Need motherboard recomendations

Hardware Motherboards
#1

Hi everyone,
i’m a a total newfag in this forum but i’m watching the forum now for over a year now.
I thought you could help me with this:
I’m planning to throw out my old MSI B85 G43 Gaming as all of my SATA ports are occupied.
So i’m running the I7 4770K on 16GB and am willing to keep it which boils down to any board with 1150 socket.
As i am working in IT and commonly had bad experience with ASUS hardware, i’m against Motherboards from ASUS; but i’m not excluding them.
Special Requirements are as Follows:

  • at least 8 SATA Ports
    -opt. optical audio onboard (SPDIF)
    -opt. M.2 Slot for newer SSDs
    Don’t need any of the fancy stuff like fan controllers and such.
    Price range is below 200 but may be expanded if needed.
    Now its your turn. Recommend me a motherboard and/or share your experiences with them.
    Would be glad to post Pictures after the Upgrade to pay back your effort.
    Thank you in advance.
#2

ASRock Z97 OC Formula or ASRock Z97 Extreme6.

Both have at least 8 SATA ports, optical audio, and M.2. I also think ASRock has been making very good motherboards lately, but that’s just my personal opinion.


1 Like
#3

Thank you very much.
Both Mobos are too good to make a choice between them.
But i think i’ll go with the dual lan option as i’m planning to put my nas on it.
Appreciate the excellent Choices.