Motherboard minefield (for a i7 4790)

[verism]

It's that time again when I must build a new rig as my old one slowly fails.

I've settled on basing it round an i7 4790 and its primary purpose will be design and development. Typically, I'll have Chrome and/or Firefox with 10+ tabs in each, a text editor, Illustrator (occasionally Photoshop as well) and some music playing and god knows what else running.

Pretty certain I'll be getting 16G RAM and there's no way I'm interested in OCing anything. Given what I've read about USB 2/3 compatibility issues, some of both would be preferable. Not even close to deciding which GFX card will be going in.

So what would you guys recommend?

 

[spooky2th]

This is a pretty good board. Have made a few builds with it. Has M.2 and sata express update options too. IMO, would be a good fit for an i7-4790. You will need a pro version of windows for more than 16GB of memory. A GTX 970 or 980 would be great choices for a GPU.

GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128710

For a little more, you can get the Black version of the MB.

 

[verism]

This is a pretty good board. Have made a few builds with it. Has M.2 and sata express update options too. IMO, would be a good fit for an i7-4790. You will need a pro version of windows for more than 16GB of memory. A GTX 970 or 980 would be great choices for a GPU.

GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD3H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128710

For a little more, you can get the Black version of the MB.

Looks good - thank you.
The black one will go with my new coat.

From what I can remember I've had relatively decent experiences with Gigabyte.
Regarding the M.2 and SATA options ... are these optional extras on slightly different models? Sorry but I'm not familiar with either feature. Although, a quick search on M.2 proved pretty interesting.

Edit: Appreciate the GPU recommendations too ... I'll have a look.

 

[spooky2th]

The M.2 and sata express options are on the new Z97 boards. But not all Z97 boards have those options. Most do though. They are boot and/or storage devices that are faster than regular SSD's. Now there are the newer Z170 boards that have just recently come out. It is looking the same with the M.2 and sata express options. Most have those options too. From the testing, there is not much difference with speed and etc of the i7-4790 and the new i7-6700. The new Z170 boards do have a slight advantage with OC'ing though.