Question Motherboard for Intel Core i9-14900KF - high end OK

[Sportsshooter]

Tom's recommended the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Xtreme but the price is double what the review noted, if you can find one in stock. Newegg is now using third party vendors shipping from China, not my preference. I can wait but what are my options? My last build was in 2017 and I used an ASUS ROG Rampage V Edition 10. It lasted 8 years but the software I use is starting to bog down. 4K video and large batch processing of images with Adobe Photoshop 2025, DxO Prime Raw, Topaz and others I want more. I don't mind building a workstation that will last me another 8 years.

Do prices spike when back-ordered or is $1K + what I can expect to pay?

I don't need to overclock and am not a gamer but I do extensive photo and video editing. I will be ordering a nice video card and a minimum of 96 GB DDR5. Thanks.

 

[In2Photos]

Well, before you buy a 14900 you might want to do some research. Intel has had issues with 13/14 Gen CPUs. They say, after 2 years, that they have fixed the problem via a microcode update, but many are skeptical. https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...shing-unreal-engine-games-and-others.2617728/

Should you decide to stick with Intel I don't think you need a high end board if you are not doing any overclocking. Any Z series motherboard should suffice. Just get a board that has all the features you need/want and gets good reviews. Use PC Part Picker for an additional resource when planning a new build.

I would seriously consider looking at an AMD build. Even Puget systems, who has been pro Intel for quite some time, shows the AMD 9700X to be the fastest Photoshop CPU. https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...f1_6zflnNrIXjN3RlVTx1xeqrF4pmPbHrGKy5aY_hUrrI

And here's some of their information for Premiere (not sure what software you are using for video editing) from their review of the AMD 9800X3D https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...tion-review/#Video_Editing_Adobe_Premiere_Pro

 

[igor_kavinski]

Tom's recommended the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Xtreme

High end mobo so I guess price is no object?

Just go for the Core 285K or Ryzen 9950X. Can't go wrong with either, especially since both are great at productivity.

Z890 mobos are generally more attractive looking and more feature rich. I've also found their prices are reasonable. On the Ryzen side, I would personally choose the MSI MPG Carbon because it seems to be the only one that supports 8400 MT/s DDR5 operation. You generally don't need to go above CL30 DDR5-6000 for Ryzen but if you went for a high end kit running at 7200 MT/s, you could run that at CL28 or even CL26 on the Carbon mobo at 6000 MT/s.

 

[blckgrffn]

Piling in with the rest - what are your retail options? Is Microcenter and option?

Like others have said, it doesn’t seem like higher end boards bring much if anything unless you are looking for more bling or crazy power delivery. Any $200 or so board should be “feature complete”.

I would suggest the 12900K if you are looking at previous gen Intel or yeah, just go Core Ultra if Intel is a must. The Z890 boards do seem to have more of the features you might want for a long time hold.

The 12900K is known to be a good commodity, is clicked aggressively and provides solid value for what it is. You can also get a $500 bundle at Microcenter.

 

[Sportsshooter]

For the Intel Core i9-14900KF, consider motherboards like the ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E, MSI MEG Z790 ACE, or ASRock Z790 Taichi, which are excellent for productivity-focused builds. Prices for high-end boards like the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Xtreme can spike during low stock, but great options are available in the $400-$600 range. With 96GB+ DDR5 RAM and an RTX 4070/4080 GPU, your build will handle 4K video editing and batch processing efficiently. Ensure high-speed NVMe SSDs (e.g., Samsung 990 Pro) for optimal performance. Stick with reputable brands like ASUS, MSI, or Gigabyte for reliability and longevity.

I’ve been doing some research on potential problems with the Intel Core i9-14900KF. With the past issues I may have gone a different direction but since I already ordered it, I think I can make it work. With a new CPU and confirming the motherboard has the latest bios, even if beta, Intel is claiming the issues are fixed and have extended the CPU warranty to 5 years.

Motherboards were hard to find in stock but I found an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero for $489.99. It doesn’t have the 10GB ethernet port I wanted but I’ll see how it performs first. I would need to buy a 10GB switch and add a 10 GB card to my Synology NAS so will wait and see if I can live with 2.5 GB speeds since I have a 2.5 GB switch and can aggregate two 1 GB ports on the Synology.

I was surprised the motherboard only has 4 SATA ports. I am used to more but the NVMe slots for a few 4TB 990 Pros and an external Blu-Ray read/write drive make that workable. I was able to find and order a GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER GPU and a 96GB (2x48) DDR5 RAM kit so am set if I choose to go ahead with the build.

Thanks.

 

[Tech Junky]

$489.99

So, now you're into it for a grand just for the CPU/MOBO.

It's not hard to find MOBO stock if you dig around once you narrow it down to the brand / model. If you went AMD though you could have gotten both the high end CPU and 10GE MOBO and not have the coin flip of whether Intel will freak out when you hit the end of the return period.

 

[Sportsshooter]

So, now you're into it for a grand just for the CPU/MOBO.

It's not hard to find MOBO stock if you dig around once you narrow it down to the brand / model. If you went AMD though you could have gotten both the high end CPU and 10GE MOBO and not have the coin flip of whether Intel will freak out when you hit the end of the return period.

Not helpful at this point but if it makes you feel better, thanks..

 

[igor_kavinski]

I think not that big a deal. If the CPU does start acting up, just ask Intel for a refund and then put in a 12900K. The last "good" Intel CPU, other than having crappy Gracemont E-cores but you can turn them off if you dislike your workloads getting slow.