Motherboard for a Budget PC

Hey, guys.

I'm building a custom PC and I'm on a budget. Maybe the budget is enough ($1000) but I'm spending more on the components that matter most. So I'm getting an i5 4690k (+ Hyper212 EVO) and a GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0.

I may or may not get into SLI later sometime, but I'm sure I'll be getting an SSD along with my WD Blue. So my question is which motherboard is the best for a budget PC? I'm thinking of spending around $100 on it, more or less.

Thanks.

The Asus Z97-A is a great budget board that supports SLI... Also the earlier version of it the Z87-A is a great slightly cheaper aternative.

Trouble is though after some tinkering on part picker I have to say with a $1000 budget you won't be able to have a SSD and a GTX 970.

Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5

OR

ASUS Z97-E

Both mobos are SLI/Crossfire ready.

An entry level Z97 mobo. You can even use micro-ATX ( they are usually cheaper and have 95% of ATX features and ports )

Msi z97m G43 is what i use ( got it for 90euros and i like it so far ). Quite stable ( not a single blue screen since i updated the bios 6months ago ) supports crossfire and also has M.2 and sata express support . Only downside is that it doesnt support SLI so if you are interested in that look elsewhere

Asrock also has some nice $100-120 mobos

I was on pcpartpicker an hour ago and I must say that I'm overwhelmed. There are just too many choices for motherboards and I know nothing about them. Really could use some help, maybe narrow it down? I need a motherboard that has most of the "useful" features of an expensive one. I can't imagine what I would be using half a dozen of USB ports for. I need USB ports for my mouse, keyboard, webcam, and maybe printer. But all these things can make do with a 2.0 port. Only a flash drive or an external drive would benefit from a 3.0 port.

What I need is a motherboard that has a couple of USB 3.0 ports, support for 2 full-sized graphics card (talking about EVGA GTX 970), support for at least 16 GB RAM, support for a good SSD or two (would be getting one later, that too a budget one, maybe $100) and support for at least two HDDs.

And the motherboard must be around $100.

Try Tom's Hardware Guide and other similar sites. There's usually a consensus among them on recommended motherboards.

Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 5.

Been using it for 7 months without issue. Has all the features your looking for and then some.

Can I get cheaper recommendations? I'm thinking of spending more on the components that actually matter.

I've heard ASRock has some pretty affordable motherboards. I've seen lots of vids on YT that make budget builds and many of the authors use $80-120 motherboards. Anyone wants to weigh in on this?

A) I would avoid micro ATX MOBOs because if you plan on SLI it's best to keep GPUs as far as you can from each other.

B) http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#l=2&sort=a8 you can get the same recommended Asus A but in Z87 form for 75-80$, there's no difference what so ever in performance over Z97 MOBOs except for new features that you may or may not need.

I would look for the cheapest z97 motherboard that supports SLI, all z97s should support USB 3.0, SSD, HDDs (though most motherboards only come with 2 SATA cables, which means if you want an optical drive +HDD+SSD you'd need to purchase another cable), and have 2-4 RAM slots (depending on M or normal ATX).

I was looking at the Gigabyte h97 d3h before I purchased a different board with a combo deal. I think the z97 d3h was reviewed pretty well too, and likely has SLI.

Double check on the manufacturer's website for SLI compatibility, sometimes PCpartpicker might say there is SLI compatibility, but the manufacturer does not.