Help me select a motherboard for i5-4690K

kalmquist

Member
Aug 1, 2014
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5
71
I've been thinking about upgrading my system for a while, but my motherboard just died so now the situation is urgent.

My current system:
* Antec Solo ATX Mid-Tower case
* Gigabtye GA-MA790XT-UD4P motherboard, not working
* AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpu (3.5 Ghz base, 3.8 Ghz turbo)
* Nvidia 9500GT video card
* 2 x 4GB memory, 1333Mhz, 9-9-9 timings (G.Skill Sniper)
* Hard drives: 4 mechanical + 1 SSD (all SATA)
* 1 DVD drive using parallel ATA (aka IDE)
* Corsair (rebranded Seasonic) CMPSU-400CX 400 watt power supply
* PCI parallel port card, connected to HP Laserjet 1100A
* PCIe x1 network card (1gb, Marvell Yukon controller)
* Linux OS

My idea is to replace upgrade the CPU to an i5-4690K, which would also be a graphics upgrade since the integrated graphics should be faster than the 9500GT. To go with the CPU, I'm looking for a motherboard that offers:

* Good quality at a reaonable price. Even with good design and manufacturing, some percentage of motherboards are going to fail, but I'd like to minimize the chance that the timing of my next upgrade will be determined by when the motherboard fails.

* I will overclock the processor, probably not aggressively. I don't necessarily need a Z series chipset, because I don't care whether the board will overclock Broadwell.

* 6 or more SATA ports.

* I would ask for an IDE connector to support older DVD drives, but that seems to be out of the question so I'll probably pick up an inexpensive IDE add-in card.

* I need a parellel port for the printer, which presumably means a PCI slot for my parallel port card. Some motherboards (e.g. the MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate) have parallel port headers, which would be an alternative.

Other things that would be nice, but optional, are:

* Being able to overclock the memory controller (which I understand is only possible with a Z series chipset). My current memory is slow, but when I upgrade the memory it would be nice to be able to take advantage of the fastest memory available at a reasonable price.

* An Intel i218-V or i217-V NIC. The GA-MA790XT-UDP4 motherboard used a Realtek NIC, and the Linux drivers were flaky enough that I eventually bought an add-on card to use instead. Since I already have the add-on card, I could always use it with the new board.

* VT-d. According to Wikipedia, VT-d is only supported if you use the Q87 chip set, but a footnote indicates that VT-d was discovered to work on a Z87 board.

* DisplayPort. My current monitor doesn't support it, but my next monitor might.

A couple of boards I've found in my searches are:
* ASRock Z97 Anniversary - $90
* Asus Vanguard B85 (TUF series) - $97
Both have 6 SATA, at least one PCI slot, and an Intel NIC. The Asus also has DisplayPort, and the Asus web site lists it as supporting CPU (but not memory) overclocking even though it's a B85 chipset. But are the prices too low for a good quality product--particularly for the ASRock board? I'd be happy to spend a bit more money to avoid problems.
 

kalmquist

Member
Aug 1, 2014
37
5
71
@brevin: I'd be willing to spend up to $150 or so, but don't want to waste my money if a $100 board would suffice.

But I just realized another problem: The i5-4690K will only work on boards that have a recent BIOS, and my understanding is that I won't be able to upgrade the BIOS unless the board already has a BIOS that supports the i5-4690K. Doesn't that pretty much rule out any motherboard that has BIOS versions that don't support the i5-4690K? That would mean that the ASRock Z97 Anniversary is the only option among the boards I've looked at so far.
 

VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
6,447
7,616
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Depends on your budget. For around $150.00 to 170.00 I recommend the Gigabyte Z97 gaming 5 or 7 for a quality overclocking board. 8 true power phases on both boards. for around $130.00 or so the Asrock Z97M OC formula is a good choice in mATX FF. These boards will work with a 4690K out of the box
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
5,678
917
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If you have a micro center near you the gigabyate u5 is $130 and the cpu is $199; if you do not have one near you teh gigabyte is $189. The gigabyte board is esp nice since it has 8 sata ports AND pci slots (most of the higher end boards have dropped legacy PCI slots).
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You don't need a Z system but I'm not sure if you will find a board that meets your requirements (I did not survey boards for your specific requirements; but I have been looking for a board with PCi slots and 8 sata ports and with that combination there was only 2 options - the kicker being PCI slots).
 

Icepick

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2004
3,663
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Depends on your budget. For around $150.00 to 170.00 I recommend the Gigabyte Z97 gaming 5 or 7 for a quality overclocking board. 8 true power phases on both boards. for around $130.00 or so the Asrock Z97M OC formula is a good choice in mATX FF. These boards will work with a 4690K out of the box

This for quality components. They both have the same power phases. I selected the Gaming 7 for the extra storage options (not to be confused with the MSI Gaming 7) and paired it with the 4690k and experienced an easy, painless setup.
 

Seba

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
1,480
134
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I will overclock the processor, probably not aggressively. I don't necessarily need a Z series chipset
If you want to overclock the i5, then you need a "K" processor (4670K or 4690K) and a Z series motherboard - a Z97 motherboard (there is no point in choosing a Z87 motherboard since the price is usually the same as for newer Z97 motherboards).
Haswell "K" 4670K does not have VT-d. Haswell Refresh "K" 4690K has VT-d. Be carefull which you choose.
 
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