ASUS Z97 as straightforward, now, as Gigabyte Z97?

[Detosx]

I know the advice is go the Z87 route but I want M.2 and SATA Express and the improved sound quality on some of the Z97 motherboards, so that is my preference. My hope that I could use a Pentium G3258, substantially overclocked, as far as I can see is a no-go, unless I stick to Mountain Lion, which I could, depending how stable it is? I wanted to use a cheap and cheerful G3258 until Broadwell comes out. But getting back on topic, I noticed that the Tonymac list of motherboards includes ASUS Z97 motherboards and I wondered if they are now as straightforward, by which I mean as potentially close to vanilla installs, as Gigabyte boards are (accepting that Z87 is still the preferred route). I am interested in the Asus Ranger motherboard, or the Gigabyte Z97 gaming 5 or Z97MX gaming 5. Thoughts welcome.

 

[Robertc89]

Well i can easily say that i have 0 problems with my Asus H97M-Plus, i mean...it really works oob.

 

[Detosx]

ASUS, re Z97, as straightforward, now, as Gigabyte?

Thanks Robertc89, that's good to hear.

I am curious to know why ASUS boards, at least Z97 ones, are now a shortlist option alongside Gigabyte boards. You know, previously we had the thing that Gigabyte boards didn't necessarily need a DSDT for more or less full functionality out of the box, where other manufactures you were looking at making a custom DSDT.aml or flashing the bios with a modified bios, which is why I went the Gigabyte route. Is that something you no longer need with ASUS, if using with the new ASUS Z97 boards, and how about other manufacturers, also, or just Gigabyte and, now, ASUS?

 

[Detosx]

Thanks again, getting all the power states working, speedstepping and sleep and... I don't mind tinkering but the closer I can get to vanilla has always been a big draw, to me, and if that is now possible with Asus Z97, it opens up quite a few more options. After years of being, in a sense, limited to Gigabyte for closest-to vanilla, I thought maybe there would be somewhere, a post I have perhaps missed, that explains why ASUS are now provisionally in the Buyer's Guide.

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks again, getting all the power states working, speedstepping and sleep and... I don't mind tinkering but the closer I can get to vanilla has always been a big draw, to me, and if that is now possible with Asus Z97, it opens up quite a few more options. After years of being, in a sense, limited to Gigabyte for closest-to vanilla, I thought maybe there would be somewhere, a post I have perhaps missed, that explains why ASUS are now provisionally in the Buyer's Guide.

In the future, other manufacturers may also be added if they will also add the unlocked MSR option in BIOS, or have it unlocked by default.

 

[scr1967]

Well i can easily say that i have 0 problems with my Asus H97M-Plus, i mean...it really works oob.

I'm trying to install Mavericks on this same motherboard, and I'm not getting anywhere. The installer locks up before the welcome screen. Other threads hint that the Intel HD graphics might be the problem. How did you get past installation?

Thanks