ASUS Sabertooth Z97 MARK 2 or MARK S

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Still trying to decide on an SLI-compatible motherboard. I've been looking at the ASUS Sabertooth Z97 MARK S, which looks fantastic and has the best ratings out there, but costs twice as much as the MARK 2 version. A white PCB would be nice, especially with a white case, but why such a high price premium just for appearance and a few extra features? The Mark 2 has excellent ratings on Amazon, but not quite so great on newegg. The MARK 2 from what I understand maintains the same performance and case fan connectivity features that the higher versions have at a much lower cost. The cheaper board still has the traditional black design, but the graphics cards, RAM, and CPU cooler will pretty much cover it up anyway. So will the Sabertooth Z97 MARK 2 be enough? I want to eventually get another GTX 970 for SLI, but in the meantime, run an old GTX 660 as a PhysX card. I would also try for decent overclocks on the CPU when I upgrade the CPU cooler, so overclocking performance is also important.

 

[guanyu210379]

To tell you the truth, the mobo armor from Mark 1 and Mark S does not really matter, beside only due to it's look.
Mark 2 is already more than enough for OC'ed rig.
How good you can OC an i5/i7 -k proc is also depending on luck, how good is the proc you have. Some proc can go high while some go really low.
Just get good RAM, OCable mobo, good cooling solution and good PSU, you are good to go.
You do not really need the mobo armor on Mark 1 and Mark S unless you need it's look.

 

[i7Baby]

Mark 1 and Mark 2 are both in tier 1B of http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383187/motherboard-tier-list-z97-chipset.html

Get the best mobo you can afford.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

OK, that's kind of what I've been thinking. So if the thermal armor makes very little difference in cooling, then it's not needed. So it looks like I'll upgrade to the Sabertooth MARK 2 just before Windows 10 is released. My CPU and RAM will remain the same, but I'll get a better CPU cooler. My current micro ATX setup is due to a smaller case I had back then. I'll also get the EVGA G2 750w PSU since I heard great things about it. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[guanyu210379]

Z97M-pro4 can already be used for OC and not a bad one too.
You will see no performance increase from mobo upgrade.
I see no real need to change the mobo.

XFX TS 550W is also not bad and already enough your rig (a single GTX970), I see no real reason to replace it too.

If the cooling solution is bad, I would simply replace the case and/or the proc cooler.

Why would you replace your components anyway? boredom? or do you really mean it with the SLI stuff?

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

My current motherboard cannot run SLI and that's why I would like to upgrade the motherboard so that I can run dual GPUs.

 

[guanyu210379]

if you want SLI, then yes.
750W good quality PSU, bigger case, new mobo with SLI support and a better proc cooler if you want.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

I have already upgraded to a full tower ATX case last month. I took the old case, which was an HP case, and used it to rebuild an older HP desktop. So yes, I want to take advantage of the room I have in my new case. How does this look? Is the CPU cooler decent?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BL 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK2 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($162.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $322.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-27 10:54 EDT-0400

 

[guanyu210379]

Performance-wise, the cooler is quite good.
But, as usual. Cooler with 2 fans is a bit huge.
It could have problems with RAM heat-spreader if the heat-spreader is tall. This issue is also depending on the mobo layout.
Give it a try first

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

OK, thanks. I want to eventually get a second GTX 970 for SLI to run games like GTA V and Batman Arkham Knight on ultra @ 60 fps, but I'll wait for the prices of those cards to come down. I want to at least set up the PC to run my spare GTX 660 as a PhysX card for games like the Batman Arkham series and the Borderlands games.