Best motherboard for i7-4790K or i5-4690K

[clankfu]

For photo/video editing, development, gaming and other computation intensive tasks, which mobo would you recommend out of these if price isn't a factor:

 

- Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO 

 

- Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK 1

 

- Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SOC FORCE

 

- Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK

 

- Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD7 TH

 

Or is there another one you would recommend?

[miyabwah]

Motherboards don't determine performance of a chip. If you had a low end board with a high end chip, it'd probably still perform the same as a high end board with a high end chip. It depends on what features you want and what build theme you're going for, I guess.

[RevoltTrain]

MSI Gaming 5, no it doesn't make a performance difference but it's one of the best bang for the buck Z97 boards out there.

[Enderman]

I would get the sabertooth just for looks.

They will all perform the same, just depends on what features and looks you want.

[CowsGoRoar]

Never heard of an i5 4960K. Did you mean the i7 4960X? /s

 

What @Lanoi said, the more expensive motherboards are usually for overclocking and aesthetics. The actual CPU themselves will give you the real performance.

 

Out of the list you suggested, I would pick the Maximus VII Hero because it looks great and is made by Asus. My second pick would be the GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK, it's a good motherboard overall.

[clankfu]

 

 

Never heard of an i5 4960K. Did you mean the i7 4960X? /s

 

What @Lanoi said, the more expensive motherboards are usually for overclocking and aesthetics. The actual CPU themselves will give you the real performance.

 

Out of the list you suggested, I would pick the Maximus VII Hero because it looks great and is made by Asus. My second pick would be the GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK, it's a good motherboard overall.

 

 

Sorry, I meant 4690K. 

[Skiiwee29]

MSI Gaming 5 is the best bang for the buck for the Z97 boards. It has a very slick Black theme with red highlights and designed to imitate a dragons claw over the power phases. Very sleek board. Also has probably the best on-board audio of all boards. 

[clankfu]

MSI Gaming 5, no it doesn't make a performance difference but it's one of the best bang for the buck Z97 boards out there.

 

How reliable are MSI boards?  I was specifically looking at Gigabyte and Asus boards because they're known to be tanks.

[CowsGoRoar]

MSI Gaming 5 is the best bang for the buck for the Z97 boards. It has a very slick Black theme with red highlights and designed to imitate a dragons claw over the power phases. Very sleek board. Also has probably the best on-board audio of all boards. 

@clankfu You can trust this legacy99 on it, he's talking from experience. 

[RevoltTrain]

How reliable are MSI boards?  I was specifically looking at Gigabyte and Asus boards because they're known to be tanks.

They are great, I wouldn't have bought one for my own rig if they weren't.

[i_build_nanosuits]

OP any chance

Or is there another one you would recommend?

is there any chance you might do 3 or 4 way SLI down the road? if so you need a motherboard with a PLX chip, any of these boards will do 4 way SLI:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#c=99&l=4&sort=a8

i'd suggest the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming GT cause it's the cheapest board with PLX...

if you don't then i'm with the others the MSI Gaming 5 is a stupidly nice board for the price and it has all the features one might want but it can only do 2 way SLI

[Helios79]

MSI wasn't that good with their UEFI implementation when it first came out, but they are getting better with it. Their UEFI in the Z97 series of boards is a lot better than it was in their Z77 series. The only thing I will pick on them about is the amount of layers in their PCB. They still continue to use a 4-layer PCB, while the competition uses 6 or more layers. This is one of the reasons why MSI motherboards are cheaper compared to other brands.

[clankfu]

OP any chanceis there any chance you might do 3 or 4 way SLI down the road? if so you need a motherboard with a PLX chip, any of these boards will do 4 way SLI:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#c=99&l=4&sort=a8

i'd suggest the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming GT cause it's the cheapest board with PLX...

if you don't then i'm with the others the MSI Gaming 5 is a stupidly nice board for the price and it has all the features one might want but it can only do 2 way SLI

 

I doubt I would ever use 4-way SLI but I guess that option would be nice to have down the road.

[clankfu]

MSI wasn't that good with their UEFI implementation when it first came out, but they are getting better with it. Their UEFI in the Z97 series of boards is a lot better than it was in their Z77 series. The only thing I will pick on them about is the amount of layers in their PCB. They still continue to use a 4-layer PCB, while the competition uses 6 or more layers. This is one of the reasons why MSI motherboards are cheaper compared to other brands.

 

Do extra layers in the PCB make them more durable?

[Helios79]

Yes. Each time I hold an MSI motherboard in my hands, it feels like a cheap wafer. Heat is also another concern when it comes to the amount of layers the motherboard has. The more layers the motherboard has, the better it will be at resisting high temperatures during load.

[clankfu]

Yes. Each time I hold an MSI motherboard in my hands, it feels like a cheap wafer. Heat is also another concern when it comes to the amount of layers the motherboard has. The more layers the motherboard has, the better it will be at resisting high temperatures during load.

 

Gotcha.  So if durability is a big factor in my decision, which one would you recommend?

[i_build_nanosuits]

Yes. Each time I hold an MSI motherboard in my hands, it feels like a cheap wafer. Heat is also another concern when it comes to the amount of layers the motherboard has. The more layers the motherboard has, the better it will be at resisting high temperatures during load.

you've never held a Mpower or Gaming series board in your hands.

the gaming 5 is indeed a 4 layer board though.

The MSI gaming 7 is a 6 layers PCB.

The Mpower max is 8 layers thick.

[Helios79]

The MPower is an 8-layer PCB motherboard, and very overpriced compared to a 10-layer board from Asus. And yes, I have owned a Z77-GD45 and a Z97-GD65. Like the gaming series, they are 4-layer PCB. So keep your ignorance to yourself. MSI motherboards have always been cheaply built, and it doesn't matter how good the software is. I still won't use them in a higher-end build.

[MC_loud]

Maximus VII Hero, for looks plus I'm a huge fan of GOG boards

[Sintezza]

wow wow guys.

 

a motherboard is basicly one of the most important parts of the computer.

You can buy as highend cpu´s and gpu´s like you want.

But if your mobo is crap, then the whole system will run crap.

 

I allways recommend, to never cheap out on a mobo, unless you are going with lowerend stuf.

And you are not tempting to overclock or what not.

But with an potentional overclocking cpu like a 4690k or 4790k you dont wanne cheap out on a mobo realy.

 

Msi board aren't cheap. they are basicly very decent at least the semi and highend ones are

The Msi Gaming 7 is a very nice middel priced mobo. with a ton of feutures for a good price.

 

Asus maximus VII Hero, this is the board that i realy like just because of its high quality  vreg components. 8+2 powerphase digi vrm, 60A chokes, 10K black caps. Great onboard audio, intel lan.

And in my opinnion one of the most overclockers friendly biosses.

 

So its up to you, but the Hero gets my vote!

 

Grtz Sintezza

[Razzaa]

MSI Gaming 5 is the best bang for the buck for the Z97 boards. It has a very slick Black theme with red highlights and designed to imitate a dragons claw over the power phases. Very sleek board. Also has probably the best on-board audio of all boards.

Just hope you dont end up with a bad bios flash. That happened to me and there was no way to recover on the Gaming 5. MSI sent me a brand new board though. Now i have two boxes and two sets of accessories.

Love it though. Sick looking board!!

[Skiiwee29]

Just hope you dont end up with a bad bios flash. That happened to me and there was no way to recover on the Gaming 5. MSI sent me a brand new board though. Now i have two boxes and two sets of accessories. Love it though. Sick looking board!!

I did have the bad bios flash, but it could have been avoided if I paid attention to there suttle messages that warned against the m-flash if the extrenal drive did not appear properly in the bios. And yes, MSI sent me a brand new board with all the accessories and trimmings as well as the board having the 1.5 bios already on it. 

[Razzaa]

I did have the bad bios flash, but it could have been avoided if I paid attention to there suttle messages that warned against the m-flash if the extrenal drive did not appear properly in the bios. And yes, MSI sent me a brand new board with all the accessories and trimmings as well as the board having the 1.5 bios already on it. 

I wasn't using m-flash. I was just straight flashing from USB. A lot of people ended up bricking with 1.5 bios. I refuse to flash from Windows using MSI update. It goes against everything i have ever heard about flashing bios. I also wont flash my GPU bios with cmd prompt. 

The only complaint i have with the gaming 5 is it doesn't have a second bios. Other then that, the board is awesome!!

[Skiiwee29]

I wasn't using m-flash. I was just straight flashing from USB. A lot of people ended up bricking with 1.5 bios. I refuse to flash from Windows using MSI update. It goes against everything i have ever heard about flashing bios. I also wont flash my GPU bios with cmd prompt. 

The only complaint i have with the gaming 5 is it doesn't have a second bios. Other then that, the board is awesome!!

Agreed. I have never had a problem with MSI boards, they are all I use. This was the first time. BIOS I do usually use Live Update to do, this time I didnt. Gaming 3 and 5 only have the 1 bios, while the 7 & 9 have dual. But cant go wrong with the price of the boards. 

[rutwik]

Well I recently brought the mark 2 model of ASUS , the mark 1 is much better.

The 5 Yr warranty is gud too