[DIY] Which mobo to get?

[messtin]

I am about to get a mobo later next week at sls, looking for a gaming/OC/editing oriented board. After much research, I've zone down to these few options. I will be pairing with a i7 4790K. Looking to drop no more than $750 on the CPU+MOBO bundle..

1) Asus Maximus VII Ranger
2) MSI Gaming 5
3) Asus Z97 Pro gamer

What I know is that the ROG boards are screaming with quality, sturdy PCB, ton of features which I won't even be using. However I saw online forums complain about audio popping issues in these ROG boards, which is a huge letdown. (imagine having popping sounds every time you play and have no proper fix for it) But their UEFI looks top notch after initial impressions from various pictorial reviews.

I know nothing much about MSI and gigabyte boards, on first sight, they look decent. If any MSI gaming board users care to comment on their quality, it would greatly help in my purchase.

Which boards do you, hwz bros recommend me getting? Thank you very much for your input.. greatly appreciated!

 

[muddle]

Do you need 2/4/6 usb 3 rear ports? Do you need 1/2/3/4 x16 pcie slots? Do you need 6/8/10 sata 3 ports? Do you need one touch oc button? Do you need dualbios? Do you need esata? Do you need dual lan nic? Do you need alc 898/892/1150 audio?

 

[messtin]

Wow so many ports that I won't be using. I guess I overkilled the board which I am about to get. Thanks muddle for aligning my purchase decision.

I would like to do some OCing for fun, nothing extreme. As for usb ports, I be using 4 to 6 i guess, 2 for keyboard and mouse, some others to plug in external harddisks, thumbdrives, headsets.. thats about it.

1 SSD for windows OS and 1TB or storage. would want to include more internal 1TBs in the future. Not getting a soundcard and would be going SLI in the future..

 

[Beepok]

Do you need 2/4/6 usb 3 rear ports? Do you need 1/2/3/4 x16 pcie slots? Do you need 6/8/10 sata 3 ports? Do you need one touch oc button? Do you need dualbios? Do you need esata? Do you need dual lan nic? Do you need alc 898/892/1150 audio?

Can you recommend the cheapest board that can support 3x crossfire? Aka a board with 3 x16 pcie. Thanks! Sorry for hijack TS

 

[muddle]

Can you recommend the cheapest board that can support 3x crossfire? Aka a board with 3 x16 pcie. Thanks! Sorry for hijack TS

Any motherboard with x8/x4/x4 will do. Like msi gaming 5 or gigabyte ud5h.

 

[Beepok]

Any motherboard with x8/x4/x4 will do. Like msi gaming 5 or gigabyte ud5h.

Hmmmm...seems like only $300+ mobos support 3 way CF

 

[muddle]

Wow so many ports that I won't be using. I guess I overkilled the board which I am about to get. Thanks muddle for aligning my purchase decision.

I would like to do some OCing for fun, nothing extreme. As for usb ports, I be using 4 to 6 i guess, 2 for keyboard and mouse, some others to plug in external harddisks, thumbdrives, headsets.. thats about it.

1 SSD for windows OS and 1TB or storage. would want to include more internal 1TBs in the future. Not getting a soundcard and would be going SLI in the future..

Lower tier boards like asus z97a, msi sli krait, gb z97x ud3h and asrock extreme 4 already support sli.

 

[muddle]

Hmmmm...seems like only $300+ mobos support 3 way CF

Gigabyte z97x gaming 7 is below $300