{"id":69173,"date":"2014-10-08T06:58:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T04:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=69173"},"modified":"2014-10-08T07:02:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T05:02:58","slug":"x99-vs-z97-gaming-motherboards-sa-price-review-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/69173-x99-vs-z97-gaming-motherboards-sa-price-review-roundup","title":{"rendered":"X99 vs Z97 gaming motherboards: SA price, review roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the launch of the X99 motherboards, Haswell-E processors, and DDR4 RAM, some PC gamers might be wondering whether it is time to upgrade their pride and joy.<\/p>\n

The question is, do you go all out and take it to the next level with the aforementioned new technology – or do you upgrade to\u00a0the still relatively new Z97 board and its associated RAM and CPU?<\/p>\n

While I do not possess the knowledge or skills (I am a PS4 owner) to make a recommendation, I can provide you with a price and review comparison of the two chipsets and let you make an informed decision.<\/p>\n

Before we get the the boards, a quick reminder that the X99 options bring with them the new Haswell-E processors which can now support 6 to 8 cores, as well as DDR4 RAM – supposedly faster and less power hungry than DRR3.<\/p>\n

Some of the new boards can also support up to 128GB of RAM, which is a nice figure to drop during conversation for no reason whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Let’s get down to business<\/h3>\n

Thanks to some extensive reviews by Anandtech<\/a>\u00a0and other hardware gurus, we are not only able to give you local pricing on the boards, but some expert advice as to whether you should buy one.<\/p>\n

Z97 Motherboards<\/h3>\n

MSI Gaming 7 – R2,899<\/a><\/h3>\n

The MSI Gaming 7 received a Silver Award from HardOCP<\/a>, who said the board is great for overclocking and was good value for money.<\/p>\n

\"MSI<\/a>

MSI Gaming 7<\/p><\/div>\n

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Professional – R2,867<\/a><\/h3>\n

TweakTown gave the board 95% and an Editor’s Choice Award, praising its balance between price, performance, and features.<\/p>\n

\"ASRock<\/a>

ASRock Fatal1ty Professional<\/p><\/div>\n

Gigabyte\u00a0GA-Z97X Gaming 5 – R2,785<\/a><\/h3>\n

Expert Reviews gave the Gigabyte board 5\/5 in its review, stating that this is the perfect choice for for gamers who want to build a multi-GPU rig and are not too keen on overclocking.<\/p>\n

\"Gigabyte<\/a>

Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 5<\/p><\/div>\n

MSI Z97 MPower Max AC – R4,499<\/a><\/h3>\n

Anandtech<\/a> gave this board its Silver Award, saying the MPower could form the centre of a nice gaming PC if you throw in some water cooling.<\/p>\n

\"MSI<\/a>

MSI Z97 MPower Max AC<\/p><\/div>\n

X99 Motherboards<\/h3>\n

MSI X99S SLI Plus – R3,195<\/a><\/h3>\n

Anandtech<\/a> said: “The strength of the MSI X99S SLI Plus lies in the sleek design combined with the low price point. It forms a substantial line in the sand for any X99 system builder, and is very attractive to those who are more\u00a0budget conscious and not keen on overclocking.”<\/p>\n

\"MSI<\/a>

MSI X99S SLI Plus Motherboard<\/p><\/div>\n

Asus Rampage Extreme V – R7,705<\/a><\/h3>\n

Hardware Heaven<\/a>\u00a0gave the Rampage its Diamond award, which basically means if you have to sell a kidney to afford one, you better start looking for a good doctor on the black market.<\/p>\n

\"Asus<\/a>

Asus Rampage Extreme V<\/p><\/div>\n

MSI X99 Gaming\u00a09 AC – R6,399<\/a><\/h3>\n

Guru3D<\/a> highly recommended this board after putting it through its paces, saying the only complaint they had was the somewhat expensive price. But if money is not an issue, pick one up.<\/p>\n

\"MSI<\/a>

MSI X99 Gaming 9 AC<\/p><\/div>\n

Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5 – R4,412<\/a><\/h3>\n

There were no reputable reviews up for this board at the time of writing, but it does score points for being a bit cheaper than its rivals.<\/p>\n

\"Gigabyte<\/a>

Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5<\/p><\/div>\n

A question for the PC gamers: do you upgrade to X99 or get yourself a sweet Z97 setup instead? Let us know in the comments and forum.<\/p>\n

More gaming news<\/h3>\n

SSD upgrade guide: SA prices, sizes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Games where it is okay to be gay<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Total War: Attila coming to PC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is now the perfect time to get a top-of-the-line Z97 motherboard, or upgrade to X99?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":69193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7606,21,12816,13003],"class_list":["post-69173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-gaming-motherboard","tag-headline","tag-x99","tag-z97"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69359,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69173\/revisions\/69359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}