Which mobo should i buy? z97 Hero VII or MSI Gaming 7

[Urosq]

Well, i am stunned. I just cant figure out which mobo to buy. So i thought maybe someone can clear it up for me.

Mobo in question are : MSI Z97 Gaming 5, Gaming 7 and Asus Maximus hero vii

I like the looks of all of them, and the difference is 10 $ between each one so not much to make a difference during buying.

I will be putting an i7 4790k on them, and it will be paired with a MSI GTX 970 and 8 gigs of ram. Using my system for gaming and creating games and videos. I have an fx 8350 now and it does do well, but in some games it just performs bad. example skyrim and Rome 2, and those are one of my favourites.

I will be overclocking the cpu, so that is a factor. I already have an Hyper 212 air cooler on my fx, gonna use it on i7 and later replace it with liquid cooling in a couple of months to push even further.

So to sum it up: I like how all of them look, red/black desing is good. Gaming and video processing and overclocking is important.

I also saw some benchmarks on Overclock3d and it seems that gaming 5 beats the hero in fps and a bunch of tests. Not by much but still a couple of frames can make a difference between smooth 60 fps and a little choppines.

One extra question: I will get more fps in games with Any above mobo and i7 4790k against my current asus m5a97 r2.0 and fx 8350?

Any help is appreciated and i thank you in advance.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Have you looked at the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5? It is about as good as the MSI Gaming 7. Price may rule it out where you are though.

The games you find challenging use comparatively few cores/modules. The four cores in the 4790K are much more powerful than the four modules in the 8350, so you will see a significant improvement there. When looking at reviews consider the overclock as well. A good overclock may get back those lost frames, and more besides. I would consider getting 2400Mhz memory and overclocking that as well. That will get you a few more FPS.

 

[Urosq]

Have you looked at the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5? It is about as good as the MSI Gaming 7. Price may rule it out where you are though.

The games you find challenging use comparatively few cores/modules. The four cores in the 4790K are much more powerful than the four modules in the 8350, so you will see a significant improvement there. When looking at reviews consider the overclock as well. A good overclock may get back those lost frames, and more besides. I would consider getting 2400Mhz memory and overclocking that as well. That will get you a few more FPS.

Well overclocking my FX is impossible cause my mobo is not so good. But i will overclock 4790k to the limits.

Today i saw an Asus Maximus VII Formula going for 10 euroes more then Maximus VII Hero. That armor, it just looks good. So new question.

Formula or MSI Gaming 5? Difference between them is 50 euroes, which in my opinion is not much considering i will need to spend another 300+ for the processor so at the end price of 500 euroes, 50 does not mean so much.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The Formula has 8 digital power phases and two RAM phases, the Gaming 5 has 4 hybrid power phases with doublers and one RAM phase, The Formula has better chokes, capacitors, and better MOSFETs. From an overclocking perspective, the Formula is far better. Only you can tell if it had layout issues or whether the feature set matches your needs.

Is there something else, like a GPU upgrade, that could use those 50 euros?

 

[Urosq]

Well it turns out the site that is selling the mobo's just put the price there for the Formula and everything but they do not have it in stock. God damn it i am furious. Anyway formula is out of the game.

Now it is again between gaming 7 and VII Hero. Well my GPU is GTX 970, so 50 euroes does not contribute to replacing it. Considering i will only replace it for at least a 980 ti and here in my country 980 ti is around 400 euroes more expensive.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The Hero is almost the same as the Formula for overclocking, except that the chokes are a little lighter. The Gaming 7 is very similar to the Gaming 5 for overclocking except that it has 6 doubled power phases instead of 4, which is a significant improvement for Haswell i7 overclocking. I would use either of these board for overclocking (but not the Gaming 5), so look to features and the aesthetic for your decision.

 

[Urosq]

Well i guess i cant go wrong with ROG. Always wanted to have one of those.

I just hope that with i7 4790k i will be at peace for the next 3-4 years. Gonna have to replace my GPU when Pascal comes but still.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

It's a beast, overclocks well and has a higher Turbo Boost than the 6700K, so it will hole out well. Ivy's and Sandy's are still decent.