesnt rlly matter :/
neither do the USB 3's
I only care about OC capability.
I wanna push my future i5 3570k to at least 4.2ghz+
Both should reach that level fine, There's really not that much difference between them. The msi board only has 6 power phase for the cpu where as the Asrock has 8+4 which will be more useful with overclocking
 
#8 ·
oh dude, please do not give any praise to the VRM on the ASRock Extreme4, its a joke. the VRM under the heatsink isn't the MSI's 4 phase would take your ASRock's 8 phase to town, beat it up in the first round, buy it a drink for losing so badly and then drive it home because it passed out and broke so quickly, and then the MSI's 4 phase would go back out to party some more. Now the MSi 6 phase is something you should actually be afraid of. In all seriousness, i am not a fan other either MSI nor ASRock, but I can say both have made decent boards in the last year, i have used both of their ultra top end, MSI Bigbang X79, ASRock X79 Extreme 4 Gen 3, ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 gen 3, MSI P67A-GD65. Now ASRock on the boards I looked at used very high quality lower RDS ON MOSFETs, but ont he case of the ASRock Z77 Extreme 4, now here is the mystery, how is ASRock able to give you such a cheap product with so many features? because they cut it where you don't see. The PCB is very cheap on the asrock, but not only that, listen i am just going to show you a picture i took at computex:
449

Okay so that isn't LF-Pak as you see two LF-Pak MOSFETs on the outside of the capacitors, so perhaps the user might think that inside the heatsinks are LF-Pak(like most Z68 asrock) or they might think they are PowerPAK(like most X79 ASRock), however it is D-PAK like asrock P67 fatality(asrock z68 fataility used LF-pak after user outrage). D-PAK is not very good for modern SMSP design because of its extremely high power losses, which can reduce its output, and most of all provide issues with power efficiency, power stability, and temperatures on the heatsinks.

I don't really mind what people say about the asrock Z77 extreme 4, just don't count its phases and say it is better, because it's one of the very isolated cases in which the higher phase count board is not using the same quality. With ivy bridge you don't notice this because asrock is using a lot of output capacitors to dampen the power quality. If you put a sandy bridge CPU in that board you will see how hot it gets because sandy bridge pulls a lot more power than ivy bridge, which is why i am thinking asrock chose.

also intersil doesn't make digital PWMs.

You should try to show this post to asrock, perhaps they will try to sue me or shutdown my website again. I think it is ll fun and games because they break so many patent laws inside the USA, and my friend is a rising patent attorney, it really is fun for me.
 
#10 ·
don't worry it should be okay, just if your VRm gets hot that is why, if you use Ivy bridge you most likely wont have issues, as you don't see many of them blowing up yet. Just the MSI has a better VRM, 35A DrMOS is very high quality and run cooler compared to 8 phases or should i really say 4 phases of D-PAKs.

The Intersil PWM only has 6 phases for the CPU VCore output, and the asrok uses an intersil PWM.
The uPI PWM only has 6 phases for the CPU VCore output, and the MSI uses a uPI PWM.

Now so how do you get 8 phases for CPU from a 6 phase PWM? you double 4 of the PWM channels to 8(not so uncommon).
How do you get 6 phases form a 6 phase PWM, you go direct.

The MSI also has more true phases believe it or not.
 
#11 ·
Sin0822 I have a question.

If iGPU is affected by VDROOP when cpu is under heavy load. Are they using the same MOSFETs or phases?

Or how is this possible?

I was hoping you would know the answer to this.

Definately don't get the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 like he said.

I won't ever be getting a ASRock again below €150.

The P67 Pro3 SE couldn't even handle my i5-2500k at stock speeds.
 
#12 ·
there are a total of 12 chokes, 2 are for the iGPU and 2 are for the VCCIO/VCCSA.

The extreme4 isn't bad, see the thing is for its price it is correct, you aren't paying exactly what you should.

the OP probably wont have any issues really. I know you and another guy did with the vdroop and the VRM temperatures, but perhaps you stressed it more than the OP will. Like Chewy doesn't have issues and he likes his board, for the price it is right for him. Sorry for coming off a bit strong on you Chewy, i mean no disrespect. For real at sub $150 you get what you pay for, and asrock usually doesn't give you less than what you pay for.
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sin0822 View Post

there are a total of 12 chokes, 2 are for the iGPU and 2 are for the VCCIO/VCCSA.
The extreme4 isn't bad, see the thing is for its price it is correct, you aren't paying exactly what you should.
the OP probably wont have any issues really. I know you and another guy did with the vdroop and the VRM temperatures, but perhaps you stressed it more than the OP will. Like Chewy doesn't have issues and he likes his board, for the price it is right for him. Sorry for coming off a bit strong on you Chewy, i mean no disrespect. For real at sub $150 you get what you pay for, and asrock usually doesn't give you less than what you pay for.
How do you see those things? It would be great to know.

I am now testing if blowing a fan directly at the MOSFET heatsinks makes a difference.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sin0822 View Post

there are a total of 12 chokes, 2 are for the iGPU and 2 are for the VCCIO/VCCSA.
The extreme4 isn't bad, see the thing is for its price it is correct, you aren't paying exactly what you should.
the OP probably wont have any issues really. I know you and another guy did with the vdroop and the VRM temperatures, but perhaps you stressed it more than the OP will. Like Chewy doesn't have issues and he likes his board, for the price it is right for him. Sorry for coming off a bit strong on you Chewy, i mean no disrespect. For real at sub $150 you get what you pay for, and asrock usually doesn't give you less than what you pay for.
Sin0822, seeing as you know quite a lot about this...what's your thoughts on Asrock Z77 Extreme4 vs.Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ?? These are probably the 2 most popular "bang for buck" z77 motherboards... how different are they and which would you recommend?
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonashendrickx View Post

How do you see those things? It would be great to know.
I am now testing if blowing a fan directly at the MOSFET heatsinks makes a difference.
what do you mean? the phase count? Well in the picture the same type of MOSFETs are powering the same things. the iGPU power and the power for the VTT like VCCSA and VCCIO have to also come from VRs, so you need at least 2 extra phases in a 1+1 set, so the least you could do in this situation is 8+2+2. Usually you wouldn't have 3+1, as that is just odd, but 1+2 or 2+1 or 1+1 isn't uncommon. CPU PLL is usually fed by a linear regulator which can be as little as a MOSFET, but no chokes, PWM, or drivers are required. The DDR power plane also needs a VR, and the PCH is optional. The reason we don't use linear regulators in modern motherboards is because of the large transients and demand for high power output, switch mode power supplies like a VRM are much more efficient and run cooler, even though they are more costly and take up more room.

the UD3H uses very high quality MOSFETs, it is a true 6 phase design, and it has a digital PWM, which neither of the other two have. I mean come on, people use it to bench under LN2 lol . I don't really know the features of the extreme4, you can look at them and go back and forth. I do however think the extreme4 has better looking heatsinks, but the UD3H has a better looking PCB lol.
 
#18 ·
with all due respect to Sin and reading various posts in various threads by him.. Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H would be my choice.. even my z68 version has been solid and still is
smile.gif
 
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