Pick Best Motherboard (From This List) For This Setup

[GreyPhantom]

Will mostly be using it for Gaming.
It's quite a long list, sorry, please take into consideration the prices, thank you!!

List link: (motherboards found under "Third Party Boards")
http://pcandparts.com/price.htm

Setup:
CPU: intel i5-4690k (planning to overclock)
GPU: gigabyte g1 gtx 970 (might overclock, planning on sli-ing in the future)
PSU: Evga Supernova 750w(or 850w) 80+ gold
Memory: 8gb ram (or 16gb)

Bonus Questions:
1-Would you recommend an 850w PSU instead?
2-Would recommend 16 gb of Ram instead?

 

[sincreator]

The MSI Z97 MPOWER OverClocking Board on the list seems to have everything you will need at a decent price. It has a solid reputation for stability and overclocking abilities.

Honestly there were a few others I would of suggested, but they all seemed to be out of stock, old, or too expensive.

PS: 750w is enough. The system in my signature is running off a 750w PSU and my video cards use far more power than SLI 970's would. That and I have everything overclocked, GPUs and my CPU. I also run 7 hard drives, and 7 120mm fans. I think 750w will be fine as long as it is a high quality unit.

 

[GreyPhantom]

The MSI Z97 MPOWER OverClocking Board on the list seems to have everything you will need at a decent price. It has a solid reputation for stability and overclocking abilities.

Honestly there were a few others I would of suggested, but they all seemed to be out of stock, old, or too expensive.

PS: 750w is enough. The system in my signature is running off a 750w PSU and my video cards use far more power than SLI 970's would. That and I have everything overclocked, GPUs and my CPU. I also run 7 hard drives, and 7 120mm fans. I think 750w will be fine as long as it is a high quality unit.

Cool!! Thanks so much!!!
Any idea how an MSI MPOWER would favor against an MSI Gaming 3,5, or 7?

Nice setup there! i had no idea one could overclock that i5 to a whopping 4.6ghz!! nice...
And thanks for answering the bonus question, finding the PSU will be a struggle but hopefully possible, as you've seen very limited choices here, had to order the CPU and GPU from the US via a friend... now i'm blabbering...
Anyway Thank you!

 

[Tradesman1]

PSU is fine, of the mobos, I'd go the Hero, looked long and hard before selecting it for my Z97 build and would change it

 

[GreyPhantom]

PSU is fine, of the mobos, I'd go the Hero, looked long and hard before selecting it for my Z97 build and would change it

Thanks!!

I'm a total fool for mobos... how does it favor against an MSI MPower? or MSI Gamin 3,5, or 7?

 

[Tradesman1]

The hero was the best selling and bast rated Z87 mobo and the Z97 Hero has picked up where it left off, I have both (in sig) and the Z97 model is much improved, cooler, better OC, handles DRAM better, and improved BIOS. MSI mobos I won't touch due to their poor QC, I see more problems w/ their mobos than any 2 other manufacturers combined

 

[sincreator]

The hero was the best selling and bast rated Z87 mobo and the Z97 Hero has picked up where it left off, I have both (in sig) and the Z97 model is much improved, cooler, better OC, handles DRAM better, and improved BIOS. MSI mobos I won't touch due to their poor QC, I see more problems w/ their mobos than any 2 other manufacturers combined

I really wish you would elaborate why you actually hate MSI so much. It seems you are the only one that CONSTANTLY recommends against them. You have even been called out on it by other moderators in here, and wouldn't even answer them.... This seems to be based off your own personal experience from what I can tell. I just find it very strange that pretty much every site has given nothing but great reviews for MSI's boards recently. Guru3d, Anandtech, and Tom's even recommend them for their best motherboards articles monthly.

Maybe you can explain why you are on a mission against MSI with some proof to back it up?

 

[Tradesman1]

I used to use MSI mobos a lot, and for a long time they were right there in the top 3 fighting GB for the number 2 spot back in the 775 days, then came the 1156 and 1366 and their board quality started dipping. ASRock started rising, by becoming independent and putting out good quality at reasonable prices, they caught and passed MSI to become the third best selling. So it's just not me, MSI has continually been dropping ever since where ASRock and GB continue to pull away, and of course Asus continues it's powerhouse ways. After the 1155 P67 re-release and the debacle with MSI and the DRAM slots, for my business anyway I dropped them from what I build with and limited it to Asus, the Rock and GB. MSI isn't on my list, nor is BioStar, ECS, EVGA or Foxconn.... In my business, the profit margin on building systems is extremely thin and using lower quality or mobos that have a high likely hood of problems is no-brainer to stay away from. Also, as I mentioned, I get more mobo related problem calls on MSI mobos than any 2 other manufacturers put together...this is something I could understand if it was often the same thing, but with MSI mobos it's all over the place, SATA ports, USB ports, DRAM slots, PCI-E slots, VRMs going, etc. It tends to point to poor QC. As far as reviews, when product are sent out for review, with many manufacturers they send out hand tested units....and let's be honest how often do you see a really bad review, if a review trashes a product the publication or site that publishes it faces loss of revenue from advertising dollars and the loss of future products to review. MSI is currently competing based on lower prices to comparable products. But investing in QC, therefore I can't recommend them, nor do any of the many builders, consultants and IT folks I network with

 

[sincreator]

Where you say that you had extremely thin profit margins, could it be that you were using more budget boards because of this? Or are you saying it's all of them, low end to high end? A couple months ago I had a similar discussion with another moderator/writer on this site, and he even had a spreadsheet that he provided to me showing that MSI had the most issues. The thing was though that we were able to confirm that it was MSI's budget boards that were the problem. Their higher end stuff didn't have near the same issues and was in line with everyone else. I believe it was an RMA report from Newegg. Something along those lines anyway, and I really wish whoever that was that posted it was reading here now so he could chime in as well. Either way I was just curious because my whole family has been running higher end MSI motherboards and video cards for years now without any issues at all. I have had major issues in the past with Asus, their warranty, and shipping policies. I was always an Asus guy before I got messed around with a $350 motherboard that wasn't even out of warranty. I will still recommend Asus boards though, if the reviews, prices, and features line up. If there is a cheaper board that gets great reviews and offers the same features I will recommend that as well.

Either way I do appreciate your response, and hope that you can probably shed a little more light by answering the couple questions I asked. Thanks.

 

[Tradesman1]

No, I'm saying I don't charge much to do a build, I charge $100 and stand behind my builds which is why I only use good, high quality products that I trust. If there is a problem or a failure, I'll even provide a loaner rig if needed and take care of the RMA if needed, etc....and about all it takes is one serious problem and that $100 is basically gone and I'm out of pocket. The bulk of my systems business is consulting, training, repairs, upgrades, networking (design/install/ extending), also do test and eval work. I've had issues with mobos here and there across the spectrum of manufacturers and board levels, Asus, the Rock and GB have been the best by far the last few years which is why I only chose to build on them... I've worked with good and great mobos from elsewhere, but of say a particular model I see one that is great, runs great, etc - but have come across more of the same model and run into a variety of different problems. As long as MSI was brougth up, if you remember the reviews on the GD45 and GD65 were all glowing, greatest thing since sliced bread, and I ran into some good ones, but about 3 to 1 I had calls on bad ones, USB port problems, PCI-E slots, SATA ports, DOAs and lets not forget all the initial ones that they shipped with Killer NIC problem where they had to issue an immediate BIOS update to resolve. With the great reviews I gave thought to picking up one of each to test and play with, which was bashed when word of th ethernet problem surfaced. Those came out selling like hotcakes then started slcking off as other problems appeared...it wasn't the layout the design or faulty parts, it was poor quality control

 

[PIEapple]

PSU is fine, of the mobos, I'd go the Hero, looked long and hard before selecting it for my Z97 build and would change it

Thanks!!

I'm a total fool for mobos... how does it favor against an MSI MPower? or MSI Gamin 3,5, or 7?

If you have enough budget ,I would pick MPower in those board ,have best overclock performance on that board.
Motherboard tier list: Z97 chipset

About QC...I would say MSI would be fine,just the same guy's bias.
like Oscar @MeteorsRaining said:
MSI currently has no such issues, a couple of their boards, from AMD platform, were (rightly) critized of having overheating VRMs and DOA memory slots. Currently MSI has the same RMA rate as Asus, and they infact use high quality components, such rumours are biased and one should not be put off by it. MSI is as good as other brands, if not better.

 

[Tradesman1]

If one want's to call it Bias, that's fine, as had been said - I myself only use and recommend 3 brands of mobos, I'n not one strictly sticking to a single brand as many do, and as explained it has come from a number of reasons and long experience, I started in systems back in 80 and have been in systems ever since. Here on the forums I have my fair share of Best Answers in the mobo area as well as other though I concentrate on the memory area as I find it the least understood. When people have problems, I try to help and often do regardless of what brand mobo, or DRAM (I tend to favor GSkill, though use multiple others and also recommend others (including some brands I've used and been happy with that others don't really even know), or GPU or whatever. I get the opportunity to work with numerous brands and models of hardware year in and year out