MSI Z97 Gaming 5 question.

omalley

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So I'm about to buy the motherboard in title. I am mainly curious about its overclocking abilities, audio quality, why are 2 of the usb 2.0 ports red and last, the m.2 slot i know it take up sata port5. Is that only if used in sata mode? For example if i buy a 950 pro to use in it in pcie mode. Will i still be able to use sata5 port?
 
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So the cheaper set has looser timings (meaning slightly higher latency), and a higher voltage at 1.65V. You're essentially buying pre-overclocked RAM.

The more expensive set is slightly slower, but because it's running at the stock voltage it's likely got more headroom to OC. If you bump it up from 1.5V to 1.65V (same as the cheaper set) you might find you can get even higher clock speeds.

It doesn't really matter much though, RAM is rarely a bottleneck so I'd just be getting the cheaper set if I were you.
Have a look at Anandtech's detailed review here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8582/msi-z97-gaming-5-motherboard-review-five-is-alive

Short answers:
OCing: Pretty good for manual OCing
Audio: Not sure - but unless you have analogue audiophile headphones it probably doesn't matter - any USB headset won't use the onboard audio, so it's irrelevant.
Two Red USB: "Gaming Device Port" -> MSI marketing BS... they're just USB ports with "3x more gold"
M.2: only disables SATA port if using a SATA SSD. It's only PCIe 2.0 x2, so definitely not worth putting a premium SSD like the 950 Pro in there. Not sure above NVMe boot support either. If you want to go 950 Pro (which I'd question - it's very rarely worth the money unless you have some very particular workloads) you should be looking at a Skylake (6xxx) CPU and Z170 motherboard. They have native NVMe and most have proper PCIe 3 x 4 M.2 slots which will actually allow a 950 Pro to stretch its legs (again - if you have the workload, which you probably don't).
 

omalley

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Well i already have a i7 4770k. Im actually gove my current motherbosrd to my little brother, helping him setup a rig. And so i was going to get a better board than what i have right now. I figured the gaming 5 would be a good buy. And the reason for wanting a 950 pro is not for this board but for when i do upgrade to a new setup. I am wanting to wait till skylake-e and chang out everything then.
 

omalley

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I could sacrifice some cpu pcie lanes since all i run is 1 980. It does have a nice oc since it is a classified but a x8 lane should still be more than enough for it right?
 

omalley

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I would love to find a x99 motherboard that offers 2 ultra m.2 slots. Since the ultra m.2 is pcie 3.0 x4. Plus x99 has the lanes to spare for that since at a max with a quad gpu setup you can only use 32 of the lanes, which leaves 8 for the 2 m.2 slots.

Saddly though, no1 has done this.
 

omalley

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Okay so now I'm leaning more towards buying the Asrock Z97 Extreme6

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme6/

It has a ultra m.2 so i can make full use of the 950 pro, i know i will lose bandwidth for my 980 but it won't hurt it i don't think. plus it has a normal pcie2 x2 m.2 slot that i can also use, and it has a mini pcie slot.

speaking of the mini pcie slot, what would you all recommend to buy for a wifi/bluetooth card to place into that slot?
 
Are you really basing you purchasing decisions off a future 950 Pro? Are you sure you have some specialised workloads that will actually be able to push that drive hard enough?

/rant/
If you don't have a genuinely intensive IO workload it's a bit like purchasing something like THIS to tow a standard box trailer for a family camping holiday. Sure if you load up the 950 Pro with a server grade, massively intensive IO workload then it will show you what it's made of. Run a script to update 100,000 addresses in a database, or boot 8 virtual machines simultaneously and the 950 Pro will destroy any standard SATA SSD. There's no question it's a powerful drive. But the reality is that even an enthusiast PC user just never generates the kind of intensive workloads that allow a drive like that to separate itself from the mainstream SSDs on the market. What do you do with the PC? Boot it, open a program or two (or even five) at once, copy files over the network, install a new program once in a while... that's child's play for any SSD, let alone the 950 Pro.

Anyway, it's your money, obviously you can spend it where you like, but unless you have a particular use-case there are far, far better ways to spend your hard earned cash....
/endrant/

OK, now that rant is out of the way, if you're going all-in on M.2 storage remember that a PCIe M.2 slot is just PCie lanes, so you can get cheap, dumb PCIe cards with an M.2 slot. It's just routing PCIe pins to the correct M.2 pins, so they work seamlessly. Just be sure your BIOS supports NVMe booting if you're going with an NVMe M.2 drive (like the 950 pro).
You can go all-out on X99 and 2x Ultra M.2 slots, but it's $500+ worth of motherboard, + new CPU + new RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157535&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
Terrible idea IMHO, but it's an option. (You realise your 4770K won't go in an X99 mobo don't you?)

In terms of wifi: is it just for Internet, or will you be transferring files over the network too (home NAS)? If it's just internet AND you *don't* have an ultra fast cable connection AND the router is pretty close, then it doesn't really matter as any half decent wifi adapter should do the trick. If you need more performance (for local file transfer or >100mbps internet), or you need better than basic range, then you should look at a PCIe card that has multiple external antennas.

Hope that's helpful.
 

omalley

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I appreciate your concern with me wanting to buy into m.2 SSD. I understand your reasoning behind it too, I have my reason for wanting M.2 SSDs too, and to be honest, the reason is a bit idiotic at the moment but will benefit me later on down the road. Anyways, I know my 4770k wouldn't fit into LGA 2011-3. I would love to have a 8 core CPU or even a 6 core to help with Maya and ZBrush both since I do a lot of work in them and I'm constantly being bottle-necked by my 4770k (not in a bad way, just could have a quicker workflow if I had more cores). The only reason for me not taking my money and putting it into a X99 build is I simply don't like what any of the motherboards have to offer for my needs. Plus X99 is seeing it's age, I would rather wait till X109 or w/e it will be called with Skylake-E CPU and see what they bring to the table.

Now, onto why I'm looking into a motherboard for m.2 is so I can carry it over to my future big upgrade. I am also helping my little brother setup a gaming PC of his own, so I can either keep my own board which is a Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 and buy him a decent board(I'm not going to give him a cheap $60 board) or I can simply give him my old board get myself a slight upgrade by grabbing a board with a ultra m.2 slot. So I felt like the later was a better choice and that is what I'm going to do. So right now my eye is on the Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 since it has a ultra m.2 along with a standard m.2.

I plan to use the standard m.2 at first since it is part of the Z97 chipset with it's pcie2.0 x2 and I shouldn't have issues with doing a OS install on it, I will then grab another ssd later for the ultra pot and use as a high speed storage drive for various things that might make decent saturation of it's speed, won't know till i try.

This is why I was asking these question. And for what will be my last and final question. I am also going to give my little brother my current ram too since I need more for Maya and ZBrush and I'm already using all 4 slots. So for my ram purchase, I'm looking at these 2 sets.

Set 1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233778

Set 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820233541

Now the main question is, which set should I get? I'm leaning more towards Set 1 since it's cheaper yet faster.
 
OK, fair enough. With the latest BIOS, the Z97 Extreme 6 does support NVMe booting, so there's no reason really not to get your high SSD now and put it in the x4 slot if that's a priority for you. The remaining x8 lanes really are plenty for a GPU.

In terms of RAM, you don't need to spend $70. Here's a sorted PCPartpicker list for you: http://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#Z=16384002&s=301866,302133,302400,302500,302600,302666,302800&sort=a10&page=1

I'd get the Muskin 2400Mhz kit for $60 myself, but the yellow may not be to your taste. The G.SKill 2400Mhz options (Ares or Ripjaws) are reasonably priced too. I don't think it really matters TBH.
 


So the cheaper set has looser timings (meaning slightly higher latency), and a higher voltage at 1.65V. You're essentially buying pre-overclocked RAM.

The more expensive set is slightly slower, but because it's running at the stock voltage it's likely got more headroom to OC. If you bump it up from 1.5V to 1.65V (same as the cheaper set) you might find you can get even higher clock speeds.

It doesn't really matter much though, RAM is rarely a bottleneck so I'd just be getting the cheaper set if I were you.
 
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