Trouble Finding a Z97 Motherboard

[Dash Lambda]

I recently started looking for a motherboard to upgrade to (my current M/B is a cheap bundle thingy), and encountered a very distressing problem.

 

There are practically no good Z97 motherboards available for reasonable prices. It seems that everyone's gotten into a "You can only get it from me so I'm gonna take your first born" sort of mood, so good Z97 motherboards are almost always four times their intended price at least.

 

It would actually be cheaper for me to get a Maximus VIII Hero, a 6600K, and 16GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 (to get the current gen equivalent of my system) than it would be to buy one Maximus VII Hero.

 

So, does anyone know of a place where I can get a good Z97 motherboard (I'm looking primarily for an ASUS ROG board) for some amount of money that can pass a sanity check? This is really getting on my nerves...

[JebKerman]

-snip-

your actual location would help greatly, I'm going to hazard a guess you're in Australia?

[W-L]

-SNIP-

 

Well what options are you looking for exactly there are quite a lot of good Z97 boards out there for say fairly reasonable prices.

[Dash Lambda]

your actual location would help greatly, I'm going to hazard a guess you're in Australia?

I'm in the US.

 

Well what options are you looking for exactly there are quite a lot of good Z97 boards out there for say fairly reasonable prices.

I mentioned that I'm primarily looking for ASUS, trying for one of their ROG boards.

[JebKerman]

I'm in the US.

 

I mentioned that I'm primarily looking for ASUS, trying for one of their ROG boards.

any reason why ROG in particular? there's tonnes of other great boards, even ASUS's not quite ROG, but still has the red aesthetic, Pro Gamer board: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97progamer

or the far more widely available Z97-A, my current motherboard. It OCes with the best of them, but has a somewhat unusual colour choice.

[W-L]

I'm in the US.

I mentioned that I'm primarily looking for ASUS, trying for one of their ROG boards.

 

No matter what the ROG boards do come at a heavier price tag if your wanting to get the color scheme, look and brand. Boards like the Sabertooth Mark2  are very good while a different look, or something at a lower price point like the Z97-A.

 

Asus has a good compare tool that has their Z97 boards listed:

http://www.asus.com/us/site/motherboards/Z97/comparison/

[Dash Lambda]

any reason why ROG in particular? there's tonnes of other great boards, even ASUS's not quite ROG, but still has the red aesthetic, Pro Gamer board: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97progamer

or the far more widely available Z97-A, my current motherboard. It OCes with the best of them, but has a somewhat unusual colour choice.

I'm leaning towards ROG because those tend to be more highly reviewed and (barring outliers) of higher quality than others. (Disregarding WS and server hardware, of course~). I'll have to look into that board, it looks like a good option...

[W-L]

I'm leaning towards ROG because those tend to be more highly reviewed and (barring outliers) of higher quality than others. (Disregarding WS and server hardware, of course~). I'll have to look into that board, it looks like a good option...

 

Between the boards in Asus's Z97 lineup they all are good quality boards the difference mainly for boards theses days is mainly specific features and what makes them unique like color scheme or motherboard armour. 

[Dash Lambda]

Between the boards in Asus's Z97 lineup they all are good quality boards the difference mainly for boards theses days is mainly specific features and what makes them unique like color scheme or motherboard armour. 

One of my concerns is overclocking, I'm not certain how far I can trust my current motherboard and I want one that I know can handle what I throw at it.

 

It's my thinking that the motherboards aimed at gamers would have more beefy VRM's and even more beefy cooling.

[W-L]

One of my concerns is overclocking, I'm not certain how far I can trust my current motherboard and I want one that I know can handle what I throw at it.

It's my thinking that the motherboards aimed at gamers would have more beefy VRM's and even more beefy cooling.

 

 

True but even boards like the Z97-A can achieve good and fairly heavy overclocks since it does have good power delivery. Unless your really wanting to push things to the limit in most cases it won't be needed.

[JebKerman]

One of my concerns is overclocking, I'm not certain how far I can trust my current motherboard and I want one that I know can handle what I throw at it.

 

It's my thinking that the motherboards aimed at gamers would have more beefy VRM's and even more beefy cooling.

I see you've got your 4690K to 4.7GHz, I doubt you'll get anything more out of it, that's most likely the limit of your chip, not your motherboard.

[Dash Lambda]

I see you've got your 4690K to 4.7GHz, I doubt you'll get anything more out of it, that's most likely the limit of your chip, not your motherboard.

Oh no no no, I'm quite happy with my overclock. My problem is that I've had a few crashes related to my motherboard and I'm not really sure when it's going to die.

[W-L]

Oh no no no, I'm quite happy with my overclock. My problem is that I've had a few crashes related to my motherboard and I'm not really sure when it's going to die.

 

What happened to your current board, most times if an overclock fails it's mainly not enough voltage or that the chip can't handle the higher overclock.

[JebKerman]

Oh no no no, I'm quite happy with my overclock. My problem is that I've had a few crashes related to my motherboard and I'm not really sure when it's going to die.

maybe your OC is to high for the voltage you're giving it, I've actually never heard of a crash due to a motherboard, it's usually the CPU, more specifically the CPU's overclock.

 

For example, I initially dialed my CPU's overclock in as 47, 47, 46, 46 @ 1.276V (all at 47 was getting a bit too hot for my liking), and it seemed stable, but i still got crashes. so I made a rule that every time it crashes i increase the voltage by 0.001, 4 crashes later and i was at my current 1.280V and it's been like that for over half a year.

[Dash Lambda]

 

What happened to your current board, most times if an overclock fails it's mainly not enough voltage or that the chip can't handle the higher overclock.

I've had a few crashes due to unstable overclocks and a few from the motherboard. There's a long story to it, but really all that's relevant is that I know certain ones are from the motherboard.

 

 

maybe your OC is to high for the voltage you're giving it, I've actually never heard of a crash due to a motherboard, it's usually the CPU, more specifically the CPU's overclock.

 

For example, I initially dialed my CPU's overclock in as 47, 47, 46, 46 @ 1.276V (all at 47 was getting a bit too hot for my liking), and it seemed stable, but i still got crashes. so I made a rule that every time it crashes i increase the voltage by 0.001, 4 crashes later and i was at my current 1.280V and it's been like that for over half a year.

I've gone back and forth on my OC, I've definitely had a lot of crashes when fine-tuning it. I'm not blaming all my crashes on my motherboard, just a few.

[Dash Lambda]

I've decided to go for the Z97-Pro Gamer. Thanks guys for your help~

[Imakuni]

I recently started looking for a motherboard to upgrade to (my current M/B is a cheap bundle thingy), and encountered a very distressing problem.

 

There are practically no good Z97 motherboards available for reasonable prices. It seems that everyone's gotten into a "You can only get it from me so I'm gonna take your first born" sort of mood, so good Z97 motherboards are almost always four times their intended price at least.

 

It would actually be cheaper for me to get a Maximus VIII Hero, a 6600K, and 16GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 (to get the current gen equivalent of my system) than it would be to buy one Maximus VII Hero.

 

So, does anyone know of a place where I can get a good Z97 motherboard (I'm looking primarily for an ASUS ROG board) for some amount of money that can pass a sanity check? This is really getting on my nerves...

That's because Haswell K isn't worth it anymore.

 

Now that mobo manufacturers unlocked BLCK OCing for non-K 6th gen CPUS, you can get a "locked" Skylake i5 (say, 6400 or 6500) and have better IPC while still retaining the ability to OC and a similar price.

[Dash Lambda]

That's because Haswell K isn't worth it anymore.

 

Now that mobo manufacturers unlocked BLCK OCing for non-K 6th gen CPUS, you can get a "locked" Skylake i5 (say, 6400 or 6500) and have better IPC while still retaining the ability to OC and a similar price.

Sure, it wouldn't be worth it if I were upgrading or building a new computer, but I'm just getting a new motherboard.