Suitable motherboard for 980 Ti? Advantages of expensive motherboards?

your board supports crossfire as you can crossfire using PCIe x4 slots, while SLI needs a x8 slots per card minimum, but ya I would get a better board anyway for the overclocking.

the performance gain from overclocking depends on how far you can go, cooling tends to be a limiting factor, as your CPU will get hotter the more you overclock

If you're going to keep the B85, please don't buy the 4790k. It's designed for overclocking which can't be done on a B85. You truly are flushing $30 down the drain.

The purpose of the B chipset is for business solutions. The H chipset is designed for home use. The Z chipset is for extreme users that want to overclock and/or have multiple graphic cards.

For what purpose are you pursuing the i7? There are a few games that the i7 outperforms an i5. Now if you simply have the money to spend, I'm cool with that.

Note: Purchasing a new motherboard may require a new Windows key.

quote from ASUS site "Multi-GPU Support - Supports AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology"
which is odd cause it only has 3 slots but those 3 can all be used for a 290x

You should consult the product reviews here on Tom's for an idea of how much of a performance improvement you'll see from overclocking whatever component (CPU/GPU/RAM).

in this case, I guess not, it always helps to read around and no just get one piece of info, but I would trust the people who make it over a site designed to find the cheapest place you you to buy it

If that's the case, there's honestly no reason to discuss this. In a year Nvidia and AMD will probably have another GPU generation out and Intel will have Skylake out. I.E. Nvidia 1000 series (or whatever they call it) and AMD r9 400 series (or whatever). Intel will probably have released to more series being Skylake-E and Skylake.

However as it stands, an i5 can support dual SLI/CF without issues. An i7 has some advantages in recent games.

Depending on the version of Windows you have, the key may be tied to the motherboard. If that's the case, you will not be able to transfer the key to a new motherboard. Thus you will have to buy a new key.

My advice would be get the Z97 motherboard, it's better future proofing and overclocking does get more value for your money when it comes to CPUs

Mmm, that depends. When you're going to buy a car, you don't ask questions about last year's models. You get the information about this year's models. You're technically looking for research about information that's going to be invalid in 8 months. And even then it's a stretch. Not to point out a fault, but someone recommended for you to buy a Z97 board for upgradability. What ability? This year (July 29th) Intel is releasing a new CPU and socket and when that happens, the Z97 is dead. A 980 ti will still be available and could still be the flagship GPU for Nvidia. A year is a long time in the tech world. Many things change, but there have been some recent (4+ years) consistencies.

For gaming, an i5 is the best CPU for the price. Few games actually benefit from an i7. i7's are typically sought out for streaming, rendering, compression and tasks that can utilize HyperThreading.

For 1080p gaming, a 970 GTX or r9 290 are perfect for maxing out games. For higher resolutions or games that use mods, cards greater than those two may be necessary.

For power requirements, a 550-600 watt PSU is needed depending on the developer (Nvidia/AMD). Nvidia's current generation uses much less power than AMD's 200 series. For multiple GPUs, you're looking at 750 watts as a minimum power requirement.

When buying RAM, buy pairs unless you purchase an Intel-E CPU/motherboard. Buy pairs to retain Dual Channel configurations, unless you buy Intel-E where a kit of 4 sticks should be ordered for Quad Channel. Don't mix and match RAM. Buy pairs. Right now 8GB is a sweet spot for minimum amount.

Depending on desires, buy B chipset for business or low budget builds; H chipset for home use; Z chipset for overclocking and multiple GPU solutions. Typically, the more power phases there are supplying power to the CPU, the better overclock can be achieved. If you want to overclock, buy an aftermarket cooler.

A good starting SSD size is 250 GB. It's possible to go less, but 10-15% needs to be reserved for SSDs to operate. Do not fill up an SSD. Also, only install programs that benefit from the added speed. If the program doesn't benefit from the speed, don't install it on the SSD. Example: Some video games do not benefit from the fast load times.

Depending if you purchased a Retail or OEM version of Windows can affect key usage. OEMs are typically tied to the motherboard, thus non transferrable (this may have changed in Windows 8.1). Windows Retail versions can be transferred to another machine and in some scenarios, a single key can be used on 3 machines (Windows Pro).

Those are some of the consistent trends there have been over the past few years. Anyone giving advice about what to buy a year from now, isn't bad advice. It most likely won't apply. I would ask specific questions (like in your post) about the 1-2 months before you purchase the build. I'm sure much of this information will change.