Can anyone recommend a good Z68 Motherboard?

[teknology9]

Hello All,

Can any one recommend a good Z68 Gigabyte motherboard, I'm looking to spend between £100 - £150.


Thanks,

teknology9

[Dark Mantis]

The thing is it is hard to recommend a motherboard to someone because peoples uses differ. You really need to make a list of what you consider important features and use these as a minimum spec list. Then look at what is available and see what you can get for your money. If there are extra features on some boards decide if you are willing to pay the extra for them.

[teknology9]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply DM and the advice. Well I suppose I'm looking for a MB with the Gen 3 PCIe slot like the GA-Z68XP-UDR3 rev 1.3 or the GA-Z68XP-UD4 rev 1.3 that type of spec. I know AA recommended the GA-Z68XP-UD3, but that has the PCIe 2.0 slot.


Teknology9

[Dark Mantis]

There is still  a lot of discussion about whether this is fully implimented or not. Be carefull if it is something that is important to your hardware before making your decision. Personally I don't think there is much around that actually warrants it yet.

[teknology9]

Thanks DM. I read somewhere that they had a glitch in making it backwards compatible but I don't know whether it has been ironed out.


Teknology9

[timtom33]

Pcie 2.0 x16 is not even fully saturated by todays best cards...

Unless you are gaming on 3 displays at insane resolutions pcie bandwidth is a non issue.

Tom

[teknology9]

Here is some Info about it:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pci-express-3.0-pci-sig,review-31962.html


Thanks for your comment timtom, yes I know but Gigabyte are getting ready for this especially on the X79 chipset and a few boards in the Z68 range.

Teknology9

[Dark Mantis]

Adding the new feature/upgrade to a new board is straightforward but where they were having problems as far as I know was trying to use it on the motherboards already in existance.

[teknology9]

So DM, are you saying go for a MB like this:

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3911#ov

instead of:

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3980#ov

teknology9

[Dark Mantis]

Quite possibly it would be the better bet. I don't pretend to know very much about this new spec apart from what I've read but I think we do need to be a bit careful if you actually need to use the new standard. Most people won't have anything that will make a difference at the moment but things will change.