Hi guys, I am planning to build a new rig, its been 3 good years for me (current spec on my sig). These are what I am after: Core i7 4770 Motherboard Z87 CORSAIR Vengeance 1600C10 32GB LP Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD Palit GTX770 2GB Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Corsair AX860W Problem is i am contemplating which motherboard should i get. As of today in Singapore, the cheapest Z87 mobo that I can get is MSI (MSI Z87-G45) and a comparable ASUS(Z87-Pro) or Gigabyte (Z87-UD3H) will cost me another US$75 or so. My past experience with MSI is rather unpleasant (A64 + nForce 3 250gb), but I want to give MSI another try this time. So, as topic, how is MSI these days? Build quality? Durability? Any side notes? Thanks in advance!
From what I can tell, their high end boards can be quite good, but their lower boards are a bit 'meh'. The same can be said for Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte etc. Basically you need to do a bit of research on it and determine whether the board will meet your needs, or whether you need too spend that little bit extra. There are two things I notice about your spec list. The first is that you listed a Core i7-4770, which has a locked multiplier. Getting a low end Z87 board could be considered a little 'pointless' and you would be much better off getting a higher end H87 board (unless you actually meant i7-4770k in which case get the Z87). The second thing is that you are getting 32GB of DDR3-1600. What will you be using this computer for? Unless you will be doing video editing, CAD, rendering etc using 64-bit software, this is overkill. For gaming and even doing heavy processing stuff in 32-bit apps, 16GB is all you really need. Ideally you should go to at least DDR3-2133. I should point out looking up comparative reviews for DDR3-1600 vs DDR3-2133 can be a little pointless, depending on what CPU they use. On Z67 and Sandy Bridge, there is really little difference between DDR3-1600 and DDR3-2133, however on Ivy Bridge DDR3-2133 does show quantifiable benefit. It's possible further gains may be attained on Haswell CPU's with higher RAM speeds.
Well, that's the thing, MSI Z87-G45 provided all the feature that I ever need. I don't need additional SATA controller or USB controller, so I am looking at a plain featured board. You read it right, I am looking at 4770 (non K), because I need the Hyperthreading. I am going to use it mainly for Virtualization (VMWare and stuff), hence i choose non K Core i7 and 32GB of ram. And I am not going to overclock it either, I just want a good stable and durable workstation. Thanks for your input Is MSI Z87-G45 considered as high-end enough? Here is the link. Edit: You were right. I think I might just go with H87. And i think i will just get Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H. It looks better than Asus H87 offerings, and H87 gives me more than I need (no OC or SLI) and most importantly it's CHEAP! Thanks!