So, I've came to the conclusion that I want a 3350P CPU to accompany my HD7870. The question is what kind of motherboard should I go for?
The requirements I have are the following:
PCI slot for ye olde X-fi xtrememusic soundcard
Gaming-gaming-gaming...
Small chance of me wanting a slight overclock of the CPU (as far as i understand, bus overclock for 3350P)
Small chance of me wanting either Crossfire on the 7870 or simply putting additional R9 280X, if the litecoin mining is still a thing down the road
Overall stability of the board for, say, continuous litecoin mining when I'm not gaming
SSD+2xHDD setup (buying a new SSD, keeping my old HDDs)
Now, considering that I'm not getting a K-type CPU, I'm not really sure what's the benefit of the Z77 board in terms of features, but could easily believe that it could be in general more stable...
So, currently I am torn between some decent brand B75 (say, MSI B75A-G43 or GA-B75M-D3H) or cheap-ish Z77 (ASRock Z77 Pro3/4)... Do you have an opinion about one of the sides, or would you strongly recommend to up my motherboard budget considering the list of requirements?
So, after about a month of using the ASRock Z77 Pro4 I can share some experience...
The board is pretty well-built, maybe it's just my lack of hands-on experience with modern components, but I really found it to be rather sturdy. Compared to ASUS P5Q PRO (Socket 775) that I had previously, I would say the ASRock is not worse in any respect. If anything, the layout is less cluttered which makes for an easier installation process.
One weird thing that I experienced was related to the cpu cooler mounting. Initially I installed the box cooler of the 3350P, but then read in the manual to the mainboard, that it supports mounting of Socket 775 coolers. And as I had a decent one on my previous machine, I decided to try it out. The problem though was that my 775-cooler has a backplate supporting it, as well as exposed "direct contact" heatpipes.
The problem is, that the bracket holding CPU in place on the motherboard is also supported by a backplate, hence I had to either put my cooler backplate on top of it, or remove the bracket. I chose the first way, and after installing it and turning my pc on, immediately saw the cpu warming up to 75°C idle. Unmounting the cooler I realized that the bracket on the top side was preventing my cooler plate to contact the cpu - apparently the cpu heatspreader surface is situated lower than the bracket :( So, overall, even though the motherboard allows for Socket 775 cooler solutions, there are some severe restrictions on what would work...