discussion Best Z77 motherboard(and CPU)?

[koonj]

Hi, newbie here, I was wondering what is the best Z77 Motherboard/CPU to get to upgrade my old PC?

I am looking for a good value motherboard that has reliable track record. Also I've never OC'd before, but would like to start familiarizing with it.
I mainly use my PC for gaming(BF3, GTA, Skyrim), occassional video/photo editing and programming

My PC:

I already started upgrading parts I felt I needed and were good deals, the newer parts I bought are marked with *

Corsair 600t /w Mesh*
PC Power and Cooling MkII 750W*
CM Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler*
Zotac GTX 260
Asus P5N-E SLI
Intel Core 2 Quad 9300@ 2.5Ghz
500 GB WD 7200 HDD
4 GB Kingston DDR2(Buying a DDR3 on upgrade)

I don't have a fixed budget, but I'd like to buy on good value deal and which, hopefully would not be an overkill

 

[uberness]

Go for i5-3570K and Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Bundle sale @ NCIX - NCIX Bundle Deal Intel Core i5 3570K Unlocked Quad Core CPU & Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard - Bundle Deals - BX80637I53570K&Z77X-UD3H
You should replace the video card too if you want to play games at max settings.

 

[koonj]

What memory should I look to get?

Also, do I only get the specification for the memory listed on the official processor page?(1600/1333)

 

[frontier204]

Look to the qualified vendor's list (QVL) for the motherboard if you really want to be sure. For instance, there's a list of supported memory for the UD3H that uberness posted at the following URL:
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA-Z77X-UD3H (rev. 1.0)

Note especially for "enthusiast" boards you don't have to follow the QVL religiously, but it gives you an idea of what the manufacturer used to test their board.

I second the recommendation for the Core i5 3570k, since you don't have use for an i7 with the tasks you listed.
As for "track record", I'd rather go to a manufacturer that is easy to get service for. Every product line has a bad one pass through every so often. Since you're in Toronto, look for manufacturers like Asus and MSI that have repair depots in Canada.

 

[koonj]

Thanks for info

What about Asrock Extreme 4?

I found a PM deal for 3570k for 214$ and Asrock at 144.99$ ~MIR which comes to 358.9$, cost slightly less at 10$ less than the bundle and I hear Extreme 4 is better than UD3H?

Also on the memory, the memory specification on the processor page shows a memory type of DDR3-1333/1600

Does that mean I should only get 1333/1600 DDR3 memory ram?

 

[koonj]

Thanks for info

What about Asrock Extreme 4?

I found a PM deal for 3570k for 214$ and Asrock at 144.99$ ~MIR which comes to 358.9$, cost slightly less at 10$ less than the bundle and I hear Extreme 4 is better than UD3H?

Also I am unclear on the memory, the memory specification on the processor page shows a memory type of DDR3-1333/1600

Does that mean I should only get 1333/1600 DDR3 memory ram?

 

[frontier204]

You use the motherboard page, not the processor page to verify RAM compatibility. For the AsRock Z77 Extreme 4, you can use up to 2 sticks DDR3-2666 or 4 sticks DDR3-2400, although most benchmarks you'll see shows no noticeable gain over DDR3-1600.
ASRock > Products > Z77 Extreme4

 

[Dzzope]

Possibly worth bumping the GPU first.. Shouldn't have a problem with a 670 on that board..
Granted some of the stuff your doing is cpu heavy.. but I think a GPU upgrade will show you more (at least gaming or GPU powered) performance increase..

 

[pentiumvi]

I personally have had bad experiences with AsRock motherboards. I'd pick up an Asus board if you have the budget. The P8Z77 is a nice board.