Upgrade Questions - CPU/Motherboard

[CourageousFish]

Hello people of Tom's Hardware!

I've come to resort to you fine blokes about a pondering question I have.

So about a year ago I built my first rig and officially joined 'PC Gaming' - It's been amazing! But now as I'm upgrading to a 4K setup I'm sure a little more juice under the hood of my rig will help out a bit which means adding another GPU for SLI, plus I also want to get a RAID 0 setup with a RAID Card instead of running software RAID. This all means that I need more expansion slots and currently my MOBO has reached maximum capacity.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97%20Anniversary/


So the solution to my problem is obviously getting a new motherboard, one with multiple PCI x16 slots, etc. The things holding me back from trying this are two primary things, money (obviously), and my CPU. Why my CPU you may ask? Well, you see, I have no intentions of getting a different CPU because I'm absolutely in love with my i5-4460. Why is this a problem your still asking? Well when I bought my CPU one of the key features was something that because of my little experience is taunting me. 'Anti-Theft'.. What does this mean? I made the assumption that once it is installed and registered one one motherboard it will permanently work with only that motherboard model? Am I wrong/right? Please enlighten me and don't bash me, I know it's probably a stupid question. But this is why I'm resorting to you guys.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117302&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-N82E16819117302&gclid=CI2B6tiM08oCFQ6QaQodEHIOcg&gclsrc=aw.ds



Also, what are some suggested motherboards? Some that are compatible with my current CPU and won't break the bank? Thanks!


Fun Tid-Bits and Inspiration for fueling my interest in this! Yes the reason for this is I want SLI 760's.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/07/07/crunching-the-numbers-can-dual-269-nvidia-gtx-760s-outperform-a-999-titan/#5b50e5b33f62

 

[Franklin_4]

hey listing your price range and what case youre using would be helpful. also, what psu do you have?

im not sure about the anti theft thing, but if you get a new mobo you wil likely have to drop 99$ on a new Microsoft OS.

also, why would you want to SLI 760s? they are a little dated now (soon to be, dare i say it, "antiquated"). ive heard a lot of issues with SLI'ing things, when you could get one single card that will offer the same or better results than 2x 760s for roughly the same price. (gtx 970)...

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Well, first of all, the anti-theft feature is only enabled if you register it with one of their anti-theft partners, then call them to nuke the data, if the system is stolen. It doesn't do anything on the hardware level, and nothing at all, unless you call them to tell them to do it.

Second, even SLI 760's won't handle 4K gaming very well (if at all). Remember, you're only working with 2GB of VRAM. Nowhere near enough for 4K.

But, as far as a mobo is concerned this should be a good one for SLI.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $144.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-30 23:05 EST-0500

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Yes... ONE GTX 970 could about double your GPU performance...
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+760
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+970&id=2954
These new models/Designs are great.
Sli is fun to play with and I don't want to discourage learning... and used Gtx760's are easy to come by... but it limits your total Memory use to one card... 2gb? and 4K will require more memory to perform good if this is your final goal.

 

[CourageousFish]

Well, first of all, the anti-theft feature is only enabled if you register it with one of their anti-theft partners, then call them to nuke the data, if the system is stolen. It doesn't do anything on the hardware level, and nothing at all, unless you call them to tell them to do it.

Second, even SLI 760's won't handle 4K gaming very well (if at all). Remember, you're only working with 2GB of VRAM. Nowhere near enough for 4K.

But, as far as a mobo is concerned this should be a good one for SLI.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $144.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-30 23:05 EST-0500

Thanks! This is what I needed. And just some more information, I was aware of the performance I'd expect with dual 760's which is why I'd bump it down to 1440p for most things, the 4K res would only have been used for some things, thanks!