Is Z97 a worthy investment for the future(after 4 years from now)???

[malakanthropos]

am planning on building/upgrading a pc and am exactly within my budget
am going with
-gpu Asus strix gtx 960 2gb
-cpu i5 4460 3.2ghz
-ram hyperx fury or savage 2x4gb 1600 mhz

Now about the mobo. i was initially wanted to go with a Gigabyte b85-hd3 since the cpu is locked
but am not planning to upgrade at least for the next 4 years so after that period b85 would be way to outdated but it still be good within the 4 years.

My question is should i go with a z97 which would be broadwell compatible and after a few years i can change only my cpu going with like an i7 4790k and gpu instead of building a new system, or z97 is gonna be outdated too after 4 years?

 

[alexoiu]

What's your current system?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes. Broadwell is releasing soon, which will still be LGA 1150 (Z97, H97) and current Haswell refresh chips should offer satisfactory performance for the next 4-5 years. Skylake is releasing in August, or thereabouts, and will be a new socket that is still only going likely to give you a similar timeframe. Another new architecture probably won't be seen for about two years after that, so either of those is what you have to choose from unless you want a very expensive 2011-3 X99 configuration that doesn't offer much more to the consumer platform than LGA 1150 and Haswell Refresh.

B85 will not support Broadwell, which might not be relevant anyhow.

 

[malakanthropos]

What's your current system?

intel q6600 2.4ghz OC @3 ghz
albatron 9600gt 512mb
4gb ram
mobo Ecs g31tm giga

its a 7 year old pc

 

[malakanthropos]

@darkbreeze I believe that when its time for my next upgrade a new socket might be out or so i think that i might stick with the B85 and later on upgrading to an i7 that might be on a lower price. What do you think?

 

[alexoiu]

I suggest waiting till the end of this year. Skylake, Broadwell will be out by then and Haswell prices would get a bit down. Black Friday or Christmas would help too.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I wouldn't run i7 on a B85 chipset simply due to the lack of excellent thermal qualities on most those boards. For overclocking a dual core like the Pentium G3258 some of the H81 and B85 boards are ok, but for a Devils Canyon chip with 4 cores plus threading, not so much. The Pentium is a much lower TDP than the HR i5 and i7 chips. I would be hesitant to want to use anything other than Z97 or H97 if you want full features and support for Broadwell chips going forward. I just wouldn't use them for anything other than Pentiums or i3's. That's your call, but I think it's a poor option when an H97 board that's pretty decent can be had for like ten bucks more than a B85 of any real quality.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Given your criteria, I'd do it like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($166.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($63.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $474.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-21 17:06 EDT-0400


(The G1 Gaming card beats out the Strix, minimally, and is a couple of bucks cheaper anyhow.)

 

[malakanthropos]

the problem is that all these in my country (Greece) cost about 650 dollars without shipping cause sales taxes are way to high and am trying not to spend much on mobo and things like using ssds, but focusing on gpu and cpu. This asrock looks pretty good but because there is no shop in my area that has is i have to buy it from somewhere else and shipping is high , in the same price i could go with asus h97 plus that i can buy from a local shop and i think it is a little bit better. but i dont think that a b85 chipset mobo would be that bad also i ll buy it straight from the store so i dont have to worry about shipping......but am gonna think about H97 since they are gonna be broadwell compatible.

And an answer to @alexoiu. My current pc is a bit dead my mobo's soundcard is probalby dead and my system is really slow sometimes
it really needs a change asap

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you can't get the H97 or Z97 boards at a reasonable price, then just go with the best B85 board you can afford according to what's listed in the B85 or H81 section here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html


Just click on the appropriate chipset (ie, B85, Z97) to take you to that page.

 

[malakanthropos]

thanks that was really a very helpful post. So both Gb B85 HD3 and Asus H97 plus considered to be tier 1 on their chipset list. I think i might give an extra for h97 for its features, quality and broadwell compatibility. I'll save some by sticking with my old case for now and actually a new case isnt a necessity

 

[Darkbreeze]

Certainly glad it was helpful. Meteorsraining would surely appreciate a comment on the tier list to that effect I'm sure. He did a hell of a lot of work to provide that for us all.

Since the case could be changed at any later date, that's probably a good plan. If I can help in any other way, just let me know.