Motherboards Asus P8Z77-V PRO vs Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H

I am putting together a build, planning to use i7-3770K and Asus GTX670 TOP (assuming I can get one). I want to be able to overclock (CPU about 4.5GHz), but that will be a "first time", so want a board that has easy "basics" (plus scope to be more adventurous, once I know what I'm doing). The Asus has the benefit of being thunderbolt ready, but guess the jury is still out on how much advantage that proves to be.
I would appreciate some advice, between the two (or any other suggestions). I tend to have a "sort of gut feeling" that there may be something to be said for the mobo and GPU to be from same manufacturer, but don't know if that actually does have any tangable benefit (plus I may not be able to get the Asus GPU).

 

Note the Asus P8Z77-V PRO/Thunderbolt has Intel Thunderbolt. The Asus P8Z77-V PRO does not.

Hope this helps your OCing - ASUS Z77 BIOS Tuning Guide: http://rog.asus.com/129672012/maximus-v-motherboards/asus-z77-motherboard-uefi-bios-tuning-guide/

It's relatively the same technologies between 2500K/Z68 and 3770K/Z77, so you can use this as a reference: http://rog.asus.com/76652012/overcl...00k-with-maximus-iv-gene-z-to-an-easy-4-4ghz/

 

I would go for the UD5H.

It has a 3 year warranty with a UK based RMA center

It has the realtek ALC898 sound chip which also does X-Fi emulation

Also it has Easytune6 which will give you three presets for overclocking (low to high) also there is a Autotune function to set up your CPU overclock specifically to your setup.

Sin0822 did a good review of it here - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-Review-(Benchmarks-with-SB-BIOS-MVP-Analysis)

And a great Ivybridge overclocking guide (using the same board ) - http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end

 

Thanks for that. Explains it a lot better than most "guides" I've seen. Does most of that apply to the V PRO, or is some RoG only. On the subject of Thunderbolt, I was intending to get the PRO/Thunderbolt, but saw an Asus video, which I thought said the V PRO was Thunderbolt "ready", so I assumed it could be added, later, as an expansion. Did I get that wrong?

 

Thanks for that, shall have a good read. Had a couple of people say it's a good board, for OC. Trouble is, also had a few people raise reliability issues, with Gigabyte boards. Don't know if that's unfair, and more about the 68 boards.

 

The basic voltage, multiplier and DIGI+ VRM options are mostly the same. Only the more advanced stuff the V PRO lacks, but you don't need it for an everyday 4.4/4.5G.

And yes, sorry, all the ASUS P8Z77/Z77 ROG/Z77 Sabertooth boards are Thunderbolt 'ready' because they come with a TB_Header that allows an ASUS exclusive ThunderboltEX card to be installed. They should be due out soon. (http://www.sweclockers.com/image/red/2012/04/19/Tb_header.jpg?t=original&k=277ed60c)

 

Thanks. That's a relief. Thunderbolt isn't something I NEED now, but seems a sensible bit of "future proofing". Re OC; certainly don't intend to get too adventurous, anytime soon.