H97 board recommendations?

[SteveGrabowski]

I have an H81 board that runs great, but it's pretty limiting with two DIMMS and only 4 SATA ports. I run a locked CPU (Xeon E3-1231v3) so I'm not looking to overclock other than perhaps multicore enhancement to get it to run at the single core turbo on all cores. And I don't envision ever running a two card system, I'm pretty happy running a single GTX 970 and I don't want to screw with all the pains of SLI (e.g., buying a big PSU, having to spend on an expensive Z97 SLI board, games not having working SLI profiles for weeks after launch).

I'd like to upgrade to 16GB RAM before DDR3 starts being phased out, and it's either throw out my 2x4GB sticks for 2x8GB sticks for $100, or buy two more 4GB sticks for $50 and $70-$90 for a better board. And besides, I'd like to be able to run more than two hard drives, an SSD, and a DVD-RW drive like I'm running now. It would also be nice if it supports running my CPU (Xeon E3-1231v3) at the single core turbo 3.8 GHz on all cores instead of the standard 3.6 GHz all cores turbo. It's not a huge thing, but it would be a small plus. A good amount of fan headers would be nice too.

Any H97 boards I should be looking at? Or Z97 or B85? I definitely don't want a Gigabyte B85 board after seeing they're using cheaper components now than when their B85 boards were introduced and reviewed, since I'm seeing complaints about CPUs throttling on them (my Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2V never throttles my Xeon though).

My current system is:
CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0
RAM: 8GB G.Skill DDR3-1600

I care mostly about gaming performance and being able to install more hard drives for media storage.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Being able to run an M.2 SSD isn't really a concern for me also.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that if you want MCE (to enable turbo on all cores), I think that requires a Z97 chipset.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I think that if you want MCE (to enable turbo on all cores), I think that requires a Z97 chipset.

I have seen it on the Asus B85 Pro Gamer, but it's not available in the US at any reasonable price.

Is it pretty standard to do with locked CPUs on Z97 boards? I'm willing to grab a Z97 board too, just not a $100+ one.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

The board in my sig (ASRock H97 Pro4) is pretty good. It overclocks too.

It has an Intel MAC instead of crap Realtek, 4 slots for DIMMs, decent firmware settings, POSTs incredibly quick (literally 1 second with UEFI GOP card), and has been very stable.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

The board in my sig (ASRock H97 Pro4) is pretty good. It overclocks too.

It has an Intel MAC instead of crap Realtek, 4 slots for DIMMs, decent firmware settings, POSTs incredibly quick (literally 1 second with UEFI GOP card), and has been very stable.

I was looking at that board earlier. Thanks for the firsthand report!

I wonder if it's capable to doing multicore enhancement on a locked processor though. My Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2V can overclock my G3258 pretty nicely despite being a 3+1 power phase board, but I can't set the multplier even to the highest turbo multiplier with my Xeon E3-1231v3 like I have seen some people able to do on other boards. Unfortunately the board shown in the video below where he could run at the single/dual core turbo clock on all cores is crazy expensive in the US though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBIfDEcozqM

It's not a big deal to get the 6% overclock going from my quadcore turbo at 3.6 GHz on all cores to the max 3.8 GHz turbo, but might as well get that little bit of extra performance if I can for the same price. But the big things are the DIMMs and having six fast SATA ports, as I'd like to add two large WD Greens to my system that's already maxing out the four SATA ports on my H81 board.

 

[escrow4]

Easy:

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5358#ov

Gigabyte H97-D3H (NOT the mATX model which has a worse audio codec).

-> 1 x M.2 connector, 1 x SATA Express Connector standard on top of 6 x SATA 3
-> ALC 1150 with separate PCB + audio caps
-> 4 USB 3 and 2 USB 2 on the back, rest are internal headers
-> 3 system fan headers
-> Tri onboard display outputs, nifty if one falls over
-> Intel NIC
-> "Ultra durable" so decent caps and build quality

No idea if it has MCE, I'd say no. I'd second Larry and say look to spendy Z97 for that. A cheap Z97 board may have it but you'll lose everything else this H97 has from the audio to the ports. And yes I am fairly Gigabyte biased, but I've found they are decent all rounders. Last Z87 board I had was decent, audio was rather twitchy but I'd point the finger at Realtek 898.

EDIT: I've also found that "cheaper" boards have less stuff packed into them hence less ports of failure. Extra 5 controller and slab of circuitry looks nice and shiny but that is another 5 things that can fall apart.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

MCE is only on Z boards I believe. The ASRock H97 Pro4 does have some multiplier options when using a locked CPU but when I tried them to force max turbo it didn't work.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Easy:

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5358#ov

Gigabyte H97-D3H (NOT the mATX model which has a worse audio codec).

-> 1 x M.2 connector, 1 x SATA Express Connector standard on top of 6 x SATA 3
-> ALC 1150 with separate PCB + audio caps
-> 4 USB 3 and 2 USB 2 on the back, rest are internal headers
-> 3 system fan headers
-> Tri onboard display outputs, nifty if one falls over
-> Intel NIC
-> "Ultra durable" so decent caps and build quality

No idea if it has MCE, I'd say no. I'd second Larry and say look to spendy Z97 for that. A cheap Z97 board may have it but you'll lose everything else this H97 has from the audio to the ports. And yes I am fairly Gigabyte biased, but I've found they are decent all rounders. Last Z87 board I had was decent, audio was rather twitchy but I'd point the finger at Realtek 898.

EDIT: I've also found that "cheaper" boards have less stuff packed into them hence less ports of failure. Extra 5 controller and slab of circuitry looks nice and shiny but that is another 5 things that can fall apart.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check with their tech support to see if that board supports enhanced turbo / multicore enhancement or whatever they call it (every brand seems to call it something else). Doesn't M.2 use PCIE lanes though? I know 99% of the time there is no real difference between PCIE-3.0x16 and PCIE-3.0x8, but surprisingly Ryse takes a 10% performance hit on PCIE-3.0x8 with a GTX 980.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Their tech support didn't seem to know what I was asking and told me the turbo boost was a CPU thing, not a motherboard thing. But enhanced turbo is a motherboard feature, since I have seen it work on my exact CPU with a different board but will not work with my current Gigabyte H81 board (this board does allow me to change multipliers with my unlocked Pentium though). They did say the M.2 wouldn't use any of the CPU's PCIE lanes though on the H97-D3H.

 

[GreenOrbs]

I not sure if you would be interested but I picked up a H97 mITX motherboard for $36 today (its the mITX version of the ASROCK that Hi-Fi man suggested) There's a $20 rebate and you can get a further $20 off with the promocode CITIWALLET if you check out with Citi wallet through Masterpass.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157526

I'm planning on using it for a small form factor build for a friend.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't read your post too carefully, you are looking for more RAM slots, this won't help you at all.

 

[bononos]

Their tech support didn't seem to know what I was asking and told me the turbo boost was a CPU thing, not a motherboard thing. But enhanced turbo is a motherboard feature, since I have seen it work on my exact CPU with a different board but will not work with my current Gigabyte H81 board (this board does allow me to change multipliers with my unlocked Pentium though). They did say the M.2 wouldn't use any of the CPU's PCIE lanes though on the H97-D3H.

From what I know the mb turbo boost works together with the the cpu boost. Enhanced boost just bumps the boost to the max multiplier regardless of number of working cores. In effect this would be overclocking the cpu and voiding the warranty.