• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Need a motherboard.

C

Chellexelle

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
108
LAST UPDATE

I have ordered all my parts including the motherboard so... case closed? NE Ways, thanks for all the advice.

NEW UPDATE

I have decided to got with the ASRock Z97 Extreme4/3.1. It comes in a BLUE color scheme and comes with a USB3.1 Type A/C add-in card.

UPDATE

So, I have narrowed down my choices to these boards.

ASRock Z97 Extreme9
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
MSI Z97S SLI PLUS
MSI Z87-G55

Or the ASUS P9X79 LE if I go with i7-5820K

What do you guys recommend?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming (The Witcher 3, Cities: Skylines, War For The Overworld), eventually I will be doing A\V production.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Up to $400 for the motherboard but would prefer not to spend that much, Tax? No

3) Which country do you live in?

US, Washington

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.

Motherboard

What I have:
INWIN Tou
Kingston HyperX FURY 4GBx2 DDR3 1,600 MHz UDIMM 240
Toshiba 5TB HDDx2 - PH3500U-1I72

What I have picked out to order:
Samsung 850 PRO 256 GB Internal SSD
eVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1 Power supply
Kingston HyperX FURY 4GBx2 DDR3 1,600 MHz UDIMM 240
Intel Core i7 I7-4790K 4 GHz - LGA1150 Socket
Creative Sound Blaster Zx
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?

CD\DVD drive for old PC.
Seagate 4TB HDDx2 - ST4000DM000

6) Will you be overclocking?

No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Samsung SmartTV 1080p, 55"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?

Intel. Crossfire and SLI support, haven't decide on ATI or Nvidia. USB 3.0. SATA 10Gb/s... or whatever is fastest for my SATA drives. I don't know what UEFI is. Enough PCIe slots for two graphics cards, a sound card, SSD, and whatever I may need for A\V production.

Update: ATX, BLUE color scheme, it's more important then I thought and in case you haven't noticed, I like BLUE

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

Windows 8.1, 64bit. Planning to upgrade to Windows 10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated 2, 4, 5 and 9.

I don't want to use ASUS because there are too many bad reviews on their boards being DOA or lasting only a few months and those reviews say that ASUS has terrible customer service, long RMA return times and a tendency to send customers back the same damaged board.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grr.. :confused: I still don't know which board to choose. Different people will have different things to say about one board maker then another. It seems ASUS has the largest market share and more people use them so I guess I am going to just have to roll the dice and hope I don't get a broken board and have to go through some horrible RMA experience. ASUS is back on the table.

I found the EVGA Z97 Classified which looks like it would be perfect if it came in a blue color scheme.
 
Last edited:
Wait, $400 for just the motherboard alone? What about CPU, RAM, GPU, PSU, case, SSD, and HSF? You didn't mention any of those parts in questions 4 and 5. Can't exactly make a motherboard recommendation if we don't know what CPU you're going to buy.
 
Why not be Asus? they make the best one?
Do you have some kind of CPU to jam into this board or what?
 
@ Chellexelle
Uhm... No video card? SLI scales pretty badly FYI, you're better off running a single video card.

eVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1
Click to expand...
Ridiculously overpowered/overkill, you'll be fine with a 550-650W-ish PSU

Great PSUs and much better value
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151137

Creative Sound Blaster Zx
Click to expand...
Why on earth you want this is beyond me, also have fun with Creative drivers that has been less than stellar the last 10 years or so.
If you want hi-end sound just go for a DAC if you want better analogue sound, it's a much more sane solution.

Motherboard:
Asus H97M-PLUS would do more than fine in your case, you'd also be fine getting the non K-model of the CPU. Asus Z97-A or Z97-A USB 3.1 would also be excellent choices (ATX) but since you don't want Asus....

GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...723&cm_re=GA-Z97X-UD3H-_-13-128-723-_-Product
Good board, Intel LAN and Realtek Audio.

@chenw

Ugh, Realtek NIC, you'd want to avoid that...

//Danne
 
chenw said:
MSI Z97S-SLI perhaps?
Click to expand...

The MSI Z97S-SLI seems like a adequate choice. Thanks

@diizzy. I think the PSU I chose is fine besides, I have a Norco RPC-4224 server that only has half of it's drive bays filled and I fear the EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 I have in it may not be enough to power all 24 drives plus everything else so if I need to, I can always swap them and give my server the extra power it may need.

All of the boards you suggested seem like fine choice but none of them come in a blue color scheme and since I already spent an obscene amount of money on THIS case, I may as will get the color scheme I want.
 
In that case go for the MSI Z97S SLI Plus not the Krait version. Plus uses Intel LAN.
//Danne
 
Chellexelle said:
UPDATE

So, I have narrowed down my choices to these boards.

ASRock Z97 Extreme9
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
MSI Z97S SLI PLUS
MSI Z87-G55

Or the ASUS P9X79 LE if I go with i7-5820K

What do you guys recommend?
Click to expand...
The ASRock Z97 Extreme9 is completely overpriced and is also unreliable.

All the Z87 motherboards are dropped since the Z97 superseded the Z87 chipset.

The P9X79 is completely incompatible with the i7-5820K. The P9X79 LE is socket LGA 2011. The 5820K is socket LGA 2011-V3.

So of those motherboards, the only good option is the MSI Z97S SLI Plus but even then it's currently out of stock. So really none of those mobos.
 
Just noticed your "picked out to order" section. I see quite a few issues there besides the ones diizzy mentioned:

Kingston HyperX FURY 4GBx2 DDR3 1,600 MHz UDIMM 240: Unless this is the cheapest 8GB set of RAM you can find, you're generally better off with a single 8GB stick of RAM since A) it allows you to upgrade to 32GB of RAM without having to replace a single stick and B) they're cheaper on average. No, dual channel does not provide any sort of noticeable performance increase to warrant ANY increase in price. Nor does it have to be matching either.

ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler: This HSF was outdated, outperformed, and utterly outclassed with the release of the cheaper yet significantly better cooling Coolermaster Hyper 212+ over six years ago. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo does even better than the 212+ and can be found for $35:
$34 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo HSF

About $7 less yet provides better cooling and lower noise. Even with strict height requirements, there's still little reason to get the Zalman CNPS9500A-LED since there are significantly better lower profile HSF out there for about the same price. Unless you're getting the Zalman CNPS9500A-LED for like $10 (the technically cheapest HSF that outperforms that Zalman is actually $18 apparently), ditch it.

As for the motherboard, it looks like we're not going to see the MSI Z97S SLI Plus since it appears to be replaced by the MSI Z97S SLI Krait. The latter is now at the same price point as the former before it went out of stock. So you now have these semi-reasonable options:

Option A: Ditch the Blue scheme altogether. That opens up a lot more better bang for the buck and/or higher quality/feature set motherboard choices.

Option B: Wait and bother Newegg and/or Amazon to see if they'll ever get the MSI Z97S SLI Plus motherboard in stock

Option C: Drop your SLI requirement and be willing to accept a little lower quality option in the form of the MSI Z97 PC Mate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779

If you buy soon, the above motherboard even comes with a free 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 RAM.

Option D: Change your color scheme from Blue to Light Blue as AsRock has a few motherboards with the light blue color scheme.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Dangman said:
Just noticed your "picked out to order" section. I see quite a few issues there besides the ones diizzy mentioned:

Kingston HyperX FURY 4GBx2 DDR3 1,600 MHz UDIMM 240: Unless this is the cheapest 8GB set of RAM you can find, you're generally better off with a single 8GB stick of RAM since A) it allows you to upgrade to 32GB of RAM without having to replace a single stick and B) they're cheaper on average. No, dual channel does not provide any sort of noticeable performance increase to warrant ANY increase in price. Nor does it have to be matching either.
Click to expand...
I picked this RAM because it is BLUE and because I already have a set of Blue Kingston HyperX FURY 4GBx2 1,600 MHz UDIMM 240 Pin DDR3 RAM that I bought for a server I built before learning that server motherboards need ECC RAM and I only want 16GB of RAM. In a few years I will upgrade my PC.

ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler: This HSF was outdated, outperformed, and utterly outclassed with the release of the cheaper yet significantly better cooling Coolermaster Hyper 212+ over six years ago. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo does even better than the 212+ and can be found for $35:$34 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo HSF

About $7 less yet provides better cooling and lower noise. Even with strict height requirements, there's still little reason to get the Zalman CNPS9500A-LED since there are significantly better lower profile HSF out there for about the same price. Unless you're getting the Zalman CNPS9500A-LED for like $10 (the technically cheapest HSF that outperforms that Zalman is actually $18 apparently), ditch it.
Click to expand...
Admittedly, am still learning about cooling. I chose that cooler because it is cheap, looks cool and has BLUE LEDs on it. I bought a Thermaltake SpinQ for my server, I guess I could just use that and give my server a new CPU cooler since it doesn't need a showy cooler.

As for the motherboard, it looks like we're not going to see the MSI Z97S SLI Plus since it appears to be replaced by the MSI Z97S SLI Krait. The latter is now at the same price point as the former before it went out of stock. So you now have these semi-reasonable options:

Option A: Ditch the Blue scheme altogether. That opens up a lot more better bang for the buck and/or higher quality/feature set motherboard choices.
Click to expand...
NEVER! :D

Option B: Wait and bother Newegg and/or Amazon to see if they'll ever get the MSI Z97S SLI Plus motherboard in stock
Click to expand...
I already contacted Newegg and Amazon and the information they gave me indicates that this board has been discontinued and they won't be getting any more.

Option C: Drop your SLI requirement and be willing to accept a little lower quality option in the form of the MSI Z97 PC Mate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130779

If you buy soon, the above motherboard even comes with a free 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 RAM.
Click to expand...
I have looked at that board and even though it comes with the very amount of the same RAM I need... I would just rather not... but thanks

Option D: Change your color scheme from Blue to Light Blue as AsRock has a few motherboards with the light blue color scheme.
Click to expand...
I have seen some Light Blue boards that I would get but passed on them for some reason I can't remember.
Click to expand...
...
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Chellexelle said:
Admittedly, am still learning about cooling. I chose that cooler because it is cheap, looks cool and has BLUE LEDs on it. I bought a Thermaltake SpinQ for my server, I guess I could just use that and give my server a new CPU cooler since it doesn't need a showy cooler.
Click to expand...
Damn man, you really do need to learn about cooling. That SpinQ was and is a waste of money. The $35 Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo I linked earlier outperforms the SpinQ by a large margin. I really hope you didn't spend the $95 asking price for that HSF because you got ripped off horribly. Any chance you can return it?

As for your current choice of motherboard, I cannot recommend that motherboard since the original ASRock Z97 Extreme4 is pretty unreliable judging from the Newegg reviews. Nor does that particular motherboard have a substantial enough track record to show that it's better than the original. USB 3.1 is not worth the high risk of getting an extremely unreliable motherboard. Of the AsRock light blue motherboards, I would recommend the ASRock Z97 Extreme6. Decent enough track record.
 
Dangman said:
I really hope you didn't spend the $95 asking price for that HSF because you got ripped off horribly. Any chance you can return it?

I would recommend the ASRock Z97 Extreme6. Decent enough track record.
Click to expand...

No, I can't return the SpinQ, it has been too long. I don't remember paying that much but I think I did pay $60-70 for it. I am certainly not the first person to ever pay a premium for something because of aesthetics and I certainly won't be the last.

I read the same reviews and am apprehensive about buying any ASRock board but with the MSI Z97S SLI Plus no longer available, this is my last and only option (unless I wait a year or more for more boards to come out). I will get the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 instead, it is only $20 more and comes with the same USB3.1 add-on card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top