Best Z97 mobo under $150

[happyhungarian]

Hey everyone, I've been in the market for a desktop for a while, decided to go for it what with the sales and everything. So I was leaning towards a i5-4690K instead of going for Skylake, seeing as how many folks are harping about how the performance difference is minute. I'm trying to decide which mobo to buy, but don't know if spending more than $150 on one is justified. Can you guys suggest one for <$150? Should I spend more?

Also, should I buy pull the trigger on the newegg deal (4690K for $210)?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

[you2]

$210 for the 4690K isn't that special. If you have a fry or microcenter near you they frequently go below that price. I think microcenter standing price is like $180+tax (since it is in store only).
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There are a lot of z97's motherboards on sale or reduce price these days as to which is best is hard to judge. Some popular models include msi gaming 5 (around $100); gigabyte gaming 5 (similar price); various asrock and asus mbs. Really too many. I picked up a mpower max a month ago for around $132 mostly because I wanted the intel nic. Anyways I can't really suggest which mb will meet your purpose. For me I was reusing 16GB of ram so I wanted to stay with ddr3. Would have gone with 1155 mb if I could still find them since i had a sandybridge i5 around. The only good thing I've read about skylake is that it runs a lot cooler than the haswell refresh i7 and if you are going to load up on m2/pcie ssd it has more lanes but very few people are going to see real advantages with skylake so I would just pick what is cheaper.
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Also if you are not going to overclock I'd skip the K model and save some cash ('cept if microcenter is where you 'cause the K models are cheaper).
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right now the msi gaming 5 seems like a decent buy for the price point. Also it has been around for a while and seems to have pretty decent reviews (user and otherwise). There are better mbs but you have to hunt a bit more for a good price. Maybe an asrock fatal1y ?

 

[Craig234]

Check this for $110 after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gclid=CM_ZgLKcuckCFdKFfgodlTwK9g&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[jkauff]

I'm seeing many recommendations for the new version of the Asus Z97-A. It has USB 3.1, so there's some future-proofing there. The usual places sell it for around $150.

 

[DigDog]

i have both MSI gaming and Gb D3H and i hate the MSI due to the Killer NIC. and also, not a great sound. otoh, the gigabyte D3H, i really like it. it's cheap, it works well, could not say better things about it.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4961#ov

 

[Craig234]

How do those compare to the one I linked?

I see the extreme6 I was looking at is USB 3.0, the 3.1 version is $250 after rebate. Great.

 

[you2]

I wouldn't worry abuot usb 3.1; by the time it becomes establish you will either be on your net system or can pick up a pcie card for $10. Quite frankly the strandard is a bust right now because of the multiple connectors in play.

I'm surprise the MSI has bad sound compared to the DH3 and would be interested i more details. The one thing the MSI was suppose to be very good @ was the sound and most user reviews suggest such was the case hence my curiosity.
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The extreme 6 is not a bad system. Some folks have problems with it since it has no usb 2.0 ports and you have to enter the bios and have it emulate usb 2.0 during the setup phase (windows 7 requires drivers for usb 3.0 to function).
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I don't know about the quality of the DAC on the extreme 6; and it has both intel and realtec nic (both better than killer). I have an old p68 extreme 4 that is still in good shape (my server runs 24/7 for the past 5 1/2 years). I've head that one generation the extreme series was rather poor - I think z87? but i'm not sure - but they improved them the following year.
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It hard to filter out the complaints on the extreme 6 since a lot of the negativity was due to the usb 3.0 thingy.
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Btw the DOA rate for most MB has gone up the last 2 or 3 years; mostly because it is cheaper for them to let end users test them. I picked a z97 itx board up last year that had a dead ram slot; the exchange (via amazon) was effortless and asrock inditify the issue in 24 hours (er took them 24 hours to process the email i sent to them); so I have no real complaints with them. Quite frankly I've been happy with msi and asrock the last 4 or 5 years - I've never used gigabyte so no comments - almost went with the udh5 but then the mpower max drop to 132 on my last build. I used to use asus exclusively but around 6 years ago the complaint level was a high enough threshold that I dropped them. There was a survey last year that showed gigabyte had highest reliability closely following by msi for z97; I dont' remember where the rest of the vendors stacked.

How do those compare to the one I linked?

I see the extreme6 I was looking at is USB 3.0, the 3.1 version is $250 after rebate. Great.

 

[Leyawiin]

I have an ASUS Z97-A with an i5-4690k. The auto-OC feature got it to 4.5 Ghz stable on air (and I never have much luck with auto-OC on motherboards). The BIOS is pretty straightforward and easy to navigate. Onboard sound is fine and it comes with Intel LAN. Amazon's got the newest Z-97A 3.1 version for $135. Only bad thing I've heard is that ASUS can sometimes be problematic with RMAs.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TXBP1NS/?tag=extension-kb-20

 

[DigDog]

i did not explain myself correctly.
my Z87 G43 Gaming has no headphone port in the back, only in the front through the front panel header on the mobo. i like to have both speakers and headphones plugged in at the same time. the mobo header is louder then the back i/o, by about 20% - it's noticeable.
while this is not a problem per se, it should not exist; both i/o should work exactly the same. and i should really get a hph plug in the back i/o.

the Sound Blaster Cinema feature is, afaik, a software addon, so nothing to do with the mobo itself.

as for the NIC, it would not get recognized by the W7 base install, which left me w/o ethernet. then i found that the drivers are horrible bloatware, unless you get some hacked, non-MSQL drivers which you have to dig through the MSI forum for.

i don't like the UEFI BIOS at all, i can't figure out what half of the options are, and the navigation in unintuitive. really, super unintuitive and confusing, even today i have no idea why the screen changes color if i click on a specific panel.

it hardly OC my 4670k, and eat voltage like there is no tomorrow. ok so that might be CPU-specific, however, it is a delidded + coollab pro cpu.

yes it works. yes, i can boot into the system and my computer runs fine.

but i prefer the Z97 + 4790k i have on the OSX system; i can recognize everything in the bios immediately, it OCs like a beauty, it has the same ALC 1150, but it sounds fuller. more bass yet well defined. not by a huge amount, but enough that my Z87 sounds thin, and the Z97 sounds "just right". No KillerNIC to deal with; i would haphzard to say, it even takes a couple seconds less to boot up. and the internal SATA ports are placed in a reasonable way.

it has the same stupid thing where the hph need to go in the front; i didn't notice any sound difference between headers.

different systems, different chipset, diff cpu .. i know, but one feels better than the other.

 

[Craig234]

you2 thanks for good info. I can use more in recommending a good motherboard, and might post on that.

 

[you2]

To be honest; even though I use msi mb; I am not a fan of their bios. I much prefer asrock bios to msi and cannot comment on gigabyte since i do not use them. Asus bios historically was also fine.
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I prefer the bios on my 5 year old asrock to the msi mpower max I purchased last month.
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The problem you described with the killer nic is why i don't use them but that is not a msi thing. There are plenty of msi, gigabyte, asrock, asus, ... motherboards that use killer nic; you just have to pick the appropriate model if you wish to avoid it (gigabyte gaming series use killer nic; the udh for the most part use intel or one of each).
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uefi unfortunately is here to stay and if you run windows 10 you will likely need it. As I said I prefer asrock uefi to msi; i find it a pia to find the exact setting I'm looking for in the msi mb and frequently they do not have the appropriate tweaks. asrock is much more complete.
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I suspect asus is similar to asrock and gigabyte is more old fashion but richer. The reason I went with the msi mb is when I have had to contact them they been helpful and responsive (as has asrock). I avoid companies with bad customer service (asus) but as long as the hardware is decent (reliable) and price competitive I want to favor those companies with good support. Again no comment on gigabyte; I just haven't used them recently ('cept for a flawless video card). They have a good reputation with regards to the hardware (no clue on support side).
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As to the original question (a) I would buy the mb soon while things are cheap; (b) I would focus on the feature set you need today (future proof is a poor strategy; it just doesn't work and usually cost more in the long run); (c) I would pick a vendor with easy return policy because there is a reasonable chance something will be doa (though to be honest in the last 10 systems I've built I've only had two issues; one mb with a doa ram slot and in another system a ram stick with bad memory stick; well I also had one dvd drive failed after 9 months but these days you dont' even need one of those with the on line services; (d) make sure the system you buy will work with the os you intend to run (linux, win 10; win 7; ...) most of them will work with all of them but the default bios configuration might favor one over the other (secure boot, usb mode, ...).

i don't like the UEFI BIOS at all, i can't figure out what half of the options are, and the navigation in unintuitive. really, super unintuitive and confusing, even today i have no idea why the screen changes color if i click on a specific panel.



but i prefer the Z97 + 4790k i have on the OSX system; i can recognize everything in the bios immediately, it OCs like a beauty, it has the same ALC 1150, but it sounds fuller. more bass yet well defined. not by a huge amount, but enough that my Z87 sounds thin, and the Z97 sounds "just right". No KillerNIC to deal with; i would haphzard to say, it even takes a couple seconds less to boot up. and the internal SATA ports are placed in a reasonable way.

it has the same stupid thing where the hph need to go in the front; i didn't notice any sound difference between headers.

different systems, different chipset, diff cpu .. i know, but one feels better than the other.

 

[Craig234]

I'll bet it's not nearly 'the best' but Newegg has one on sale for $70:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...15-Index-_-IntelMotherboards-_-13157564-S1A3B

 

[you2]

I would get a mb with alc1150 (sound chip) instead of alc689 if you plan on using onboard sound. Other than that the only other comment is H97 chip set cannot overclock (which is fine if you don't plan on overclocking); but then there is no reason to spend extra on a K processor. To be honest there is probably little value in overclocking for the type of system you seem to want so a H mother board is fine; I woudl just go for a slightly better sound subsystem.