New Mobo

[Lasrion]

I am looking at purchasing a i5-4690k. I was looking at the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7, the ASUS Z97-AR, the MSI Z97-Gaming 5, or the ASRock Z97 PRO4 motherboards to pair it with. Which one would you guys recommend? I do plan on OC'ing the cpu. Any other recommendations beyond these? Don't want to spend beyond $400 ish.

 

Thanks! 

[Caloon]

Gigabyte GA-Z97 Gaming 7 or MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Edit: Or maybe ASUS Maximus Hero VII

[manikyath]

i heard ASUS and MSI are the best brands to get for intel motherboards.

 

this doesnt mean the others are necessarily bad choices, they just dont come with the reputation.

 

as for specific recommendations: what do you need from your motherboard?

 

SLI? crossfire? M.2, wifi, legacy PCI slots, mindblowing on-board audio, specific slots in specific spots, lots of rear IO, lots of front IO headers, on-board power switch, etc etc...

[vembutech]

Can go with MSI which are pretty good choice for intel.

[Lasrion]

Main things I need for the mobo are stability and reliability. I won't run SLI anytime soon, my headphones run over USB (so onboard audio doesn't matter), and most of my current parts I will be swapping over. Might eventually pick up an SSD and use my HDD for storage of large files and such. I really just want something that is reliable and won't break the bank. I mostly game, stream alittle, do video editing, and just multitask often (aka multiple programs and a crap tons of web browser tabs open). This will be my first Intel build, so I want to do it right and have something that will last for alittle while, thus me going for a K processor for overclocking.

[Faceman]

Asus Z97-AR.

 

Amazing motherboard, great aesthetic that works with any color scheme because of how beautiful and neutral it is.  Excellent features, fantastic included software, especially fan control.