Motherboard shortlist for new PC build

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Eric642

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Jun 18, 2014
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Hi, I'm looking at Z97 boards for an image editing / rendering PC build.
I've listed those with a DVI socket for the monitor, and more than one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, for upgrading in the future with GPUs (possibly for using OpenCL). I've trimmed off some of the higher priced boards.
I'm left with quite a few boards, please can you help with eliminating some of them from the list?
I'm intending to use the i7 4790k cpu, 32gb RAM, a large CPU cooler, on-chip / on-board graphics (for now), Windows 8.1 64bit.
Most of the work it will do is memory / CPU based, with little need for HDD speed or great graphics.
Looking to overclock in the future.
Won't be used for gaming, and sound is not important. Not sure if the LAN type is important for image uploads, webpage loading speed etc. The PC case has 3xUSB 2.0, 1xUSB 3.0, and 2 fans.

Would any of these be a poor choice?

Msi:
Z97 Gaming 5
Z97-GD65 GAMING
Z97-G45 GAMING
Z97S SLI PLUS
Z97-G55 SLI

Asus:
Z97-PRO
Z97-A
MAXIMUS VII HERO
MAXIMUS VII RANGER

AsRock:
Z97 Extreme6
Z97 Extreme4
Fatal1ty Z97X Killer

Gigabyte:
GA-Z97X-SOC Force
GA-Z97X-SOC
GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK
GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
GA-Z97X-Gaming 7
GA-Z97X-Gaming 5
GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
GA-Z97X-UD5H
GA-Z97X-UD3H
GA-Z97X-SLI

Many Thanks
 
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6R1M01R3
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Eric642

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Jun 18, 2014
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Thank you for the suggestions, I've been reading more about the features of those boards and some others. Interesting that Asus and Msi are mentioned, is there a reason why these brands are considered better, or is it personal taste?
I was looking at overclocking in the future, I think the Z97-A doesn't allow for memory OC except the XMP setting, would this make much of a difference to the memory performance?

Not sure how important these features are when choosing a board, some i don't know if it would make any difference, (my last board was bought years ago and it has no OC)
How important are these in your opinion:
- intel, realtek, or Killer LAN
- Custom memory OC settings
- De-bug display
- 2 or 3 PCIe3.0 x16 slots for GPUs, as the slots would be at 8,8 or 8,4,4 not sure it would add much having 3 PCIe x16 sockets
- Re-set button on the board (none on case, but could maybe put one in if there is a header)
- Bundled software
- Capacitors, eg: 10K Black Metallic, Nichicon 12K Platinum, etc
- ESD protection
- Gold plated connections
- VRM / phases / true phases (how do you find out about these if not listed in specs?)

How do you know which boards are going to have a decent Bios for overclocking?
I see information listed but I'm not sure how it relates to how good the bios is, such as:
64Mb UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.7, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI5.0a, CrashFree BIOS, GPU.DIMM Post,DualBIOS

Also, I'd like room for a large CPU cooler, do you know of any boards that would accommodate it better than others?

Another consideration is color / design (case has a window and is blue and white) maybe lighting could disguise red or gold heat sinks.

Many thanks.
 
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6R1M01R3

6R1M01R3

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May 25, 2014
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Sadly most gaming motherboards have red, yellow, green or orange accents.
For future overclocking I'd recommend the Asus Maximus VII Hero (Dark gray PCB, discrete red accents), MSI Z97 Gaming 7 (Black PCB, discrete red accents) MSI Z97 MPower (Black PCB, yellow accents).
The three use isolation for the realtek 1150 audio codec, the brand coloring of the three will be covered by the GPU and cooler heatsink. The MSI uses the Qualcomm Killer NIC while the Asus uses an Intel NIC. The three support custom memory profiles, The MSI uses dual BIOS in case one gets corrupted you have backup, but soldered to the PCB, the Asus has a single BIOS but in a socked, so can be replaced.
 
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