ASUS P8Z77-V Pro LGA1155 Z77 Motherboard

[Kenadian]

I've been deliberating between what is the better purchase, a Z68 or a Z77 and find myself leaning more and more toward the Z77.

The main reason is that the Z77's already support the 3rd generation i7 Processors but it's still not confirmed whether or not a BIOS update is all that will be needed for existing Z68's to support iCore Gen 3 (at least with Asus anyway).

It's a few more dollars as well but coming in at the mid $200 CDN but do you think it's worth it?

 

[JohnnyK]

If your only reason for the Z77 is the Ivy Bridge compatibility I would not consider it tbh; if you get a Sandy Bridge CPU now, are you really gonna get an Ivy Bridge in the next 2-4 years? They do not seem that enticing with the TDP at 95W (same as Sandy) instead of the announced 77W, so performance differences will probably be small.
I haven't looked into the boards in too much detail, so there might be other differences, and the price difference is small, but seeing that you are on a budget I would consider those 25 bucks elsewhere.

I still think your ASUS-fixation is unhealthy, btw
In your case, and if you want Z77, look here: http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=70902&vpn=Z77 Extreme4&manufacture=ASRock
40 bucks MIR, so you'd save over 80 bucks on the motherboard compared to the ASUS. Just make sure to read some reviews on that board first, but it looks promising:
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z77_extreme4_review,1.html

 

[Kenadian]

I'm going with Asus because Asus has been good to me. I've lost a Mobo in the past so I know they can and do fail hence the reason I'm sticking with what works for me.

I'm a very brand loyal Customer so if something works, I'll keep using it until I experience issues. Also, I like how mind numbingly simple Asus' Overclock Utilities are which is another reason I'd choose them over anyone else.

 

[Kenadian]

The main reason I was thinking about doing it is because 3 or 4 years down the road I may want to upgrade to an Ivy Extreme to get another few cores assuming software at that time can utilize it (which I'm sure it all will).

I know that USB 3 and PCIE 3 and SATA 6 are safe for years to come so a small upgrade 3 or 4 years down the road may result in adding as much as 3 years longevity to an aging system, not sure?

I am on a bit of a budget but fortunately circumstances have changed a bit and there is no longer a need to purchase a second video card. I also don't have to pick up the video capture card right away and can likely hold off on that until summer or even fall.

These two purchases alone free up close to $450.00 I previously had allocated for this very build. The monitor will eat up some of those funds but aside from that, I may still have another $100 - $150 to play with.