Maximum PC

I'm pretty confused about different chipsets out there. I'm getting i7-3770 proc, and want to get Asus mobo (had too many problems with Gigabyte boards). This is a for a non-gaming (although I have a decent Radeon HD 6800), music DAW, Photoshop and Premier workstation. I'll be transplanting DDR3 from i7 930 rig, so I'm only buying CPU and mobo.
What's important to me is lots of SATA ports (8), and RAID (dual RAID1 preferably)... I'd also like to have firewire (for my audio interface), but only few boards come with it, so I think add on card will do. Oh and I need one PCI-E slot for SSD card.
So far I looked at Z77 boards and P67. Do I understand correctly that only difference between them is build in Graphics and native USB3? I don't care about build in graphics since I have Radeon card, but what other things I need to watch out for? Any other chipsets that will do?
Here Z77 boards I was looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 813131821R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131820
and here's P67 :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 813131701R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131714

Get a Z77, there's no reason not to get it (it's compatible with both Sandy and Ivy, the 6x series are compatible with Ivy, but not guaranteed out of the box).

I would say "ew, Sabertooth", but it's actually priced how it should've been now, but it looks like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131820 has a better feature set (notably, the Sabertooth only does RAID on the black colored ports or something, the other one does RAID on all of them).

Thanks man, P8Z77-V does look pretty good! Looks like they got open box for $135. You right about Sabertooth, people complain that only 1 RAID is supported...

I'd agree with the P8Z77-V for you uses, anything less you will be missing some features you want. Only reason to get anything higher would be if you plan on overclocking.

I actually got the sabertooth z77 and am quite happy with it. I got it for the things it didnt have.

I would also like to know what it didn't have to make you buy it.

wifi, thunderbolt, etc,

Yeah, I actually choose MoBos based on the fact that they dont have WiFi or extra stuff I don't need.

Which is pretty much why I always recommend against the Sabertooth. $220 for what? A motherboard is an I/O backplane, if it doesn't have features to match the cost, it's not a motherboard worth buying.

Sure we could go into that "thermal armor" crap, really, a well ventilated case makes this point moot.

now i know why these forums are rarely used. u want to bash people on the stuff they buy? all people should do is make suggestions and give advice. why do u feel the need to bash people just because u dont like what they buy? its not even that expensive of a board.

going by new egg, staying with asus z77s its mid level at best. u can go cheaper sure, but then u need to make choices on how many pci slots u want, how many sata connections, etc.

a mb is nothing but an i/o panel? um ok.

For the most part, a mobo is just an I/O panel lol. But I don't think anyone was bashing you man, a lot of people get the Sabertooth, and a lot of other people dont like gimmicky things. People just stating their opinions about the board, not your choice to get one or not.

i guess it depends what you want out of your hardware. i dont think the "armour" is a gimmick. did they really need to call it that, no of course not.

Agree, Saberooth seems like a gimmik, although Thunderbolt might be useful to some...
It seems most new motherboard are either for hardcore gamers or just occasional "office" users. I finally got P8Z77-V and comparing to my old Gigabyte it's seems castrated No Firewire, just 8 SATA ports (RAID is only supported on Intel chipset), 4 RAM slots (how did I miss that part? I had 6 slots on old mobo, so now I'm down to 8 GB from 12 previously)...
And why the heck do I need DVI/VGA onboard when I have dedicated videocard. I wonder how much I overpaid that that useless feature...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you recommended me bad hardware, just the opposite, this is probably one of the best out there for my needs. There seems to be nothing (affordable) for "advanced user" like me who likes to play occasional game (and doesn't need dual or triple Graphic card setup), and create stuff (Premier, Photoshop, Ableton)...
I'm glad I found old PCI Turtle Beach capture card (in my junk bin) that no longer works in Windows 7 but has Firewire TI chipset that doesn't need a driver so I can connect my M-Audio Profire 610 audio to it I almost threw it out before...
I'll probably get SAS RAID card (crap they are expensive!) and be on my way to recovery

Before I begin, I'd like to point out that my post that seemed to start this whole crapstorm wasn't directed at anyone in particular. I was just stating my distaste for the Sabertooth, paying for features that aren't there that should be there.

And onwards... I hate to sound like I'm picking on someone else, but I do have to butt in here because... well, people seem to hate on the industry these days.


Well the desktop variety. Because anyone who's really interested in a HPC would go with a server-grade motherboard. Usually.


Firewire is pretty much a dead interface, and considering the most used flavor is FireWire-400, it doesn't perform any better than USB2.0 on transfers (400Mb/s vs 480Mb/s) anyway. There's always add-in cards...

I've found on average, people rarely have a use beyond 3 SATA ports. Even on MPC's 2012 Dream Machine, used 5. At most it would've needed was 6

Most people don't have a need beyond 8GB of RAM. You can still stuff 16GB tops on most motherboards though if you need it. Or why not the X78? 8 mother freakin' DIMM slots.


Because all Intel chips now come with an integrated GPU. Intel used to have a lineup that didn't include these (the P-series), but they dropped it. I'm guessing because it's a logistics/marketing thing, and they don't take up much room anyway on the I/O panel.


You can still build cheaper systems these days. Figure out what I/O you need exactly. I'm happy with my $130 board, because I didn't need all the bells and whistles on boards $150 or more. In fact, my case cost more than my motherboard and processor (not combined, that would've been silly).

SAS is also a professional-grade port. Of course you're going to pay out the ass.

I'm going with Asus based on my experience. I used to only build systems with Asus and Abit (RIP) motherboards. Then I tried Gigabyte, and started to have issues (mostly with USB). I had total of 3 Gigabyte motherboards in the last 5 years and every one of them had some kind of weird issue. I was suckered into buying them because feature and price wise they were unbeatable. As I mentioned last one had 10 SATA ports, 8 RAM slots, IEEE 1394, plenty of PCI and PCI-e slots... but it was freezing constantly and I ruled out every other piece of hardware... So I'm back to Asus, and will see how it goes