ASUS P8Z68-V-PRO vs ASRock Z68 Extreme 4

[Arterial]

Dear everyone,

I'm planning to make a new computer.

I was wondering what motherboard to choose.

From what I know, the performance of the two motherboards are nearly the same.

However, the latter one is a lot cheaper.

From some research I did, ASRock should be under ASUS.

I just wanted to ask the main difference between these motherboards.

(Yes, I know they used different materials. But is it so significant? And are there other differences?)

[ShyguyXPC]

Asrock is Asus' North American Subsidiary, usually makes cheaper priced counterparts to Asus' more pricier Motherboards.

IMO, nothing wrong with Asrock to save some money.


But here's a side by side spec comparison:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%2060009 3976%20600158412&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivate dMark=False&CompareItemList=280|13-157-250^13-157-250-TS%2C13-131-730^13-131-730-TS

the 2 boards are almost identical, aside from some minor things like the LAN controller chip and a couple minor things like that.

Also looks like they have some Identical specs on the Ports, and Slots, though advertised/listed differently as far as details go in the listings there.

Many of the Asus Fanboy's will vote for the Asus, and swear nothing is better, even when a practically Identical item under another brand from the same company is staring them in the face with a cheaper price.

if your looking to save a few bucks, no harm in the Asrock, if you can afford it, then go for the Asus if you want.

But if it were me, as long as it has the features, and Expansion Slot layout I'm looking for, then I'd go for the cheaper one, unless the company was known for building crappy boards, but thats not the case here with Asrock.

[Arterial]

Well, does it mean that the Asus mobo has better durability compared with the ASRock one? If that is the case, I don't mind spending a bit more, as I plan to use the computer for a long time.

[ShyguyXPC]

Usually, no.

[Arterial]

Well, I'm planning to put two O.S. in my computer, and my friend recommends using Gigabyte or Asus for that. Any opinions?

[ShyguyXPC]

Two Operating Systems?

Seriously, ANY Motherboard Regardless of Brand, can handle that, two separate installed OS's.

Or A Main OS, with a 2nd Running with in A Virtual Environment would be more dependent on the CPU, RAM and Hard drive specs, than the motherboard.

but if you plan on installing a Dual Boot setup where you run one OS, and to run the 2nd, you shut down/reboot the PC and select the other OS. Then ANY Brand of board can support that.

[Arterial]

OK, thanks.

[Arterial]

And for your information, one would be Windows 7 and the other would be Mac OS X.

[ShyguyXPC]

Your going to have a hard time installing OSX out of the box depending on the hardware and components available, unless your following some sort of guide from the OSx86 project site?

Main Page - OSx86

Your going to want to go through the hardware compatibility lists and see what others have managed to get OSX installed on. Normally OSX is notoriously finicky and proprietary on what exact hardware it will run.

so unless you got all the info you need, I'd look around on that site and else where to see if any Z68 boards and Core i3/i5/i7 Socket 1155 CPU's and systems will even run OSX.

[Arterial]

Well, I'm installing Windows 7 first, and my friend says he's got the OSX covered.

[ShyguyXPC]

He must know how to install it then, either from that site above or some other source, as I mentioned it won't install directly out of the box on new hardware like that, there's only a select few boards on the market that will even do that (boards that are no longer made and older socket Designs, Socket 775, etc), and these Z68's are brand new, so hopefully things work out right.