New Z77 Mobo?

[trenzterra]

Hey guys,

Any idea where I can still find a new decently priced (<$200) Z77 mobo in SLS?

Thank you!

 

[royfrosty]

Most of the shop in SLS have already start to taken off Z77 chipset mobos.

If you hurry now, may be still got chance, a little hunting may be needed.

Try asking shops such as Tradepac, Best bargain and MyNextCom if they have it.

 

[trenzterra]

Thanks. I managed to call up Tradepac and they still have it in stock.

But now my dilemma is: I am hunting for a new mobo only because my current mobo can't support USB 3 properly. Using an add-on card has its problems as well since I can't boot from USB 3 on the add-on card.

Thus, the two options for me are to upgrade to the H/Z77 platform (where there's Intel USB3 which is most stable), or to the H97/Z97 platform.

Upgrading to Z77 (I chose Z77 because the H77 mobos still being sold are those low-end ones) would set me back around $200, while upgrading to H97 + the cheapest i5 would cost me about $430.

Now the problem is: I checked benchmarks and the cheapest i5 is just very slightly faster than my i5-2400...

Any idea what would be my best route? Or just tahan with USB 2.0 for now? :/

 

[hengheng220]

Thanks. I managed to call up Tradepac and they still have it in stock.

But now my dilemma is: I am hunting for a new mobo only because my current mobo can't support USB 3 properly. Using an add-on card has its problems as well since I can't boot from USB 3 on the add-on card.

Thus, the two options for me are to upgrade to the H/Z77 platform (where there's Intel USB3 which is most stable), or to the H97/Z97 platform.

Upgrading to Z77 (I chose Z77 because the H77 mobos still being sold are those low-end ones) would set me back around $200, while upgrading to H97 + the cheapest i5 would cost me about $430.

Now the problem is: I checked benchmarks and the cheapest i5 is just very slightly faster than my i5-2400...

Any idea what would be my best route? Or just tahan with USB 2.0 for now? :/

I think you tahan awhile more to see if the next gen upcoming cpu will have how much improvement over your current 2nd gen processor. if it's not Alot, you can still get either the 8 or 9 series mobo and by then the 8 series De price should drop le

 

[royfrosty]

Ask yourself these few question first ba.

1. Ask if you need the USB 3.0?
2. Do you have that many amount of USB 3.0 device?

If both of the answer is no then no point le.

Your current i5 is not a big leap from the current Haswell/Haswell Refresh CPU.

If you itch to upgrade then go ahead and whack a B85 with i5-4460.

 

[devilwahaha]

Saw PCT with a huge stack of Asrock z77 E4's few weeks back.

 

[trenzterra]

Ask yourself these few question first ba.

1. Ask if you need the USB 3.0?
2. Do you have that many amount of USB 3.0 device?

If both of the answer is no then no point le.

Your current i5 is not a big leap from the current Haswell/Haswell Refresh CPU.

If you itch to upgrade then go ahead and whack a B85 with i5-4460.

Actually I don't really need it haha. Just afraid that if I don't get Z77 now it's hard to get it in future. Cos I think at the rate things progress my rig can tahan me another 2-3 years.

But I guess really no point right? Since I heard USB 3.1 and DDR4 is round the corner so it's hard to future proof right now?

 

[trenzterra]

Saw PCT with a huge stack of Asrock z77 E4's few weeks back.

Thanks! But I didn't see it on the price list though haha.

A little apprehensive about getting Asrock. I have experienced stupid bugs with it over the years.

 

[shadow84]

Actually I don't really need it haha. Just afraid that if I don't get Z77 now it's hard to get it in future. Cos I think at the rate things progress my rig can tahan me another 2-3 years.

But I guess really no point right? Since I heard USB 3.1 and DDR4 is round the corner so it's hard to future proof right now?

Just tahan till either your cp or mobo spoil bah... By then, u can go get latest gen which may last u another 3-5 yrs or so...

Or you can source for 2nd hand z77 boards with warranty.

 

[twentytwoeighty]

I'm pretty sure I bought the last Z77 ITX mobo in SLS this month, lol.

 

[iAmBored]

I'm not really sure if they have stock, but bizgram did list some z77 boards on Qoo10.

Link

 

[trenzterra]

In the end my hand too itchy... and I went to buy.

Turns out PC Themes really still has many boxes of Z77 Extreme 4 (for those who are still interested), but I settled on the MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming from Tradepac.

So far so good... In fact, it feels more stable than my Z68 Extreme 4. Just that there's no offset mode when overclocking which can get a little annoying. This is because when my i5-2400 goes up to 3.6GHz in Auto voltage mode, it goes up to 1.2V for some reason.

 

[twentytwoeighty]

It's your money and you already bought it but it is not very sensible to pay $200 for a old board with a locked CPU when a H81 board and i5 4590 is $320, spend a bit more for 4690K can even overclock...

 

[MacClipper]

... Just that there's no offset mode when overclocking which can get a little annoying. This is because when my i5-2400 goes up to 3.6GHz in Auto voltage mode, it goes up to 1.2V for some reason.

Probably not enough research done.... else you would have realised that only the 2 "A" brands provide good vcore control with offset options on Z68/77.

Likewise for the newer Haswell mobos, not all brands offer multiple voltage options like Adaptive or Offset which allow idle vcore drops. Can guess which brands do?

Maybe do more research and reading up, next time.

 

[trenzterra]

Probably not enough research done.... else you would have realised that only the 2 "A" brands provide good vcore control with offset options on Z68/77.

Likewise for the newer Haswell mobos, not all brands offer multiple voltage options like Adaptive or Offset which allow idle vcore drops. Can guess which brands do?

Maybe do more research and reading up, next time.

Haha should have trusted my gut feeling this time then

Cos my heart wanted to go with Asrock but my gut feeling is always wrong, so I thought, heck, try MSI. Actually I knew before buying there was no Vcore offset controls on the MSI.

Turns out the MSI is causing me even more trouble


Funny thing is, the last time I bought MSI, the Ethernet port was DOA. Seems like it's deja vu...

 

[MacClipper]

I don't have much personal experience with MSI cos they don't send me anything to test. Last touched was the Z77 M Power model...

But for their Intel side, I don't think MSI mobos are that bad actually besides a messy haphazardly arranged BIOS and lacking offset voltage settings on their ?earlier models.

From my forum readings, they have improved much and are definitely way better reputed than their own AMD models.