First Build i7 4790k/i5 4690k - Need help picking out MOBO and memory

Spending $800 is easy and you probably don't need to spend that much. How much would you like to acually spend?

Spending $800 is easy and you probably don't need to spend that much. How much would you like to acually spend?

You really don't NEED an i7 but considering that you are still coming in under budget if you get the i7 4790k I would say upgrade to that. Get yourself the 2133Mhz Ram listed because even though it is overkill the cas latency is super low and with the i7 and it and the Z97 A you will be able to learn to do some serious overclocking in the future

The future of the 2011-3 socket to me is fairly predictable due to the success of the original 2011 socket. This is the enthusiast chipset, the general understanding is that when you pay for the enthusiast chipset it will come with a few quirks, but your hardware is going to have a longer life cycle than the consumer hardware. The performance is undeniably better as well.

1150 is being replaced, and the gains are minimal. The 1151 socket is going to accept DDR4 or DDR3L dimms. A new ddr3 dimm instead of all the dimms that we all already have? No thanks. This reminds me of the hybrid 775 boards that could take either 2 dimms of ddr3 or 2 dimms of ddr2 but not both. I don't think 1151 is going to be a socket that sticks around and I see a lot of people staying with and recommending 1150 until it becomes cost prohibitive. This makes the more budget option a compelling choice. If you really want to get something that will do the work it is supposed to for some time to come then all you need is the 1150 socket. If you have the money and you're feeling frisky there are worse buys than the 2011-3 socket, it's a powerhouse.

I would toss the old ram into an old machine someday but leave it out of your new build. With 1150 2xGB 1866Mhz Cas Latency 9 dimms are all you need, feeling frisky score the 2133Mhz with a cas of 9 or 10.

With 2011 you are just going to get 4x4GB because 16GB is still enough and DDR4 is going to get much cheaper later. You want 4 dimms to take advantage of quad channel, especially if you SLI those 660's.

I'm actually going to change my recommended parts for the 2011-3. The parts I listed above are specific to a custom build I am working on. I wanted solid black and intended to fabricate my own heatsinks thus the value ram. For the average build I would say go with something more like these RAM modules:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gskill-memory-f42400c14q16grk%2Cgskill-memory-f42400c15q16grr/

The board I chose isn't the best board either, again I chose it because it is solid black. These boards are all good options depending on your budget:
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/asus-motherboard-x99deluxe%2Casus-motherboard-x99pro%2Cmsi-motherboard-x99sgaming7%2Cmsi-motherboard-x99ssliplus/

There really isn't much of a point in buying expensive motherboards if you don't know the differences. In general, they add a lot of features and a few more connectors (sata/usb), which you won't need or even have use for if you don't know them. Performance wise, you'll maybe see a 2-5% difference between the cheapest and the most expensive board existing.
X99: Great platform, but not cost efficient. It's a socket catering to enthusiasts who don't care about the price or people who use the pc for their work, such as video production or software fine-testing. In games, there won't be a benefit going from an I5 4590 to an I7 5960x.
DDR3 vs DDR4: They're equal in performance. An I7 5820k locked to 4 cores will perform within 1% average compared to an I7 4770 (closest in clockspeed).

As for overclocking on motherboards, between a 4 vrm phase board such as the asus z97-a or gigabyte z97x-sli and a 8-12 phase board such as the asus vii formula or gigabte ud5h, you most likely won't see a noticeable difference in overclocking potential. My I7 manages 5.0ghz application stable on a ud5h, with the z97x-sli crashing when applying any sort of work. Until 4.9ghz, they overclock exactly the same.

Therefore, as you mentioned that your primary focus is gaming (and "student work"), that looks aren't important to you and you probably would like to keep some money, my suggestion is the following:

-I5 4690k. As of right now, you haven't mentioned an application that would see benefit by hyperthreafing and 2mb extra l3 cache.
-z97x-sli. Has everything the asus z97-a has and is $30 cheaper. I don't see much reason to choose the z97-a, tbh. If at all, the z97-ar due to the nice look.
-8gb of 2133/2400mhz cas 9/10 ram. That is, if it goes for equal prices as 1866mhz cl9 ram in canada too. You could keep the 2x2gb and get another 2x2gb as well, but 1033mhz is a little slow (haswell tends to show great responsiveness until 1866mhz) I'd suggest getting new ram here. If you feel like you may want to get another 8gb later, make sure to buy a single 8gb stick now (and another of the same kind!!! later).

There really isn't much of a point in buying expensive motherboards if you don't know the differences. In general, they add a lot of features and a few more connectors (sata/usb), which you won't need or even have use for if you don't know them. Performance wise, you'll maybe see a 2-5% difference between the cheapest and the most expensive board existing.
X99: Great platform, but not cost efficient. It's a socket catering to enthusiasts who don't care about the price or people who use the pc for their work, such as video production or software fine-testing. In games, there won't be a benefit going from an I5 4590 to an I7 5960x.
DDR3 vs DDR4: They're equal in performance. An I7 5820k locked to 4 cores will perform within 1% average compared to an I7 4770 (closest in clockspeed).

As for overclocking on motherboards, between a 4 vrm phase board such as the asus z97-a or gigabyte z97x-sli and a 8-12 phase board such as the asus vii formula or gigabte ud5h, you most likely won't see a noticeable difference in overclocking potential. My I7 manages 5.0ghz application stable on a ud5h, with the z97x-sli crashing when applying any sort of work. Until 4.9ghz, they overclock exactly the same.

Therefore, as you mentioned that your primary focus is gaming (and "student work"), that looks aren't important to you and you probably would like to keep some money, my suggestion is the following:

-I5 4690k. As of right now, you haven't mentioned an application that would see benefit by hyperthreafing and 2mb extra l3 cache.
-z97x-sli. Has everything the asus z97-a has and is $30 cheaper. I don't see much reason to choose the z97-a, tbh. If at all, the z97-ar due to the nice look.
-8gb of 2133/2400mhz cas 9/10 ram. That is, if it goes for equal prices as 1866mhz cl9 ram in canada too. You could keep the 2x2gb and get another 2x2gb as well, but 1033mhz is a little slow (haswell tends to show great responsiveness until 1866mhz) I'd suggest getting new ram here. If you feel like you may want to get another 8gb later, make sure to buy a single 8gb stick now (and another of the same kind!!! later).

As I said, more expensive motherboards tend to not add anything useful to the end user unless he has very specific requirements.
If they look similar to you now and you end up buying the sabertooth, you end up having spent $150 for nothing.

Triple sli is not possible on any z97 build.

The z97-a is, as mentioned a great board. It's just that the z97x-sli is basically the same for $25-$35 less.

Fanxpert3 is software. That's not specific to a motherboard. "5 way optimization" does probably include automatic overclocking, which all boards provide. In any way, those are at best marketing jokes and not features. Features that are worth calling them features would be like a m.2 port (which both boards provide). Probably killer lan counts too, but there are no measureable differences so it's once again more of a marketing thing.
$200 boards do not give you better performance on the same settings than $100 boards. They can not even, as intels specifications for motherboards are very strict.
And then again, the motherboard plays a very little role for achieving stable overclocks. So little, you most definitely will not ever find out. If a $400 board gets your cpu stable at 4.6ghz 1.3v, a $100 board might need 1.325v. If a $400 board gets 5ghz at 1.5v and the $100 board needs 1.55v, that makes no difference either, because both is too much. Voltage regulation does almost only happen on the cpu anyway, the best the board can do for haswells is supplying constant voltage, which absolutely all z97 boards should do.

What expensive motherboards really give you are more usb and sata ports, possibly more pci(e) slots. Maybe a second networking adapter or a built in wifi card or better sound chip. In any way you could replace those though for less money and better quality.

Also, what is a "better bios"? The microcode that drives the cpu is the same, the different bios versions will at best determine how long you need to find option X. Options may be called different (and layout of menus might be a little confusing on msi boards) but there absolutely isn't more to it. The only extra point that could potentially be given here is the dual bios from gigabyte, so you don't kill the motherboard with an interrupted/corrupted bios flash.

I can't say anything about the evga one. Id personally stick to asus, msi, asrock or gigabyte though, being known as the "big motherboard companies".