Which motherboard to get for i7-4790k?

[Heis]

There are so many different motherboards to choose from, I'm not sure which one to get. I want one that is good quality and that will last me for a very long time. Is Asus still the go-to motherboard brand? I've heard Asus are the best at making motherboards but I don't know how accurate that statement is today.

Also, do Newegg reviews mean anything? It seems as though majority if not all of the popular motherboards has less than 60% in 5 stars.

Thanks in advance if anyone could help me

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm looking for a z97 model

 

[mikeymikec]

I have a Asus Z97 PRO GAMER board, which I picked partly because it has a reasonable number of power phases. No complaints.

 

[Leyawiin]

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H paired with mine and really like it a lot, but its getting harder to find and pricier. The UD3H would be just as good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128710&ignorebbr=1

One of my other Z97 motherboards is an ASUS Z97-A. Not terribly impressed with it. The LAN died after a year and I'm now using an Intel PCI-E card to connect to the internet. I've heard horror stories about ASUS RMA process so I just put up with it.

 

[Magic Carpet]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157483

This is a good, simple board. For the price, buy two and call it a day

Of course, if you need more options, expansion slots, etc, buy something else.

 

[lehtv]

A H81 board with crappy power delivery may not allow a i7-4790K to perform optimally in taxing heavily threaded tasks. As a minimum, I'd recommend a board with 4 CPU power phases, preferably heatsinked. E.g. Asrock H97M Pro4 / H97 Pro4, Gigabyte H97M-D3H, MSI B85-G43 Gaming.

Of course, if you want to overclock, a Z97 board is what you need. The stock turbo clock is pretty high at 4.2-4.4Ghz, so there's not a lot of OC headroom to begin with, thus I'd recommend no overclock at all or going all in with a higher end cooler and a beefy board (preferably 6+ phase). Asrock Z97 Extreme6 is a pretty good OC board for the price.

 

[master_shake_]

I bought the Asus z97-ws

It has All the features I need.
Including 4 way you configs.

Of course I only run 2 gpus and a raid card.

 

[Magic Carpet]

A H81 board with crappy power delivery may not allow a i7-4790K to perform optimally in taxing heavily threaded tasks

It will perform just fine, per Intel specs. Power delivery is also fine for stock operation. Now, I've seen the more expensive Z97 boards throttling under similar load conditions (they do it sometimes to win the power tests done by the reviewers).

 

[lehtv]

It will perform just fine, per Intel specs.

Far as I know, Intel specs don't say anything about performance on specific VRM implementations.

Power delivery is also fine for stock operation.

It absolutely depends on the motherboard. Some motherboards with few power phases of basic quality (typically found on H series chipset boards) will throttle the VRM with an i7 under heavy real world loads (such as video encoding).

 

[Ketchup]

Asus has been the best for years, but the older Asus boards I have had kept to the basics, even though they charged a lot more for their products.

But my Mark 1 is a different story. Great BIOS with more options than I need, and a very nice software package. They are getting harder to find though. But Asus has plenty of good boards out there.

I would suggest using tools like Newegg has on their search feature to narrow down the features you want, then picking from a brand you are comfortable with.

 

[GAO]

You can no longer find the best boards like Asus ROG. There are still some Asus Sabertooth Mark I and Pro gamers, but they are disappearing fast. Don't dawdle Similar with Gigabyte and MSI.

Try Amazon, Microcenter. IDK about newegg - people have had problems with their motherboards and return policy.

 

[guskline]

My Asus Maximus VII Hero has been stellar.