M7H or M7F can't decide

[flyinion]

So, I was planning to get the Formula board when the non-watchdogs version came out, but that has yet to happen. That along with some surprisingly poor reviews based on DOA boards on Newegg has me concerned. The main reasons I was considering this board is the built in headphone amp on the sound (to replace the PCI HT Omega soundcard in the system I'm upgrading because my headphones are high impedance) and also the included wi-fi. (some of the bad reviews center around that module shorting out)

I need wi-fi because my office is currently not wired and my router is in the living room in order to connect multiple A/V devices that don't have wireless ability. Currently I'm using a really cheap PCE-N13 card that I bought 3 years ago while in a house we were renting expecting to only use it for a few months until the friend that owned the house came back out and we were going to wire it up (never happened).

Now I'm thinking maybe I should go with the board I was originally looking at due the to sound, the M7H and get a PCE-AC68 card with the desktop antenna to upgrade my wireless. It will cost about the same, but I can get it now, and locally in case there are any DOA board issues. I would probably not use the built in water cooling on the M7F anyway, and if I did it would be a while from now.

What do you guys think? Also, I'm open to wi-fi card suggestions as well if there's something better. I'd like it to be a similar setup with the desktop antenna so I can get better positioning and also my current N13 with the antenna on the back interferes with the DVI connectors on the video card. I.e. I can't position them straight up because the DVI port sits right between them.

[kkn]

personaly i recommend hardwired TBH to get best speed and connection and latency for games. ( hate wifi so 😛 )
the diffrenve between M7F and M7H i would guess its the watercooling option and mabye a thing or 2 extra ( i have not studied the diffrence of em ).
there will always be a board or 2 that will slip tru quality controll, its not first time and it will not be last time.

[flyinion]

kkn wrote:
personaly i recommend hardwired TBH to get best speed and connection and latency for games. ( hate wifi so 😛 )
the diffrenve between M7F and M7H i would guess its the watercooling option and mabye a thing or 2 extra ( i have not studied the diffrence of em ).
there will always be a board or 2 that will slip tru quality controll, its not first time and it will not be last time.

Yes, my preference is definitely for hardwired, I just don't have a choice at the moment. We bought a house after the rental, so I definitely will be running wiring. It's just not done yet. Hopefully this winter when the attic is cooler. Lots of crawling around and probably some sheetrock cutting because it's a two story house and I want to wire as many rooms as possible to a central patch panel so I can set up various configurations. For now I have to have wi-fi though.

[Tuxxy_Thang]

I too love wired but atm cannot wire up due to living arrangements. I have never ever used wifi on a desktop before but yesterday I plugged the wifi module in my M7F to replace those silly wall plug ethernet things and I must say I am impressed. The wifi came straight up, found my net, connected and is giving really good throughput. I am not noticing any detrimental effects in games atm but so far have only tested WildStar and DayZ.

As for the M7F, all I can say is that after an initial problem with badly seated DIMMs, I am so impressed with this mobo and would recommend it to anyone.

I have yet to load Linux on this board though so will cry if it has problems because I only ever use Windoze for gaming.

[flyinion]

Tuxxy Thang wrote:
I too love wired but atm cannot wire up due to living arrangements. I have never ever used wifi on a desktop before but yesterday I plugged the wifi module in my M7F to replace those silly wall plug ethernet things and I must say I am impressed. The wifi came straight up, found my net, connected and is giving really good throughput. I am not noticing any detrimental effects in games atm but so far have only tested WildStar and DayZ.

As for the M7F, all I can say is that after an initial problem with badly seated DIMMs, I am so impressed with this mobo and would recommend it to anyone.

I have yet to load Linux on this board though so will cry if it has problems because I only ever use Windoze for gaming.

Thanks 🙂 I'm trying to hold out for it, but ugh the wait. I could overnight RAM from Newegg and build my system this weekend if I went M7H lol. Ok, well, I could do the same with the watchdogs version of the board as well I guess, but I really don't want to pay $50 extra for a game I don't care about.