Gigabyte worth the extra cost compared to the ASRock H97M?

[jpsulisz]

Hello TonyMacx86 community,

I have been planning on a whole new build and the motherboard is what is killing me. I ventured out to buy a i7-4790k and a H97M Pro4 by ASRock.

The boards were priced at a similar price, but Microcenter had a $10 rebate along with a $20 discount. So the board itself was $45, while the Gigabyte variant is $70.

However, I've now read that some people say that the ASRock board isn't as OOB compared to the Gigabyte H97M-D3H board, but the Gigabyte board is an extra $25. The boards are very similar and both have good user reviews.

If anyone could convince me the extra cost of the Gigabyte board please try to.

Gigabyte Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128718&cm_re=gigabyte_d3h_h97m-_-13-128-718-_-Product

ASRock Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157512&cm_re=asrock_h97m_pro4-_-13-157-512-_-Product

I do have the week after Christmas to return the motherboard.

 

[trs96]

Hello TonyMacx86 community,

I have been planning on a whole new build and the motherboard is what is killing me. I ventured out to buy a i7-4790k and a H97M Pro4 by ASRock.

The boards were priced at a similar price, but Microcenter had a $10 rebate along with a $20 discount. So the board itself was $45, while the Gigabyte variant is $70.

However, I've now read that some people say that the ASRock board isn't as OOB compared to the Gigabyte H97M-D3H board, but the Gigabyte board is an extra $25. The boards are very similar and both have good user reviews.

If anyone could convince me the extra cost of the Gigabyte board please try to.

Gigabyte Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128718&cm_re=gigabyte_d3h_h97m-_-13-128-718-_-Product

ASRock Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157512&cm_re=asrock_h97m_pro4-_-13-157-512-_-Product

I do have the week after Christmas to return the motherboard.

Why don't you try installing the I7 and some ram on the Asrock board and try it out ?
Just be careful and don't bend any socket pins etc. Then you can see how well OS X will
work with it. If you'll use ethernet for internet instead of wifi then it may be better to go
with the Asrock. The Gigabyte only has the inferior, cheaper Realtek LAN chip while with the
Asrock you get Intel LAN which is much better.

 

[jpsulisz]

The only issue with testing is that the only reliable power supply I own is in my main computer, with all the cable routing behind the board. So I'd be out of a computer for however long testing goes. I still have other components coming in from Newegg right now that I'd need to test with the board. So I was just wondering if anyone had experience with either boards.

However, If time persists this week then I can try installing the components into an old Micro Atx case.