Gigabyte Z97 SLI

[IceMan37]

Well, I ordered a few more of these boards with I5 4670 non K processors. Setup was very easy with these, and the boards are very narrow which gives lots of space to work with cables inside the case. Onboard sound is more than adequate with the amplified ALC 1150. I used Coolermaster Elite 430 cases -- the new ones with updated USB 3.0 front panels ports and included red fans. One system was delivered locally today and the Family was very happy it was for their daughter who just got out of high school and going to college here now locally (TCU). She does graphic work and light gaming, but the game she does play is Skyrim, which needs a dedicated GPU which they did not ask for but I told them it would be a good idea. Well when she loaded up Skyrim with the on-chip I5 GPU she got 15 FPS on high settings (lol). She was playing it on console before, but now with the PC I told her to at least get a GTX 650-650Ti or HD 7770 ... something in that order to be able to play skyrim on high smoothly with decent frames. So I just ordered a GTX 660 non TI from TigerDirect (that you guys recommended) -- she should be happy with that. the build has a XFX 550W PSU so there's more than enough to power the GPU.

[AWS]

That's a damn good board. I built a box for a friend and that's the board I used. I put in an I3 I believe. My buddy tells me his kids love the difference from the old core 2 duo it replaced.

[IceMan37]

Very cool. Giga has a winner with this board. All things will be so much faster with a good I3 over the older C2D. Especially the every day tasks that kids will use because of the very strong IPC. This board amazed me because I had more room in a small mid tower for cabling vs. the MSI mATX I am using myself in the same case. Yet it has room for PCI expansion cards, very nice onboard sound. Basically it's become my staple build board. Usually it's an MSI but Giga come through with a high quality affordable motherboard.

[Rich-M]

I see 3 reasons I would not use that board. Gigabyte is using those sata ports that face up and out and I remember having to put the cables in before I mounted the board and not being able to change them once I did without taking the board out because they hit so tight against the inner frame of the case that holds the hard drives. Also the pci-x port under the video card is unusable because even the smallest video card covers it over as would a second card if you tried to run SLI which then kills a pci slot too close to the video slot.which defeats the purpose of having it available. Of course the obscuring of two slots is compounded when you look at the space wasted only netting 6 usb ports on the back of the tower but it would be tough to add usb ports and a pci gigabit card which I always do on my personal units and that is how I got into trouble with my current main build.In order to get 8 usbs I need I had to add a usb card but didn't have the slot to do it unless i sacrificed my new creative soundcard which I wasn't about to do so I added usb ports with an adapter but had no slot to use so I ran an addon motherboard card instead I didn't know I had left over from years ago. That's the problem with having every single extra be usb plus mouse and keyboard. With 1 external drive and 2 usb docking port externals, a scanner, mouse and keyboard, a usb hub and an external dvd drive 8 ports is my minimum. My Microsoft keyboards all have adapters to let them run Ps2, but that didn't work out really well on the last unit as I think it didn't work in the bios or somewhere and that made me crazy.

 

I also try to use micro boards wherever possible in mid cases because it gives more room but again most of them have SLI which wastes space for me as I wouldn't dream of running that. I wish I could design my own as I would have a micro board with a video slot 2 pci slots and 2 pci-x slots away from the video slot. Then I could add anything I want.

[IceMan37]

Essentially the two 1x PCIe slots under the main slot - Giga, and all other manufacturers that have boards like this (which are most) already know if you install a graphics solution in the main 16x PCIe are unusable for all practical intents and purposes. There is a usable PCIe 1x above the 16x PCIe slot. Additionally you can use the additional 8x PCIe for any 1-4x PCIe card - which I have done, and it's the same way on my MSI mATX board (except the additional 1x PCIe above the main 16x slot). So PCIe slot availability isn't an issue normally.

 

On to USB. True this board has fewer 2.0 native USB and no too many USB in total but most could easily use this board. It also has the combo PS2 port.

 

About space ... if you actually install this board you would see what I mean. I had more room in the case with this board then I did with the mATX -- for cabling. I do understand the board is longer yes, but the MSI Z87-G43 I have, and your own Gigabyte mATX are wider, and that width expands across the case. So where you lose bottom room with the regular ATX Gigabte motherboard - this specific board is very narrow conserving space. It uses 2 less standoffs, and overall it looked just as clean installed in the case as the mATX did (because of the narrow width).

 

About the SATA ports. Well, I don't have issues with install because my builds are very clean and untangled, so even the sideways facing SATA port I have zero issues with because I make sure there is "space" where I can easily plug, and unplug the SATA cables and with both the MSI board with no upwards ports (all sideways) or the giga I had no issues with installing SATA with the board in the case. I understand personally using mATX I do too for the same reasons, space in the case =) However this Gigabyte board leaves a lot of room in a case as well.

[IceMan37]

This is an older pic of my main unit when it was originally first built - the HSF has changed, and the GPU has changed, but you can see where there is more than enough room to install the board then have room to install your SATA easily even sideways with the board already in the case. With the Gigabyte there was even more room. In fact cut more than a full inch back from the drive cage with the Gigabyte that's how much room I had in those builds.

 

[Rich-M]

I can see with your board there none of the problems I am talking about exist...but the Thermaltake case I used on my Z87 chipset Gigabyte board may have been a little small for a mid size case actually though I have had all the issues I was talking about before on other builds. I think the Cooler Master cases have a bit more room in them. When I was going crazy trying to figure out my problem over the last few weeks I moved my new board and cpu into a Cooler Master 430 and noticed quite a bit more room using all the same hardware.

[IceMan37]

Yeah for a cheap case it's a nice case. I remember the Tt case you mentioned I had that one also, nice case, but a bit cramped. What MSI board did you end up getting?

[Rich-M]

MSI A78M-E45 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 (Bolton D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130747

[IceMan37]

Very nice looking board that is one MSI I have not built with yet. Are you using your GTX 280 gpu or maybe onboard APU graphics? How do you like the board so far?

[Rich-M]

I bought an XFX R7 250 2 Gb low profile card thinking it was way smaller and I could use the pci-x slot there for my gigabit nic card but even that blocked that port

but I really like the graphics on that card anyway....colors are really saturated.....the board is great went in like a charm and no issues.

[IceMan37]

Sounds good. I miss he color saturation my HD 7870 had, it was a bit more robust than the GTX 660TI I have now. I was able to teak out the NV control panel with digital vibrance to make it look mostly similar, but still I think colors are slightly better with AMD cards. Glad you like the board.

[Rich-M]

Interesting we both note the same thing which is better color saturation in the AMD (ATi ) cards....I think I saw it more in this card than ever before.

[IceMan37]

Yes, by default nvidia cards looked a bit more washed out on 1st boot. ATI/AMD looks perfect. I now have this gtx 660ti looking about as good with text and colors as the HD 7870. Still, not the same no matter what i do but close enough. I sold my HD 7870 to a security guard where i work he plays D&D online so he is happy. I was thinking GTX 780 as you know, but now i think i will scale it back a bit and get a R9 280x I do really miss the quality of AMD cards text and color. I am looking at the HIS model (you know i take chances sometimes) that card looks sweet.

[Rich-M]

Nice looking cards. Many hate that brand on TSF but I have had a few that were good in the past.

[IceMan37]

I have always used my own intuition and building experience and i have always been fine.

[Rich-M]

I don't doubt it and you keep up on everything as well. I have built a business around selling my clients a custom built pc and by doing so, I keep them as clients so I have played with a lot of hardware. My concerns because of that are probably too much price but I still buy only from quality component makers. With my personal pcs, that is where I play and to a certain extent don't care about price. I have learned the hard way when I am looking for components to build with for the shop, I always pay too much for things based on needs so now when I see the deal, I buy whether I need whatever it is or not and if I don't have what I need to build with then I don't build.