Asus Maximus V Extreme or Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP7?

[death791]

Hi all I'm looking to buy a new motherboard sometime this week, I'm looking to upgrade from a MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard to a more powerful overclocking board. I am currently Running a i5 3570k @ 4.2 ghz and 2 Xfx Black Edition 7970 Crossfired. I'm trying to pick from either the

Asus Maximus V Extreme board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131858 or the

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP7 board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128569 the reason I'm switching motherboard is because currently I'm buying my parts for my full water cooling loop so I want to get a new board in the case before I install and fill the loop, and I plan on upgrading to a 3rd 7970 graphic card and I want to easily be able to overclock the whole system. Any Opinions be great I am just looking for a Z77 Platform 1155 Socket motherboard ( I'm not upgrading my processor yet) with 3/4way CFX and SLI support also which BIOS do you prefer better Asus or Gigabyte? Thanks a lot!

 

[slh28]

Neither, I don't think it's wise to spend $350+ on what is now a legacy socket for a few extra Mhz. If you really need the extra CPU power you should save up for Ivy Bridge E (or get a 3770K), and if you're just gaming the 3570K at 4.2Ghz is more than enough.

 

[death791]

Yes I'm not worried about the processer speed I can easily overclock it to 4.6ghz once I have my water setup installed and yes this build is primary a gaming setup, I need to switch boards because I want to install a 3rd graphics card and I need a 3/4way CFX/SLI PCI express supported motherboard the Asus and Gigabyte are the best looking two I could find, and also I want to upgrade to a board that will let me overclock all the cards easily. But I haven't use Asus or Gigabytes BIOS before so I also wanted to know which people preferred when it comes to overclocking. thanks!

 

[slh28]

I would choose the Asus between those two, they have an excellent reputation for their high end boards.

If you're just after the extra PCI-E lanes it might be an idea to consider the 4820K and an X79 motherboard. The X79 platform has 40 PCI-E lanes so even a cheap $200 board can run 3 or 4 GPUs without the need for a PLX chip (which reduces performance and is expensive).

In terms of pricing it will probably cost the same assuming you sell your 3570K except you've upgraded to a superior platform and better overclocking chip in the 4820K since it will use fluxless solder rather than TIM.