Mobo recommendation ~$120-150

[deveraux]

Hey all, been a while since my last post.

Been thinking about getting a new rig. The following are what I would like for now:
Intel i7-4970K
Corsair Vengeance PC1866/C9 2x8GB
MSI Frozr GTX 970 4GB

Main usage will be for gaming. Historically, I've never been one to go for multi-GPU options so SLI is not a concern. However, I would like a healthy number of SATA3 ports as I'm planning to have 2 SSDs and a handful of drives for my storage. This rig may double as a possible media server in the future. I'm hoping with 4 cores, gaming while the server is active (as long as content is spread across different drives) won't affect gaming performance too much.

My main confusion is on the mobo. I haven't kept up with all the latest development so I'm not fully up to speed, but from I've read, I'm down to the following options for Z-97s:

ASRock Extreme4
Asus Z-97-A
Gigabyte Gaming 5
MSI Gaming 5

I'm leaning more towards the ASRock based on my requirements above but would love to hear more if you have any other suggestions. Would also love to hear about any issues concerning these boards if you know of any.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: Forgot to add the MSI Gaming 5 option.

 

[know of fence]

Chances are that current rigs will last more than 10 years, so i'd plan long term even if you hand your PC down to someone else. Personally I like the ASrock from the AT review, mini-ITX boards tend to be most power efficient and cut all the superfluous value-add garbage. Neither SLI nor four memory banks, additional SATA ports and controllers make sense from power consumption point of view, you already planning 16 GB anyhow. All Z97 get 6 SATA ports by default.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8276/...k-z97e-itx-msi-z97i-ac-and-gigabyte-z97n-wifi

 

[schmuckley]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-408-_-Product

Better components/OCing features than AsRock Extreme4..
and actually has manufacturer warranty.
Chances are it won't go bad.

 

[deveraux]

Thanks for the recommendation guys!