Help me compare two motherboards

[JohnGabriel]

First there is the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard which costs $339 at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131760

Then you have the GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard which costs $169 at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128478

They both seem the same features. Is it worth the extra $200 to get the ASUS motherboard?

[pinotnoir]

I have an Asus Rampage Extreme and its a board made for overclocking. If you want to overclock and have the extra money get the Asus. If not then get the gigabyte. I planned on overclocking but never did so I wasted the money on the extra features.

[MiRai]

They both seem the same features. Is it worth the extra $200 to get the ASUS motherboard?
The ASUS board is a very high end board. If both of those motherboards look the same to you then why not go with the
cheaper board? Do you plan to run 3 or 4 video cards? If so, you'll need the ASUS board. The ASUS board also has many
more USB 3.0 ports on it... are you going to utilize all of them?

Both boards are going to overclock an unlocked processor the same up to a point. If you're looking to exceed 5GHz (which
I don't recommend) then you may want to go with the ASUS board.

[JohnGabriel]

I wasnt planning on doing any overclocking. Just get the board/cpu/ram combo and drop it in.

I used to do this type of stuff for a living, but the last 20 years I've been in a management position. I haven't kept up do date with the tech and everything has changed so much.

[MiRai]

I wasnt planning on doing any overclocking. Just get the board/cpu/ram combo and drop it in.

I used to do this type of stuff for a living, but the last 20 years I've been in a management position. I haven't kept up do date with the tech and everything has changed so much.
Then you should be good to go with the Gigabyte board. I would recommend a newer chipset on that board, though.
Like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

...or this one...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498

Those two boards look practically identical minus the fact that their external ports slightly vary from each other. The
board in the second link also includes PCIe 3.0 which isn't currently being utilized and probably isn't that big of a deal.
With the extra money you'll be saving versus the ASUS board you can practically purchase the processor.

[JohnGabriel]

Thank you, you have been more than helpful.

[jstanthr]

one of the biggest differences i see in the boards is the number of PCI-E lanes. If you think you might want to do SLI go with the asus or any other Z68 board. if your just going to run a single gfx card any p67 board will do, the gigabyte board mirai is reccomending is an awesome board, i have several boxer friends that use it. i know the p67 boards say they support SLI but when u actually use both slots they downclock to 8x if you want true 16x 16x sli you will need a z68 board. thats just my opinion

[JohnGabriel]

Thanks everyone, this has been a fun process, simply the researching and ordering. Cant wait to actually put everything together.

To put things in perspective as to how long its been since I've gotten my hands dirty.... My current toaster has more memory than the computers I used to work on. I doubt you can even find the CP/M operating system I used to tinker with.

Alot has changed since I graduated college in the 1980s.

[MiRai]

i know the p67 boards say they support SLI but when u actually use both slots they downclock to 8x if you want true 16x 16x sli you will need a z68 board. thats just my opinionZ68 is just a P67 + H67 with Intel's Smart Response. Natively, both chipsets only support a single x16 lane or dual x8 lanes. The
only way a Z68/P67 board can support more than 16 PCIe lanes is through the use of the extra NF200 chip. The difference
between x16/x16 and x8/x8 is negligible and rarely will a normal player be able to saturate the PCIe lanes on an x8/x8 SLI setup.


To put things in perspective as to how long its been since I've gotten my hands dirty.... My current toaster has more memory than the computers I used to work on. I doubt you can even find the CP/M operating system I used to tinker with.

Alot has changed since I graduated college in the 1980s.You must be doing something right because my toaster has zero memory. ;)

[JohnGabriel]

For multiboxing its best to use a single graphic card right? Is SLI primarily for games running full screen?

[thefunk]

my kettle has more memory than your toaster

EDIT And apparently SLI isn't good for multiboxing.

The way I understand it, you need a) loads of RAM b) a GPU with loads of cores and ideally lots of RAM c) SSD hard drive d) CPU 4 cores

[MiRai]

For multiboxing its best to use a single graphic card right? Is SLI primarily for games running full screen?
No, multiboxing does not benefit from SLI and I always recommend a single card solution with lots of horsepower.

[JohnGabriel]

My parts arrived and I am happy with the setup. Now getting the full 60 FPS on main screen and 20 FPS on all slaves, with plenty of power to spare.

The gigabyte board, i7 cpu, and 16 gigs of ram. I used my existing GTX 465 graphic card and SSD hard drives.

It may be time to upgrade the graphics card. I couldn't use SLI even if I wanted to, since the computer doesn't recognize the one in the x16 slot, only the x8 slot.