Trying to decide if I should upgrade from Z77 to Z97 and what board to go with it. Right now I have Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe. trying to decide between MSI Z97 MPOWER Max AC http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z97_MPO....html#overview Asus Z97-WS http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97WS/ Asus Z97-DELUXE http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97DELUXE/ AsRock Z97 Extreme9 http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97 Extreme9/ The WiFi and bluetooth are not a big deal What I primary would like is 2 internal USB 3.0 headers at least one SATA express at least one M.2 socket Dual LAN would be nice and eSATA. any advice would be appreciated mostly narrowed it down to Asus Z97-Deluxe and Asrock Extreme 9...
For me it would be between the Asus Deluxe and the MSI board. That is at a glance, I'm too sleepy to read all the bumf. Here is a few reviews I found. Happy reading. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7966/msi-z97-mpower-max-ac-review-overclocking-air-water-heatsink-260 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7965/asus-z97-deluxe-nfc-wlc-review-thunderbolt-2 http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/zardon/asrock-x79-extreme9-motherboard-review/
Im going with the Asus Z97-Deluxe in 10 days or so, I'm looking forward to watching this tomorrow when I get a few minutes. Unless your going 4 way sli, or some thing I think this is the board to go for. Personally I like the idea I am going with Asus top flight board, it is "MEANT" to have every thing fully thought through. The BIOS and over clocking aspects are meant to be easy and top flight. One thing I think I read is that the board does not have mosfets with water block fittings already on it or some thing. I already have solid sound card to migrate, I will be using a network cable to connect to the internet, Only other card I am interested in would be -Asus MAXIMUS VII -MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC I need to find out if 1600mhz vengeance memory or what ever it is can come out of my p8z68 v pro and pop into the Asus Z97-Deluxe. Its a really nice looking board as well.
I wish Asus would find a colour scheme and stick to it. Blue/gold/brass. Getting gpus that match is a pain. At least the rog boards have always been the same red + black. I wonder when the maximus extreme is out. When z77 launched, it was the first rog board out. I hope they're cooking up something monumental. Back ot; I'd go with the deluxe. The ws boasts some rock solid stability and a silly long warranty, but if you're upgrading frequently, that might not be worth the extra money. (assuming it does cost more. Can't find and pricing on the WS)
If you're upgrading to 97 then atleast wait for broadwell. At the moment there is nothing significantly better about the refresh v.s the norm. If you insist on upgrading you cant go wrong with asus asrock - never heard anything good about them msi - dropped the ball on a lot of things lately. not to sure if i'd be jumping on anything they sell
I had absolutely no problems with multiple boards i had from ASRock (one Z68, one H77 and right now there is a Z97 Extreme6 in my server). They are better in quality than Gigabyte and MSI, maybe a bit worse in some areas than ASUS, but on other side you will see some unusual features on ASRock - like Ultra M.2 this time, which is a M.2 in x4 mode connected directly to the CPU, which gives it a theoretical 3.2GB/s maximum interface speed, compared to the usual 1GB/s on other boards.
when reading z97 deluxe specs it seems that you can't use both sata express and m.2 at same time... the deluxe does not have a PLX chip... I do like asus UEFI better and their software is much better compared to competition. but i also like the fact that asrock has m.2, ultra m.2, mini-pcie, and two sata express... and more pci-e 16x expansion slots, just in case i need a card that will require more then pci-e 1x.
