Alternative to ASRock Extreme4?

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Aurora-Storm

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After research I've come to the troubling conclusion that ASRock Extreme4 would be a great mid-end board for my needs - if it worked consistently.

I've heard reports all over reddit and newegg that this thing has major problems surviving past a few weeks or problems dying after the PSU is switched off/on.

If someone has a wonderfully working Extreme4 they haven't had any problems with, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise: I'm not looking to OC or SLI. I need a USB 2.0, 16x and 1x PCIe, DVI-D, 2 8x RAM slots, and at least 4 SATA. RAID capable is good, and Displayport is good. Aesthetically, I'd also like something blue, but at least not red. Any suggestions or comments?

Oh, and I'll be using i7 4790k and Gigabyte G1 GTX 970.
 
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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if you are using a 970 then you don't really need the video connections on the motherboard. the ones on the mobo are for using the integrated gpu which you are not. don't limit yourself based on video connections you won't be using :D

partpicker let's you filter for color. i chose lga 1150/ atx / 2 way sli / black-blue for filters and it gives me about 7 hits. 2 are msi boards and the rest are variations of the same mobo you're already looking at.

here are the 2 msi ones to compare with http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/msi-motherboard-z97g55sli%2Cmsi-motherboard-z97ssliplus/

edit: i missed where you said you would not be using oc or sli. thought it said you were :) change that filter and there are about a dozen hits. you may as well get the z97 board since you have the unlocked cpu. no reason not to take advantage of the basic oc available through the mobo software if you have the cpu for it. nothing fancy but they have it so the mobo will pick the settings for you and they will be VERY safe ones. it's free performance since you have the cpu for it.

i don't know of any reason to avoid the asrock mobo's myself. they are good boards with good features and will serve your needs very well.
 
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sirstinky

sirstinky

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Well here's the thing. NO board is going to be completely trouble-free unless you buy something like s server-grade board. But again, even those fail, so realistically, you're going to have less-than perfect reviews from some. If you look, there are more good than bad (by a big margin), so you can rest assured that the majority of people who buy it are satisfied. ASRock's products are really good. I've used several of them for builds and they've all be perfect, no issues over years of use. I like MSI's boards a lot. Since you aren't going to be OC'ing or doing any kind of fancy GPU arrangements, you could go with a lesser board, something like a B85 or H79 chipset that has about all of the same features as the Extreme4, sans overclocking ability. Gigabyte also makes good economy boards.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-Motherboards-B85M-GAMING/dp/B00KXP4ZPS/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1422119488&sr=1-4&keywords=B85

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Micro-Motherboard-B85M-G-R2-0/dp/B00KO6F8YI/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1422119559&sr=1-6&keywords=B85

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-1150-Intel-6Gbps-Micro/dp/B00D1A5OR0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1422119557&sr=1-1&keywords=B85

 
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gshoger

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I have had a ASRock Z87 Extreme4 for over a year and it's worked perfectly. I have an i5-4670K and gtx770, both overclocked. I accidentally broke off one of the slider clips from the PCIE 3.0 slots, but that was my fault.
 
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Aurora-Storm

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Have you needed to turn the PSU off and on? (If you haven't, don't test it.)

From my research, it's the perfect board for me, but so many of the things have been faulty. This is my first build and I don't want to throw away nearly 200 bucks and a bunch of effort by purchasing a board so many people have had major issues with.

I was beginning to look at either the Asus Z97-A or the Asus Z97-Pro, but I've been recommended the MSI Z97 Krait several times. Problem is it doesn't have DisplayPort... wanted to keep my options open. This monitor is getting old.
 
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sirstinky

sirstinky

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The Asus Z97-A is a good board. Make sure to get the updated one and not the older one. I built a gaming PC with that board for a friend, and so far it's been good to go after 2 years. It has good features. I don't think the "Pro" would be necessary. The only issue I've found with it is overclocking, but that's irrelevant to you since you won't be doing that. I'd save the $$ and get the non overclockable boards. They are just as good for your application.
 
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gshoger

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I've never turned the PSU off and on for no reason, but I recently changed the air cooler on my CPU and had to basically disassemble most components, reassemble, and I turned the PSU off and on several times. Also, I recently updated the BIOS to the latest version (didn't really have to, as nothing was wrong, but I wanted to anyway).
 
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