Motherboard selection for new build.

[Steve Rimar]

I plan on building a new PC using one of the 3 following motherboards:
MSI ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97 GAMING 5
ASUS Z97-A ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97-A
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK (Black Edition)

I will be using a Intel Core i5-4690K Processor, with 8gb ram.

My use of the PC will be mostly for photo and video editing along with surfing, emails and some word processing.

Any suggestions welcome for a motherboard or anything else.

 

[Burpo]

For what you're doing, I'd go with the Xeon E3-1231 v3 instead of the i5-4690K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4XYvZwTWqzCpsMpXBHCmgaAhkk8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

MicroCenter has them even cheaper, but even at $20 more, you're getting 8 threads/workers instead of 4.. That'll make a big difference for photo and video editing, and multi-tasking.. Better to have too much than not enough..

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1231+v3+@+3.40GHz&id=2246

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4690K+@+3.50GHz

 

[Steve Rimar]

You bring up a good point.
The E3-1231 is $256.99 from Amazon or Newegg. The I5-4690 is $238.99 from Amazon and $239.99 from Newegg.
I would then need a graphics card if using the E3-1231v3 from what I understand. Is the increase in performance enough to justify the Xeon? I do not think I will need the overclocking ability but good graphics display of photos is important.
With the Xeon would a different motherboard be a better fit? What about motherboard prices if using the Xeon?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I would then need a graphics card if using the E3-1231v3 from what I understand. Is the increase in performance enough to justify the Xeon?

Yes. If you need integrated graphics, you'll want an E3-12x5v3 or 12x6v3. The 12x0v3's and 12x1v3's do not have an IGP.

Weather the increase in performance is enough to justify the Xeon is up to you, but you do have to include the cost of a discrete graphics card when comparing prices. At which point you can just move up a notch to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117318

For $33 more you get a capable P4600 IGP (the "pro" version of the HD4600) and a 100MHz bump in both base and turbo frequency.

I do not think I will need the overclocking ability but good graphics display of photos is important.

Intel IGPs are just as good as Nvidia/AMD for that. Your monitor is far more important IMHO. So long as there is a digital connection between PC and monitor its a mute point.

 

[Steve Rimar]

Intel IGPs are just as good as Nvidia/AMD for that. Your monitor is far more important IMHO. So long as there is a digital connection between PC and monitor its a mute point.

I now have a ASUS VH242H monitor. I haven't looked into new ones but there may be better monitors.

Thanks for all the excellent advice. It has been 5 years since I built my original PC. I used a Gigabyte MB in it and may use the Gigabyte in the new build but that is not 100%.
My current power supply is working fine (Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 RS-600-amba-D3) 600but should I get new?

 

[Steve Rimar]

I am not sure about a GPU at this time. I really do not need a Gaming unit. I currently have the old one in my current PC which may work. The one I am now using is a Saphire 1002296HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1gb 128bit DDR3 PCI Express.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I am not sure about a GPU at this time. I really do not need a Gaming unit. I currently have the old one in my current PC which may work. The one I am now using is a Saphire 1002296HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1gb 128bit DDR3 PCI Express.

If that's the case, then adding a discrete card is just a waste of electricity. Worse is that if you use that HD4670 you loose DX11/OpenCL compatibility, which some photo editing software uses to speed certain things up.

 

[Steve Rimar]

If that's the case, then adding a discrete card is just a waste of electricity. Worse is that if you use that HD4670 you loose DX11/OpenCL compatibility, which some photo editing software uses to speed certain things up.

Thanks for the information.

If I do get a GPU which do you recommend that would be of value to me that do not cost an arm and leg?

 

[bonehead123]

FWIW, I have 2 rigs right now....

The gamer has the same MSI board as you list (only in the Z87 variant) with an I5-4690K (o'clkd to 4GHZ), a Radeon 290X, 16GB of ram, SSD + HDD and a 630w PSU. I have never used or tried to use the IGP, but I doubt it would hold a candle to the 290x.... it is very fast and handles everything I throw at it, games or otherwise....

The workstation has a Asus Maximus Hero VI-Z87 mobo, with a Xeon E3-1240 v3 and the same set up as above except for 2x SSD's in Raid and a 750w PSU....

And to answer at least one of your questions, both of these Haswell CPU's are socket 1150, so either one will work with the mobos you listed....

I have found the Xeon to be a good bit faster and more efficient for Photshop work with large image files, simply due to the additional cores & hyper-threading capability, which also allows it to easily do my photoshop work while running several other apps at the same time ie chrome, word/excel/database, netflix etc....

Yes, the I5 will do all of these things too, albeit just a tad slower and at slighly higher temps...

Also to do a little "future-proofing" I would recommend getting a GPU with at least 2GB of ram and the PCIe v3.0 interface....this will coincide with the specs on most Z87 & Z97 mobos and give you some really good performance, regardless of which CPU you choose....

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Thanks for the information.

If I do get a GPU which do you recommend that would be of value to me that do not cost an arm and leg?

I suppose a Geforce GTX750 would be a good fit. You get CUDA support, and (hybrid) HVEC/h265 decoding at a very good price. EVGA and Gigabyte makes some with DisplayPort for added future-proofing if you're interested in getting a new (4K, perhaps...? ) monitor down the road.

I wouldn't go lower then that for a discrete card. The added performance/features just isn't there when compared to newer IGPs.