ASRock Z97 Extreme6 or Extreme4

[sapped]

Hey guys,

So I'm going to get an Intel i7-4790k CPU for my new build but am wondering what should I get for the motherboard?
I have it set down to either ASRock Z97 Extreme6 or Extreme4 using the helpful guide from Tom's.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

However the problem now is deciding between the two, and this is the part I'm really having trouble with.
I've read on the features that each board have and lacks, however it all seems really confusing and I don't
seem to know what exactly they do.

Here are the features for each board:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97 Extreme6/index.us.asp
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97 Extreme4/index.us.asp

And here's a simplified comparison chart:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?SelectedModel=Z97 Extreme6&SelectedModel=Z97 Extreme4

I'm really confused by all the names and abbreviations, like thunderbolt m2 etc. and don't have the slightest clue what they mean.

I'm trying to decide whether it's worthwhile to spend more on the Extreme6 board for its extra features,
however I'm all new to PC building and don't know about all these terms and new techs.

Would really appreciate if you can help out with it by giving a more in depth explanation.


Also I'm planning on overclocking my CPU a few years later. However I can't determine which one is better
for this since the benchmark I've found on Tom's are based on two different CPU setups.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-z97-motherboard-overclock,3893-26.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824-26.html

Which one can attain the higher overclock and efficiency while maintaining lower power and heat?

 

[mikemcc]

Since there is only $20 (at Newegg, anyway) between the two, they are quite similar. The Extreme6 has a few more high-end features like Ultra M.2, which will support PCIe SSDs that are very fast and will be very expensive. Even the regular M.2 SSDs on the market are quite expensive compared to "normal" SATA SSDs. Both of the ASRock boards have the regular M.2, which will suffice for most people for the foreseeable future.

The Extreme6 has 10 SATA ports while the Extreme4 has 8. How many SSD or HDs or optical drives do you have? Will the 2 fewer SATA ports matter to you?

If you don't know what Thunderbolt means, you likely won't have to worry about it. There are some high-end drives and some Apple monitors that make use of Thunderbolt. In this case, both of these motherboards has the Thunderbolt header. If you would ever need to use it, you would have to purchase the module from ASRock.

These two are very close to being the same motherboard, with the exception that the Extreme6 has a few more high-end features. Neither will be substantially better when it comes to overclocking, or efficiency and there won't be major differences in power usage or maintaining temps.

I mostly use ASUS or ASRock motherboards and I like both. Either of these boards would be fine and there just isn't much of a price difference between the two. For MY needs, I would just go with the Extreme4 because I don't need high end features like Ultra M.2. I just use a SATA SSD. And I only have three hard drives, so I don't need the two extra SATA ports. While the $20 difference isn't much, if I don't need the high-end features of the Extreme6, I wouldn't spend it. But if you think you might at some point take advantage of these features, it's only 20 bucks, so, go for it. You just won't see any difference in performance unless you do spring for one of those ultra-expensive Ultra M.2 SSDs. And even then, you'd only see the difference in benchmarks or if you do a lot of rendering/encoding. If you are mostly browsing the Web and gaming, you would not see a difference at all.

 

[sapped]

Thank you so much for the reply mate!

I'm only getting a 1TB hard drive for my new rig at the moment due to budget issue, I'm thinking of skipping the SSD for now and buying it sometime later on my next trip when its cheaper.

Also I'll not be getting any optical drives. So that means lesser SATA ports does not affect me at all?

And it looks like I won't be needing the Thunderbolt tech as well.

So it looks like the only extra feature which I might need is Ultra M.2, although somethings important I forgot to mention before is that I'm building the new rig mainly for gaming:

1. I'll be buying a single Radeon R9 290 for my GPU, so I'll not run CrossFire or dual card.

2. I mainly play extremely CPU intensive games like Total War, Arma, Mount & Blade etc. some of which are not even optimized for multi core CPUs.

So I'm wondering will the Ultra M.2 SSD have better performance for games in CPU limited instances? Compared to standard cheaper SSD or maybe even HDD. Does it improve framerate, loading performance or reduce stuttering?


Also something I'm really confused at the moment is with regard to this review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8045/asrock-z97-extreme6-review-ultra-m2-x4-tested-with-xp941/11

I'm having a hard time reading it and don't know if I understand correctly since I'm still all new to this, but does it mean using the Ultra M.2 actually decrease the game performance? I'm probably understanding it wrong cos it sounds too crazy. But if so, does it affect me if I'm using only a single card and no SLI/Crossfire and also using ATI instead of Nvidia?

So now I've added that the rig is mainly for gaming, which one do you think is worth it in the end? Appreciate your comments mate.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Short story, you will be perfectly fine with the 4. However, given how much you're overthinking this, you might as well get the 6 for the peace of mind given that it's only $20 more expensive on newegg.

 

[Charlie98]

Short story, you will be perfectly fine with the 4. However, given how much you're overthinking this, you might as well get the 6 for the peace of mind given that it's only $20 more expensive on newegg.

I don't agree... OP, I think you are overthinking this. If you are trying to plan for the future by trying to anticipate some real or imagined need 3 years from now, you are wasting your time. Just get the 4.... and take that $20 and put it towards an SSD... now... not later. You want to get a component that will materially provide a real-world benefit in everyday use? The SSD is that component. If space isn't going to be a problem, drop the 1GB HDD and get a 256GB SSD (or bigger, if budget allows.)

 

[fleshconsumed]

Reread OP's posts a little bit more closely. I already said the 4 will do just fine, and since it looks like you're already on a very tight budget it makes most sense to skip 6 and just buy the 4. It's cheaper and given your budget constraints you're unlikely to buy super expensive UltraM2 SSD. Save the $20 and put it towards 256GB SATA3 SSD.

 

[uclabachelor]

Hey guys,

So I'm going to get an Intel i7-4790k CPU for my new build but am wondering what should I get for the motherboard?
I have it set down to either ASRock Z97 Extreme6 or Extreme4 using the helpful guide from Tom's.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

However the problem now is deciding between the two, and this is the part I'm really having trouble with.
I've read on the features that each board have and lacks, however it all seems really confusing and I don't
seem to know what exactly they do.

Here are the features for each board:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97 Extreme6/index.us.asp
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97 Extreme4/index.us.asp

And here's a simplified comparison chart:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?SelectedModel=Z97 Extreme6&SelectedModel=Z97 Extreme4

I'm really confused by all the names and abbreviations, like thunderbolt m2 etc. and don't have the slightest clue what they mean.

I'm trying to decide whether it's worthwhile to spend more on the Extreme6 board for its extra features,
however I'm all new to PC building and don't know about all these terms and new techs.

Would really appreciate if you can help out with it by giving a more in depth explanation.


Also I'm planning on overclocking my CPU a few years later. However I can't determine which one is better
for this since the benchmark I've found on Tom's are based on two different CPU setups.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-z97-motherboard-overclock,3893-26.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824-26.html

Which one can attain the higher overclock and efficiency while maintaining lower power and heat?

I personally wouldn't get anything ASRock branded due to the number of reliability issues I've had with their motherboards.

But if I had to choose between the two, I'd do the 4 based on the criteria provided.

 

[sapped]

Ahh thank you so much for the comments guys, I really appreciate it!
It looks like I will not be needing any of the extra features that Extreme6 has.

Although this poped up just then, what do you think about the MSI Z97 Gaming 5? Since it is within the budget range of both boards.

And also it's in Tom's top of the month approved list:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-intel-amd-motherboard,3902.html

Here's the review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824.html

It also seems to be more popular on PCPartPicker than the Extreme4 & Extreme6:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#c=99&f=2&sort=d5

Again thank you so much for this! You've been really helpful. 🙂

 

[fleshconsumed]

It's all anecdotal experience. I've had a few glitchy Asus motherboards, and I've also read plenty of horrible ASUS RMA stories. On the other hand my current 3 Asrock Z87 Extreme4's are completely* stable and trouble free. My dad has Z87E6 and Z97E6, also trouble free.

* The only problem I had with my Asrock motherboards is that for some reason one of them refused to flash newer bios from flash drive, had to do internet flash. But the internet flash worked and now the Z87E4 board runs 4790K.