Should I go for a Gigabyte motherboard

[DarthShader]

Hi all,

I'm picking a new motherboard for my new 7700k build. Currently deciding between the Gigabyte GA-Z270X-Gaming 7 and the Asus Maximus IX Hero.

How does Gigabyte's fan control software compare to Asus's? I want fairly precise control plus the ability to turn off the fans at low loads. Anything else I should consider?

[Abula]

turn off the fans at low loads.

This might be the hardest for most motherboards, as to reach extremly low or even to stop you will need very low restrictions, i would bet on Asus with FanXpert (as long as you like software fan control), after running Q Fan tunning and selecting the SILENT profile on FanXpert, it will allow to turn off all fans, with the exception of the CPU fan (if i remember correctly), they can be turn on with you designing the graph for each fan as you feel its best for your setup.

Now on gigabyte, i know very little, seems they are better now a days on fan control, how good, idk, for what you are trying to acomplish, i would go with Asus with FanXpert or AsRock with bios fan control (what i like and use, as i dont like software).

[DarthShader]

I was looking at the ASRock Supercarrier at some point (5Gbit ethernet is nice). What's their fan control like, compared to Asus? How reputable are they as a brand?

[lodestar]

...i would go with Asus with FanXpert or AsRock with bios fan control (what i like and use, as i dont like software)...

The Asus Q-Fan BIOS graphic control screen and other BIOS settings on current motherboards now get fairly close to what FanXpert can do, in terms of functionality. The only possible issue is that Asus does not document the Fan off option particularly well, so it is difficult to tell if any particular motherboard has it. Fan off enables a fan to be set to off until a set CPU temperature is reached, so typically the fans do not run at all at low to medium system loads. The lack of documentation by Asus is compounded by the number of reviewers that do not cover the BIOS Q-Fan features in any depth, so never detail the Fan off facility even if it is present, or don't recognise the significance of it when it is present. However as stated by Abula the Fan off facility is a long-standing feature of FanXpert so provided you are running Windows there is at least an alternative if the BIOS controls don't allow it.

[Abula]

I was looking at the ASRock Supercarrier at some point (5Gbit ethernet is nice). What's their fan control like, compared to Asus? How reputable are they as a brand?

AsRock is very simple, no autotunning or test to recognize the fans limitations as with Asus. AsRock gives you full control with no restrictions, that means you can go as low as you want for whatever temperature you wish, on 1c increments with 1% variations on pwm or voltage control.

There is one catch though, AsRock has what they call autodetect headers, in simple terms the headers know if you put a 4pin or 3pin, and changes automatically according to it. But to what I have tested only two headers are like this CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN1, the other headers like CHA_FAN2 are only pwm, they can be control as the other headers but simply can't do undervolting just pwm regulation.

Now how does it work on the BIOS, well it's very simple, you see it as a graph that has 5 breakpoints that you can move as you desire with the restriction that the following has to be higher or equal to the before.

Now if you are asking how does it compare with Asus in terms of quality, Asus has the best motherboards in the market, specially rampage, Maximus and crosshair are to me what I call top of the line, the AsRock is a notch below, even their fatal1ty line isn't as good, at least in my opinion, now Asus on the rest of the line, it's very comparable in my humble opinion.

About the 5ge idk, personally not something I look for, when move it will be to 10ge, and with Intel Lana, just too expensive atm, but something that I will do in the next few years.

Again if you don't mind software Asus is a good bet for what you want to do, specially thinking a big plus on Asus is that all the headers can be pwm or voltage control (switchable on the BIOS), this gives you the flexibility to use whatever fans you have or plan to use, while with AsRock you need to plan before buying.

Btw if you go with gigabyte, if you have the time, be sure to post your thoughts into how it was on fan control in bios and software, if you have some pics would be great, specially if you were able to stop fans or how where the restrictions etc.