Picking a Motherboard

[Pickle]

Hi,

 

I'm building a new system and I'm thinking which motherboard to choose. I intend to use 4770k and I will SLI. I was thinking of buying the ASUS Z87 Pro board, because I will be using wifi, so having dual-band n wifi integrated seemed like good value. And that's when Z97 came out. I'll not be using a Haswell Refresh CPU and the integrated AC wifi seems to a bit of an overkill on the ASUS Pro version. I'm not an expert, so I thought I'd ask you. Should I stick with the Z87 pro, or should I spend the extra £25 for Z97 pro? Perhaps I should buy a different version, like A or Plus (referring to Asus's Z87 line) and buy a PCI wifi adaptor? Maybe you think MSI or Asrock, or Gigabyte have something better to offer (although I like Asus's fan control and AI Suite). Any advice is appreciated.

[Guest Emrye]

I'd get Z97, just for upgradeability to Broadwell later on. If you're not planning on upgrading any time in the next few years, save your money and go Z87.

[jakkuh_t]

Hi,

 

I'm building a new system and I'm thinking which motherboard to choose. I intend to use 4770k and I will SLI. I was thinking of buying the ASUS Z87 Pro board, because I will be using wifi, so having dual-band n wifi integrated seemed like good value. And that's when Z97 came out. I'll not be using a Haswell Refresh CPU and the integrated AC wifi seems to a bit of an overkill on the ASUS Pro version. I'm not an expert, so I thought I'd ask you. Should I stick with the Z87 pro, or should I spend the extra £25 for Z97 pro? Perhaps I should buy a different version, like A or Plus (referring to Asus's Z87 line) and buy a PCI wifi adaptor? Maybe you think MSI or Asrock, or Gigabyte have something better to offer (although I like Asus's fan control and AI Suite). Any advice is appreciated.

Z97 is not really that much different but if you are looking for future proofing go with one of the ASUS Deluxe or Pro Z97 boards.

[Pickle]

I guess in terms of upgrading my CPU I would aim for something that comes after Broadwell. Since that will almost certain have a new chipset, for now I'll stick with the Z87 Pro. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject, guys.