Msi z77 mpower or maximus v gene

[rock2702]

So I m undecided between these 2 mobos,my rig is in my signature,which one should I go with?

 

[rock2702]

Any1?

 

[sumonpathak]

Maximus V gene.Although many would say not to discount the MSI one..but from what i have seen among my peers..the board has some llc/vdroop issues..the voltage variations is too irratic in some cases.So its better to go with some proven performer..and performance wise its no slouch.
One can check a few OC results on the interwebz.

 

[mandarpalshikar]

MVG.... don't even hesitate. Its a very solid overclock-er. Asus ROG is a proven brand.

 

[ico]

MSI Z77 Mpower is fine. I prefer Full ATX boards since you can run out of expansion slots easily on a mATX one.

 

[sumonpathak]

umm....unless he is going Tri Gpu Setup...or some bulky sound cards.I dont think its gonna bother him.

 

[mandarpalshikar]

^^ I agree with both of you... mATX limits us when we want to go for tri-gpu setup or if we are audiophiles who need to put in good sound card into the rig. But then again.. audiophiles would want to go for a good DAC to use with high quality headphones instead of speakers, which would be connected to our rigs through USB ports. Onboard sound chips have improved leaps and bounds now.

@OP - One word of caution though.... If you put in 2 GFX cards for SLi/CorssFire thing... the card which runs in the first slot may report higher temps since there wouldn't be much space between the two cards. This is a common issue with all mATX boards. But shouldn't bother you much since I see that you already have a 7970 from sapphire, so you wouldn't be going in for a crossfire setup in immediate future, I guess and also the new crop of cards from both nVidia and AMD run much cooler than the previous two generations actually.

And BTW..see this link - "That’s 7074.7MHz On The Maximus V GENE"

 

[rock2702]

I m sort of undecided b/w gene,v pro and m power.Yes i m going to stick with single gpu,but if my mind changes in future and i think of adding another 7970,can i do it on gene?Also i see that gene doesn't have pci slot,will i be able to add a sound card to my rig?

Also mandar i have a very similar rig as you have,how much overclock are you able to get on 3570k with the mobo?

 

[ico]

I m sort of undecided b/w gene,v pro and m power.Yes i m going to stick with single gpu,but if my mind changes in future and i think of adding another 7970,can i do it on gene?Also i see that gene doesn't have pci slot,will i be able to add a sound card to my rig?

well, PCI is history. Most sound cards and TV Tuners today are coming with PCIe X1 instead of PCI. Even MSI Z77 Mpower lacks PCI slots but has plenty of PCIe X1 slots.

Maximus V Gene has one PCIe X1 slot. But if you will crossfire another HD 7970, it will get blocked.

If you have plans to add a sound card or a TV Tuner or a RAID controller in future, buy an ATX motherboard.

 

[mandarpalshikar]

As rightly said by ico... if you put in two 7970s then you wont be able to put in anything else... no extra soundcard (you wont need it anyway), no TV Tuner (you can get a USB one though), no thunderbolt card (but thunderbolt devices are not mainstream yet), no RAID controller (MVG supports RAID 0,1,5,10 though).

Related to Overclock.. I'm running my 3570K at 4.8 GHz stable without any manual tweaking... just one or two clicks in BIOS, I could crank it up but then my Hyper 212 Evo wont be able to handle the temps. Dont worry about OC performance of MVG... it has been used to break world records.

May I ask.. why are you thinking about a sound card ?

 

[rock2702]

As rightly said by ico... if you put in two 7970s then you wont be able to put in anything else... no extra soundcard (you wont need it anyway), no TV Tuner (you can get a USB one though), no thunderbolt card (but thunderbolt devices are not mainstream yet), no RAID controller (MVG supports RAID 0,1,5,10 though).

Related to Overclock.. I'm running my 3570K at 4.8 GHz stable without any manual tweaking... just one or two clicks in BIOS, I could crank it up but then my Hyper 212 Evo wont be able to handle the temps. Dont worry about OC performance of MVG... it has been used to break world records.

May I ask.. why are you thinking about a sound card ?

Is the onboard sound on gene better than realtek sound?

 

[mandarpalshikar]

Its based on realtek chip only. But it comes with additional features such as gold plated capacitors, magnetic shielding, etc.

Basically Asus is marketing it as an external soundcard which is embedded in the mono itself, which is true to some extent.

 

[rock2702]

I m thinking of getting an asus xonar soubdcard.Also the color scheme of the gene looks cool,would go well with my red gskill ripjaws.You overclocked to 4.8ghz with hyper 212 evo

 

[mandarpalshikar]

Try the onboard sound first then only get the sound card. You won't be able to rip the benefits of xonar unless you get a really good set of speakers.

 

[rock2702]

Ok i got the asus maximus v gene mobo.I had bought the cm hyper 212 evo cooler around 10 days back but it was kept as it is because i did not know how to install it.Sm1 guide me about the cooler installation as well as help me in overclocking as i m a complete noob.

 

[sumonpathak]

umm.....
Hyper 212 Plus Installation Video - YouTube

also check the manual that comes with the cooler...the mountings are same..so dont worry..

 

[mandarpalshikar]

And basic overclocking is very simple... Just select 4.400G or 4.600G in CPU Level Up.. and UEFI BIOS will take care of it.
Check this link as well - *rog.asus.com/184142012/maximus-v-m...ore-i5-3570k-to-4-5ghz-on-the-maximus-v-gene/

*lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bsQlH2bEPq0/UNCmkHq4x1I/AAAAAAAAEhc/9h5QtF_8tWk/s640/MVG_1.jpg

 

[rock2702]

I installed the hyper 212 evo cooler on top of the i5 3570k cpu on maximus v gene.When i switch on the pc,it boots but i get a "CPU fan error" message.The cpu fan is connected to the mobo and is spinning when the pc starts.Why am i getting this error?

 

[sumonpathak]

is it the auxiliary cpu fan port or the main cpu fan port..there are two AFAIR.
check once and let me know..

 

[rock2702]

On the gene there are cpu_opt and cpu_fan comnectors,i connected the hyper evo 212 fan on the cpu_fan connector.