My dear OC'ers I'd like to try the LGA1155 CPUs and the form factor HAS to be mATX. I've been looking at some ASUS boards, both Z68 og P67: P8Z68-M PRO Maximus IV GENE-Z P8P67-M P8P67-M PRO I'm pretty sure I won't be using the onboard graphics in the Z68 chipset, but I kinda like the GENE-Z board and, from what I've been reading, it overclocks nicely. I'll be using an EK Supreme HF to cool the CPU, will be using a single graphics card (watercooled 6870) and just aircool the motherboard - a dedicated waterblock (from EK) only exists for the GENE-Z and I'm not sure if watercooling ´the mobo is worth it in the end... Are there anyone here who have had some experience with these boards, OR who can maybe recommend mATX boards from other vendors?
Get the Gene-Z. Awesome board. The onboard graphic output consists of a single HDMI on the gene z, so it's fairly unobtusive. The P8P67-M is a good clocker too if you don't want a Z board. Just a point though; the Gene-Z gen3 is out sometime soon, bringing PCI-E 3.0 to the party.
Thanks for the replies. However, I'm still mondering whether to go for GENE-Z or P8P67-M PRO. Someone on another forum told me that with LGA1155 it's not so much the mobo being the critical factor, as it was with LGA1366, but more the CPU. So, basically: "get a good CPU and a half-decent mobo and you'll be pretty good off" - I'm not too sure about that statement, though - it only adresses overclocking and not all other areas (SATA controller quality, USB controller quality, heatpipe/cooling capabilities and so on...), so I'm still a bit confused. When it come to PCI-E 3.0, I don't really see the point. As far as I know, no graphics cards come even close to being limited by the PCI-E 2.0 bus, so why use PCI-E 3.0 as a selling point?
True to an extent; but if you get a bad chip, a good board will nett you more from it. As to cooling, The Gene-z is more robust with a large heatpipe cooling the vrms on which several ceramic (i think they're ceramic, they feel ceramic) fins array type thingys sit. Sata speeds are pretty similsr between the two. Asus lead the pack for speeds though. Audio is pretty good on the Gene-z too.Not as good as a dedicated card, but the best onboard you could hope for.
And just from personal experience; the ability to use the onboard gpu of the 2500k has been a god send these last few days while my gfx card has been off for rma.
im looking at P8Z68-M PRO, but for some unknown reason, they've decided to put 2 PCI slots there. i need the 3rd or 4th slot to be PCIe x1 for my sound card. putting sound card in the other PCIe x16 slot will just make main slot into x8, not ideal. grrr...
Hm.... the GENE-Z sounds more and more interesting, but I'll have to change the entire colour scheme of my casemod for that one - it's not that I don't like red, though....
