MATX Z77 & Realtek Audio

[dojrude]

Does the perfect MATX Z77 board exist and if so is it fully compatible?

I'm currently running a Z68 Maximus IV Gene-Z, but sleep and USB3 don't work, so am thinking about a change to Ivy Bridge once ML is released. All the Z77 boards I've looked at so far (Gigabyte, ASUS seem to be missing something - no Realtek audio or sleep problems etc).

The other option is to change to the Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3, which looks even more promising now that UEFI BIOS's have been released for the Z68 boards. Should hopefully overclock quite well too.

Would I see much benefit going Ivy over my current Sandy setup (i7 2600K) or is it not worth the cost or hassle?

Thanks.

 

[Going Bald]

Would I see much benefit going Ivy over my current Sandy setup (i7 2600K) or is it not worth the cost or hassle?

Thanks.

Other than HD4000 graphics (possibly) in the next Lion update or Mountain Lion, not much change other than less heat from less power consumption, over-ridden by overclocking, so not much change between sandy and ivy boards/cpu's.
Best bet is the upcoming release of the Gigabyte mATX thunderbolt board. The UP5 TH has ALC898 and intel lan, the UP4 TH has ALC892 and realtek lan. Hopefully, the MX-D3H TH will have some of the same combination and no VIA chipsets. We will find out in August.

 

[dojrude]

Other than HD4000 graphics (possibly) in the next Lion update or Mountain Lion, not much change other than less heat from less power consumption, over-ridden by overclocking, so not much change between sandy and ivy boards/cpu's.
Best bet is the upcoming release of the Gigabyte mATX thunderbolt board. The UP5 TH has ALC898 and intel lan, the UP4 TH has ALC892 and realtek lan. Hopefully, the MX-D3H TH will have some of the same combination and no VIA chipsets. We will find out in August.

From what I can see, all Gigabyte mATX boards use VIA or Creative audio, including the MX-D3H TH.

The UP5 and UP4 boards are both ATX, so are not the right form factor.

Has anyone had any luck with the ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4-M/

From what I can see it has Realtek audio and LAN and also a UEFI BIOS. Has anyone had any luck patching the BIOS for these boards yet?

 

[TwoSheds]

Asus, msi and AsRock offer a few Z77 M pro and extreme boards with Realtek lan and audio.
What are the speed stepping and long term BIOS options/support like (without sleep support?)

The other option is a b75m from Gigabyte that seems to be working well for a few people.