Z97 motherboard diffrence

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Saahil0922

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Aug 10, 2015
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So I am going with a i5 4690k in my upcoming build. I have decided most of the components other than the motherboard. Whats the difference between the Z97 Anniversary and the Z97 Pro4, does the pro4 just have some useless bells and whistles or is it the better buy?
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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Z97 Anniversary is intended as a barebones motherboard capable of overclocking unlocked CPUs. Z97 Pro 4 does indeed have more features, up to you decide if those features are worth the price. I wouldn't call any of them useless.
 
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Saahil0922

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I looked on the ASRock website to compare, I didn't understand what was necessary and what was just optional. Can you tell me if the anniversary has everything to support this build and has no kinks that will be costly?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($0.00)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($5.99 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($5.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $529.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-11 17:56 EDT-0400
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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If you are talking just games the motherboard literally needs the following:

One CPU slot, One SATA port, One PCIe x16 slot at 8x or better. 2 memory slots, audio input/output, some USB ports for peripherals, ethernet port. Anything else you could consider features. Obviously most motherboards offer a lot more than this.

Are you planning for multiple GPUs, multiple drives, lots of external devices, WiFi, etc? These are things you want to look at when comparing motherboards. Overclocking you want to look at VRM phases and heatsinks. Reviews are helpful for that.

I would only use the Anniversary board if you wanted the cheapest possible board for some overclocking of an unlocked LGA1150 CPU with a single GPU. If you aren't overclocking, you can drop down to H97 for the latest LGA1150 chip support. For extreme cost savings, and a little risk, you can look at older B85, H81, H87, Z87 boards.

If you want SLI for multiple Nvidia GPUs, you pretty much have to stick with Z97/Z87. Lots of motherboards support Crossfire for AMD cards, but generally you want to stick with the Z87/Z97 to have 8x lanes per card.

Unless you plan to add more memory soon, it is best to buy memory in matched sets of two to enable dual channel memory. So a 2x4GB kit is ideal.
 
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