1150 motherboard for Distributed Computing & light gaming

[Bradtech519]

I am looking into building an I7 rig mainly to do Distributed Computing & light Gaming. I'm going to use most of the components from the rig in my signature below. (RAM, SSD, HDD, PSU, GPU). My FX 8350 is going to be relegated to a secondary rig.

I'm looking for an LGA 1150 Z97 board to pair with a 4790k that has quality components(quality caps/chokes & overall power delivery system) that can handle a near 100% load on the CPU most of the day & GPU off and on. I've been looking into the MSI z97 Mpower & Asrock Z97 Extreme 6. Anyone have any recommendations based on what this rig will be doing motherboard wise? I have no plans of doing any overclocking since it already comes at 4.0 GHz stock. I'll be getting an aftermarket cooler for the CPU. Possibly a Phanteks PH-TC14-PE or Noctua DH-14. Or whatever someone can talk me into that might be better.

 

[schmuckley]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813132116R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813132016 this + $15 BIOS chip

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128704R Giga makes a strong board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813132125R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813132207 this +$15 BIOS chip

 

[Burpo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0615-Index-_-IntelMotherboards-_-13132118-S0B

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-2600-1150.../dp/B00L49XEFE

 

[lukart]

that ASUS Z97-A has good features, UFEI design, USB 3, build quality, parts selection (such as Intel NIC) probably makes a good candidate.

 

[schmuckley]

I'm looking for an LGA 1150 Z97 board to pair with a 4790k that has quality components(quality caps/chokes & overall power delivery system) that can handle a near 100% load on the CPU most of the day & GPU off and on. .

..and I see people recommending MSI and 3+1 phase motherboards

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

IMHO,
If you buy an Asrock only the top of the line board is worth getting for overclocking. How ever when you take about chokes and caps, don't look at AsRock for value(they make cheap boards!)period!
You need to look at an AsusZ97 pro.......

 

[Bradtech519]

IMHO,
If you buy an Asrock only the top of the line board is worth getting for overclocking. How ever when you take about chokes and caps, don't look at AsRock for value(they make cheap boards!)period!
You need to look at an AsusZ97 pro.......

Yeah, Asrock to me was on the level of ECS boards on the lower end. They use stuff hard to even identify/research. I've been looking into the z97-pro. Has nice VRM & PCH heatsinks along with using a 12 power phase design. I have to pay more money and go up to the Asus Z97-Deluxe to get a 16 phase design. I think Asus uses a Digi+ ASP1257 controller chip and each phase uses a 6030DLB and one 4030DLA MOSFETs. Along with 5k Japanese Solid caps and ferrite coils. I think on their "Pro Gamer" series they use 10k solid caps. I'm not so much worried about bad caps, more about the Chokes and VRM. Asrock is known to cut corners on their high end boards with the PCB. Very thin but that's the trade off they chose to make in order to undercut the other big tier motherboard manufacturers on price. Right now it's down to researching the big name brands and what they are using on certain z97 boards.

 

[you2]

Does quality of onboard sound matter to you ? If so you might want to look for soemthing with a better sound chip than the z97-a.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I have had good experiences with Asus boards, even second hand one's. Micro center had a sale on that CPU(not sure its still going), they also always have a rack in the store for RETURNED items that still work. Always a deal to be had there, usually there missing stuff like I/O plates or something.
I had an MSI, and the boards are well built, and There customer service was GREAT!!!

 

[ElaphSK]

I just did some overclocking on Z97 MPOWER which is quite steady and many functional tools supported. Maybe you can just use OC genie to boost the CPU efficiency if you won't do any overclocking . Not sure what kind of computing you gonna do, but one of the tools of RAMDisk on this board might also good to using.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/msi-z97-mpower-motherboard-review/11/

 

[Bradtech519]

I just did some overclocking on Z97 MPOWER which is quite steady and many functional tools supported. Maybe you can just use OC genie to boost the CPU efficiency if you won't do any overclocking . Not sure what kind of computing you gonna do, but one of the tools of RAMDisk on this board might also good to using.
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/msi-z97-mpower-motherboard-review/11/

I was about to come on here and say this is the board I am leaning towards. Only con I'm finding is the addon wifi being hard to install. Don't really care I have wifi USB & PCI cards. Plus my desktop is always using the NIC. Wish I had jumped on the 4790ks at $299 around black friday.