I recently bought a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 off ebay but unfortunately it is stuck in one of the Gigabyte boot loops and will never get as far as the bios so I can update the bois to one that it meant to solve the issue! This is the problem here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1034724/gigabyte-p67-z68-boot-cycling-problem (Mods/Admin, please remove the link if linking to other forums is not allowed) I have been testing it on the bench all day with only an I5 2500k and a single 8Gb stick of Corsair Vengeance ram. The same thing happens with no ram and with no cpu. I get no error beeps as it is not getting as far as POST. Should I try and return the board to the ebay seller bearing in mind it was a private sale that took place nearly two months ago, try and rma it through Aria (which is where it was purchased from before I bought it through ebay), sell it on as faulty on the off chance that it could work with somebody else's components or buy a new board and have it sitting here as a £100 paperweight? And now is the big question. With rumor's of Z77 launching next week should I hold on before buying a new board?
Rumor ? In my country some of the boards are already on sale from all major manufacturers (MSI was first, the Gigabyte and ASUS at same time). And if you should wait ? Well, it depends. Do you want the native USB3 controller (so you can boot from USB3 devices) ? Because that and PCI-E3 lanes from the chipset is pretty much the only major differences compared to Z68.
There's of course a price difference. Im upgrading to Z68/77 in about a months time so keeping an eye on prices......
@MrDomRocks: not really P8Z77-V LX - 117 euros vs 102 euros for P8Z68-V LX P8Z77-V LE - 153 euros vs 107 euros for P8Z68-V LE P8Z77-V - 176 euros vs 160 euros for P8Z68-V/GEN3 P8Z77-V PRO - 198 euros vs 180 euros for P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 P8Z77-V DELUXE - 248 euros vs 222 euros for P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3 Maximus V Gene - 192 euros vs 177 euros for Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 Except the P8Z68-V LE i don't see major price differences - 15-20 euros is a difference, but nothing major. And i live in a small country, so your prices could be even better than the ones i get.
So, the Z77 boards are not fully on sale in the UK. Because of this the Z68 boards are now on sale at a reduced price. Should I take advantage of this and get a Z68 board and then work out what to do regarding returning the board to the ebay seller (hopefully)? Has anybody got any advice about returning items to ebay sellers after the 28 day cut off thingy.
I went with an ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen 3. For $120 you can't beat that board for the features and quality. As soon as IB launches I'm slapping a 3770k in there. Saving money now with a less expensive Z68 board and putting the higher end CPU in there when that thing launches. Even if there's an equivalent Z77 ASrock board it'll probably run 150 brand new.
Tell me why is it dead and why you would need to upgrade? I have just bought a Asus Maximus Gene Z Z68 board, it has everything I need and more.
If the price difference is so minimal i might go for Z77 which brand i dunno but Asus and Gigabyte look good to me!
AFAIK all you get out of Z77 from Z68 is native USB3/SATA6? Higher supported memory bus speed when overclocked, a couple of fluff features? I would say if someone out there already has a z68 board they're happy with and is planning on an IB upgrade it probably isn't worth it.
Native SATA3(SATA/600) is part of P67/H67/Q67/Z68 as well. Z77 brings only native USB3. Ivy bridge brings PCIE 3, which depending on your board will work (/GEN3, G3 boards with older chipsets, or any of newer chipsets) or not (non-GEN3 boards).
I think i'm probably going to go with a Z77 board to stay up to date but now I just need to work out what to do with my faulty Z68 board. What can I do with a faulty item that was bought off ebay nearly two months ago?
At two months, trying to complain to the seller is just wrong, it worked when you got it and even if he took it back Aria is likely to refer him, just like you, to Gigabyte. Which is what I would do, call Gigabyte and/or just resell it on Ebay.
Figures I'd be eating my words a little bit. Newegg just put their Z77 selection on sale today and the ASRock Extreme4 is on there for about $25 more than what I paid for the Extreme3 Z68. I'm still gonna hold strong though. After restocking fees for a refund I'd be looking at spending $50 to upgrade. Just not worth it.
It sure is. Only just found it on techpower. I would want a new case for that. Maybe an open frame testbench or a danger den acrylic.
So what's everyone thinking on this? I'm looking to upgrade my sig rig soon, I don't have any plans to get IB and after trying out a Gigabyte Z68 I've come to realise I much prefer the ASRock bios so I'm debating between a Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 and a Z77 Extreme4. Halp plz?
