Richard-BKK Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I'm soon in need of another little computer and was wondering about the quality of Gigabyte mainboards compared to Asus. The mainboard I'm looking at is the Asus Z97M-Plus and the Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H, both are at the same price level. The Gigabyte mainboard has as advantage that it has two PCI Extress X1 slots, while the Asus only has 1 PCI Express X16, 1 PCI Express X4, 2 PCI slots. Additional to the extra expansion slots on the Gigabyte mainboard, it also has “on paper” the better Realtek audio chipset. Gigabyte uses the ALC1150 while Asus uses the Realtek ALC898. The audio is not really important, as the computer will only have very cheap little speakers... Both mainboards use the Intel gbE LAN chipset which supports 10, 100, and 1000Mbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bino Posted January 23, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted January 23, 2015 My personal opinion only, no facts or logic, but I've always preferred ASUS products. ASUS builds good stuff. Dozens of motherboards and all of my laptops for the last 10 years, and have never been let down. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draftvader Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I have one of each. I have an ASUS P8P67EVO in my main PC and a Gigabyte A75N-USB3 in my mini-ITX HTPC. Both have performed superbly. The ASUS is just approaching 4 years old and the Gigabyte 2.5. I am a bit of an ASUS fanboy though due to warranty response and price-point. We have 2 ASUS laptops, 2 ASUS phones, an ASUS router and the aforementioned MB. I do have a Gigabyte 560Ti SOC in my main computer and that does overheat but that is me pushing it too hard and not upgrading my cooling. I'll be replacing it soon, but it is 4 years old which is VERY old in graphics card lifespans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-BKK Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 For me the same, I love Asus products, but the Asus mainboard that fits into the budget (Z97M-Plus) offers a few things less that the Gigabyte mainboard, while they both have 3-years warranty. If I look at the history of BIOS update for Gigabyte I can tell that they have a very similar BIOS update schedule as Asus. The distributor for Gigabyte and Asus is Synnex and they are known for good service so that makes it even more difficult to select one or the other... Another thing I found different in specifications is that the Asus Z97M-Plus only supports M.2 socket – M Key 2260 and 2280, while the Gigabyte supports M Key type 2242, 2260 and 2280 (but most SSD's are 2280 anyway.... so not a big issue). The Asus Z97M-Plus cost 4450 THB while the Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H cost 4290 THB Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H information http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4961#ov Asus Z97M-Plus information http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97MPLUS/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 My personal opinion only, no facts or logic, but I've always preferred ASUS products. ASUS builds good stuff. Dozens of motherboards and all of my laptops for the last 10 years, and have never been let down. Mine also as nearly all the countless number of builds I've done I've used ASUS but did use ASROCK in a recent upgrade to my office computer due to budget constraints. I have a friend here who has always been a fan of Gigabyte but switched to ASUS due to issues with the current generation. He exchanged his latest Gigabyte for Asus due to problems with it. He builds a lot of computers also and a friend of his found the same thing regarding Gigabyte. At one time Gigabyte was an excellent choice, just ASUS has never failed me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h90 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 both good.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkerry Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Simply select the board that has the features and layout that best suits you, otherwise look at ASRock for boards that are good quality but without a lot of extras you may never use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-BKK Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Simply select the board that has the features and layout that best suits you, otherwise look at ASRock for boards that are good quality but without a lot of extras you may never use. Thanks, I looked at Asrock and found the Asrock Z97-Pro4 which has also two PCIE 1X slots and 1 PCIE X16 and a X4 and two PCI slots.... The Audio chipset is less than the Asus and Gigabite as Asrock uses the ALC 892.... But I doubt that anybody will hear the difference between a ALC892, ALC898 or ALC1150 on two little "cheap" no-name speakers.... The price of the Asrock Z97-Pro4 is surely tempting at 3820 THB, to make the choice even more difficult the distributor for Asrock is also Synnex and the mainboard also comes with 3-years warranty.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 A few mainboard boxes at the office of upgrades or new system builds I've done over a few years being tossed. Threw away a bunch more boxes before this batch, had two Gigabyte mainboards out of all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve187 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 don't go for the asrock with only that small amount of price difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-BKK Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) The Asrock Z97-Pro4 even offers something that the other two mainboards do not have, and that is a Thunderbolt AIC Connector, will I ever use it, likely not... but the mainboard cost less so not complaining. http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/z97%20pro4/ Asrock is by the way the 3th largest mainboard manufacturer.... Edited January 23, 2015 by Richard-BKK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Simply select the board that has the features and layout that best suits you, otherwise look at ASRock for boards that are good quality but without a lot of extras you may never use. Thanks, I looked at Asrock and found the Asrock Z97-Pro4 which has also two PCIE 1X slots and 1 PCIE X16 and a X4 and two PCI slots.... The Audio chipset is less than the Asus and Gigabite as Asrock uses the ALC 892.... But I doubt that anybody will hear the difference between a ALC892, ALC898 or ALC1150 on two little "cheap" no-name speakers.... The price of the Asrock Z97-Pro4 is surely tempting at 3820 THB, to make the choice even more difficult the distributor for Asrock is also Synnex and the mainboard also comes with 3-years warranty.... The ASROCK I just upgraded my office computer to is the ASROCK FATAL1TY H97 KILLER and is working great so far - 3760 Baht. I put in an Intel i7-4790k 4.0 GHz CPU at 12,000 Baht. All bought at J.I.B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-BKK Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 The computer I'm going to build with this mainboard will not have that high specs, it will likely be equipped with a Intel i3-4160 processor and 16GB memory DDR3-1600, it will also team up with a AMD HD 6670 graphics card. Basically the mainboard will replace a failing 7-years old (Asus) socket 775 mainboard... so therefore the upgrade... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkerry Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I have the ASRock H97M Pro4 with an i5. I don't overclock so it has all I require. Works fine, less than 3,000 baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crabdog Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Used several Gigabyte and Asus mobos over the years and never had a problem with either. My current setup has an Asrock simply because at the time of buying it had more features than the others for the same price. It's been very solid so far too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellstens Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 If you want to install OS X on your PC you go with Gigabyte have the same chipset as Mac :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gandalf12 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 You wont go wrong with Asus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atyclb Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 my experience building hackintosh's says gigabyte is the easiest to configure. asus and asrock have also worked. synnex can be decent but they can cheat you if you are not prudent 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodroy Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 The computer I'm going to build with this mainboard will not have that high specs, it will likely be equipped with a Intel i3-4160 processor and 16GB memory DDR3-1600, it will also team up with a AMD HD 6670 graphics card. Basically the mainboard will replace a failing 7-years old (Asus) socket 775 mainboard... so therefore the upgrade... Get yourself a processor with built in graphics! Forget the AMD Graphics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthai Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Gigabyte with Nvidia graphics, no AMD crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atyclb Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Gigabyte with Nvidia graphics, no AMD crap although i have nividia some of the radeons are excellent, fast and well priced. eg: R9 290 although his 6670 is a bit dated it should still do well against a cpu gpu intel 500 series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceKadet Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I've done many ASUS builds over the years, and think that they are the best quality although pricey and with less features compared to other similarly priced MoBo's. I also have one current build using Gigabyte, simply because ASUS micro ATX boards didn't have the features that I needed for this particular application. It's been running great over the past couple of years and I would buy Gigabyte again. I would say Gigabyte gives you more features with almost the same quality but for lower price. Having said all that, my latest build will be ASUS (X99), although I did strongly consider Gigabyte. The rest of the competition, although probably quite capable, never really impressed me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsflynn603 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I've used Asus, Gigabyte and ASRock over the past decade and have been happy with all. Currently I'm using ASRock z77 Extreme 4 in two homemade computers and just love them. My recipe is simple. I've always bought from newegg and have used newegg customer reviews as well as other reviews. Find any mobo with a 4 star + rating there and you'll be happy with it. Of course you need to look at what you want and what processor/ram works perfectly with the mobo that you choose. Newegg reviews are great for that. Video card may or may not be an issue. I made two identical computers in 2010 since I live in one place and work several days a week in another place and play Diablo 3 so I chose a high (er) end vid card (a GeForce GTX 480) now a bit dated but still it rocks for D3 which is essential for me. Each time I started with the mobo that I wanted, choosing what seemed to be the "sweet spot" of mobo + processor. Then I chose the ram. Then the vid card. I've done this for over 15 years and have never had one die though they die through obsolesce. I got married last year and my wife does not play games so I removed the GTX 480 and went with resident video. She doesn't see a difference and I've shaved about $4 each month off my electricity bill but of course, she could not play demanding video games. If you are buying locally you can still use newegg ratings to put things together.- I strongly recommend you buy a 128 MB or larger SSD drive, again choosing based upon ratings. Many are problematic but when you see 1200 4+ star ratings, you are likely to do well. I have never found what I wanted in a off-the-shelf computer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeniau96 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 I have built about 50 computers in the past 10 years, most of the Gigabyte, a few Asus and recently Asrock. All about same but Gigabyte is preferred if you want to make a hackintosh. Per another poster, check the Newegg customer reviews, good starting place for any decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB1950 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 In the past, I preferred Asus over Gigabyte mother boards because I've always had compatibility problems with the Award BIOS used on the Gigabyte motherboards. The Asus motherboards used an AMI BIOS which I've never had a compatibility problem with. However my latest motherboard by Asrock uses an UEFI by Asrock instead of BIOS. At first it took a little while getting used to, in particular regarding the legacy PS2 port/ USB 2 port compatibility with wireless mice and keyboards. At first I didn't understand why i was having problem trying to boot into the UEFI. But now I know what's going on, I now like it. I just keep a spare wired keyboard around when there's a compatibility problem, so I can control the boot processes! Of course there's no compatibility issue when booting into Windows because the correct driver gets loaded by then. I don't know what Asus and Gigabyte are doing now since the change over to using UEFI instead of BIOS, so I can't comment on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacChang Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Asus, since the first day I bought one, never looked back at any other brands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katana Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I've been impressed with ASUS so far as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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