So I've been doing a lot of research into Z97 motherboards in the last couple weeks and feel like posting some of my findings here as a way of sorting out my own thoughts and considerations into this.
I've said in my last post that my motive for upgrading is a shortage of free SATA ports in my system, and how it's impossible for me to use PCIe expansion cards because my top PCIe x16 port is blocked by my Corsair H60 (fitted to the lower rear fan of my Antec 1200), and the GTX 770 on the second PCIe x16 port blocks the PCIe x1 port. Maximus IV Gene Gen3 only has 6 SATA ports, and being mATX means not so many expansion ports. Great for the time, but an enthusiast constantly keeps adding to their PC and eventually I ran out of options. So I need to upgrade.
Motherboards
The first requirement for my choice of motherboards is that it must be ATX, not mATX. Any future expansion may require some of those PCIe ports, e.g. for tuners, discreet audio, high end WiFi AC, RAID cards, etc. Currently I only use a single graphics card, so that at least helps in keeping options open. Also, ideally, the top PCIe port should not be the primary graphics port.
The second requirement is that I want more SATA ports off the bat. If I can get 8 or 10 ports, then I can actually fill up my case (should I need to in future). My current case can fit 9 3.5" drives, with 3 5.25" bays (one of which has a FP USB3 adaptor and can store 2 2.5" SSDs, and another I plan on using as a removable 3.5" tray). I currently have 4 3.5" HDDs, 2 2.5" SSDs and one 5.25" DVD drive in place. Those who pay attention may notice that 7 drives and only 6 ports means my DVD drive is currently unplugged and I'm relying on a USB BluRay drive for any disc media. We may be beyond the age of disc media, but sometimes there's no other way and USB isn't perfect either.
The third requirement is a little more difficult to pin down, which is future-proofing. I don't want to upgrade until the next upgrade offers something worth paying for, and all Z170 offers (based on leaked info for Skylake, which is aiming at Q2 2015) is 20 PCIe 3.x lanes and support for some random other things (PCIe 4.0 for servers, Thunderbolt 3) and a couple bits that intrigue me: support for up to 3 SATAexpress x2 ports and up to 3 M.2 x2/x4 ports. Many enthusiasts are crying for minimum 24 lanes to play with, but the fact that it can support all these next generation SSDs on the chipset (before factoring in third part controllers like ASMedia) means that it might just pick up speed next year.
That said, currently the only SATAe device I've seen is the prototype Asus Hyper Express, which is actually just a pair of mSATA SSDs in RAID 0 with a pretty enclosure to make it look like a SSD. M.2 on the other hand has been around a short while, with the Crucial M500 and M550 both having M.2 variants (but only at standard SATA3 speeds) mostly for use in laptops. The only two M.2 cards worth mentioning right now (i.e. commercially available) are the Plextor M6e and Samsung XP941. The first has wider support (can be run in legacy mode, although this will soon be more common with a BIOS update) whilst the other is the only one that takes advantage of Ultra M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 speed). Both get much faster speeds than SSDs, but since it's early days, bugs need BIOS fixes and more M.2 drives need to come out to show what the medium is truly capable of.
Moving on, here's my shortlist of motherboards that I'm choosing between.
Asus Z97 Deluxe (not the NFC/WLC combo, because value).
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming G1 (not the WIFI-BK model, because value).
MSI Z97 XPOWER AC (most expensive on the list thanks to a PLX chip, also the biggest using XL ATX).
ASRock Z97 Extreme 9 (normally I avoid ASRock like the plague, but they've gotten better recently and this one has certain special features making it worth considering. Plus it's the cheapest on the list).
It might also be tempting to add the ASRock Z87 Extreme 11ac, since it has more SATA ports than anybody will ever need (22 SATA3), but let's not be silly. Plus it costs twice as much as any other board.
Additionally, I've also thought about the Asus Z97 WS, which has the PLX chip for quad-SLI support and shares many features, but it costs more and lacks WiFi (that that I'd be using it) and seems lower value for my needs.
What's special about all of the above Z97 motherboards is that they all have 10 SATA ports. Other good Z97 motherboards (at lower price points) like the Asus ROG Maximus VII Hero has 8 ports, but has some weird design choices like how using an M.2 card disables two of the PCIe x1 ports (which leaves me with just the top PCIe x1 port or the bottom X16 port running in x2 mode). I want more flexibility, so I went with higher end motherboards that have made different choices in how to juggle shared resources.
To prevent this post spreading too long, I'll drop my coverage on each motherboard in spoiler tags.
Asus Z97 Deluxe (£190)
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming G1 (£235)
MSI Z97 XPOWER AC (£265)
ASRock Z97 Extreme 9 (£187)
Conclusion
So which motherboard to get? The Gigabyte doesn't have M.2, the MSI doesn't have SATAe, the Asus doesn't have PLX for triple/quad-SLI, and the ASrock doesn't have the dedicated graphics port and audio quality isn't as good as its competition. Still pretty good I hear, as only audiophiles with high quality headphones/speakers will notice the difference. On paper, the ASRock comes out top with the lowest price and the most features, but I will always hesitate to jump into another ASRock board without first doing all the research. On the other hand, Asus is also a good bet with a decent price and the features to meet my needs, but is the most handicapped by resource sharing (due to the fact that it doesn't use PLX).
Another factor to take into account is whether I get Core i5 or i7 to go with the motherboard, as I would need to get both at the same time. i5 is enough for gaming, and i7 is better for multi-threaded tasks which I do from time to time. Additionally, if I want to start running Virtual Machines (I've got the software now, just need the time to set it up and maybe reorganize my filing structures across my drives), I will benefit from both HyperThreading as well as getting more memory (and faster memory). Memory is easy to upgrade at a later time, at any time, so it's not worth thinking about right now.
Then there's the issue of M.2 or SATAe. With no major reason to get them yet, I'm only considering them for future-proofing, for when they step it up a few notches. May take a year, may take 2, but it's an option and one I can take, with fairly clearly defined advantages, suffering only from lack of products in the market and high price per GB for the ones in the market (£350 for the Plextor 512GB and £400 for the Samsung, compared to £150 for Crucial MX100 512GB and £160 for Samsung 840 EVO 500GB).
Finally, there's the matter of which case I will ultimately upgrade to. First I'm focussing on my more immediate needs in the motherboard and CPU, but my upgrade path will ultimately pull me out of my current case and get a more modern one with better support for my system expansion. What was once a gaming and testing machine is now becoming something like a mini-server, and the case needs to reflect that. I dropped a few names in my last post, but probably the next post I make will be one of those focussing on which case to get and how it will all fit in the case. And when I do finally open my wallet to these upgrades, I'll probably write another post with plenty of pictures to show how it is done (partially for educational purposes, and partially to display my price as an enthusiast).
I've said in my last post that my motive for upgrading is a shortage of free SATA ports in my system, and how it's impossible for me to use PCIe expansion cards because my top PCIe x16 port is blocked by my Corsair H60 (fitted to the lower rear fan of my Antec 1200), and the GTX 770 on the second PCIe x16 port blocks the PCIe x1 port. Maximus IV Gene Gen3 only has 6 SATA ports, and being mATX means not so many expansion ports. Great for the time, but an enthusiast constantly keeps adding to their PC and eventually I ran out of options. So I need to upgrade.
Motherboards
The first requirement for my choice of motherboards is that it must be ATX, not mATX. Any future expansion may require some of those PCIe ports, e.g. for tuners, discreet audio, high end WiFi AC, RAID cards, etc. Currently I only use a single graphics card, so that at least helps in keeping options open. Also, ideally, the top PCIe port should not be the primary graphics port.
The second requirement is that I want more SATA ports off the bat. If I can get 8 or 10 ports, then I can actually fill up my case (should I need to in future). My current case can fit 9 3.5" drives, with 3 5.25" bays (one of which has a FP USB3 adaptor and can store 2 2.5" SSDs, and another I plan on using as a removable 3.5" tray). I currently have 4 3.5" HDDs, 2 2.5" SSDs and one 5.25" DVD drive in place. Those who pay attention may notice that 7 drives and only 6 ports means my DVD drive is currently unplugged and I'm relying on a USB BluRay drive for any disc media. We may be beyond the age of disc media, but sometimes there's no other way and USB isn't perfect either.
The third requirement is a little more difficult to pin down, which is future-proofing. I don't want to upgrade until the next upgrade offers something worth paying for, and all Z170 offers (based on leaked info for Skylake, which is aiming at Q2 2015) is 20 PCIe 3.x lanes and support for some random other things (PCIe 4.0 for servers, Thunderbolt 3) and a couple bits that intrigue me: support for up to 3 SATAexpress x2 ports and up to 3 M.2 x2/x4 ports. Many enthusiasts are crying for minimum 24 lanes to play with, but the fact that it can support all these next generation SSDs on the chipset (before factoring in third part controllers like ASMedia) means that it might just pick up speed next year.
That said, currently the only SATAe device I've seen is the prototype Asus Hyper Express, which is actually just a pair of mSATA SSDs in RAID 0 with a pretty enclosure to make it look like a SSD. M.2 on the other hand has been around a short while, with the Crucial M500 and M550 both having M.2 variants (but only at standard SATA3 speeds) mostly for use in laptops. The only two M.2 cards worth mentioning right now (i.e. commercially available) are the Plextor M6e and Samsung XP941. The first has wider support (can be run in legacy mode, although this will soon be more common with a BIOS update) whilst the other is the only one that takes advantage of Ultra M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 speed). Both get much faster speeds than SSDs, but since it's early days, bugs need BIOS fixes and more M.2 drives need to come out to show what the medium is truly capable of.
Moving on, here's my shortlist of motherboards that I'm choosing between.
Asus Z97 Deluxe (not the NFC/WLC combo, because value).
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming G1 (not the WIFI-BK model, because value).
MSI Z97 XPOWER AC (most expensive on the list thanks to a PLX chip, also the biggest using XL ATX).
ASRock Z97 Extreme 9 (normally I avoid ASRock like the plague, but they've gotten better recently and this one has certain special features making it worth considering. Plus it's the cheapest on the list).
It might also be tempting to add the ASRock Z87 Extreme 11ac, since it has more SATA ports than anybody will ever need (22 SATA3), but let's not be silly. Plus it costs twice as much as any other board.
Additionally, I've also thought about the Asus Z97 WS, which has the PLX chip for quad-SLI support and shares many features, but it costs more and lacks WiFi (that that I'd be using it) and seems lower value for my needs.
What's special about all of the above Z97 motherboards is that they all have 10 SATA ports. Other good Z97 motherboards (at lower price points) like the Asus ROG Maximus VII Hero has 8 ports, but has some weird design choices like how using an M.2 card disables two of the PCIe x1 ports (which leaves me with just the top PCIe x1 port or the bottom X16 port running in x2 mode). I want more flexibility, so I went with higher end motherboards that have made different choices in how to juggle shared resources.
To prevent this post spreading too long, I'll drop my coverage on each motherboard in spoiler tags.
Asus Z97 Deluxe (£190)
Asus has been my favourite for a while now. Previously I went with MSI because of how well they handled overclocking, and before that Gigabyte because they used to be well priced and I was sick to death of dead ASRock boards. Then I started hearing reports of MSI motherboards failing and so I switched.
This particular motherboard comes with WiFi AC (2x2) and Bluetooth 4.0, 6 SATA ports, 2 SATAexpress ports (which doubles as 4 more SATA ports), a full length (80mm) M.2. port, the best integrated sound in any motherboard, and more ports than I care to look at. It has 2 PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (x16/x0 or x8/x8 mode), one PCIe 2.0 x16 port (running x4 mode), and four PCIe 2.0 x1 ports. The top port is a PCIe x1 port which my case would block access to, so I can use my graphics in the top PCIe x16 port with no problems.
The M.2 port shares resources with one SATAe port, whilst the other shares resources with two USB3 ports and the third PCIe x16 port. On one hand, it's cool that you can actually use M.2 and SATAe at the same time on this board (leaving 6 SATA3 ports left to use), but on the other hand it sucks that using the second SATAe port takes lanes away from the already limited PCIe x16 port, or using that PCIe port means you lose access to two potential SATA ports. That said, with such good integrated audio and integrated WiFi, and with two Intel NICs that support Teaming, that only leaves RAID cards and Capture/Tuner cards that might need to use the expansion ports, and there are still plenty of SATA ports available in the rest of the system. Oh, and that 2 port SATA3 card I've been waiting to use will make up for some of those inconveniences.
I could also talk about performance, but one Z97 board performs the same as the next. This one doesn't use a PLX chip so there's no added latency to devices, nor any real need to disable the abundance of controllers (doing so speeds up POST times). It's a good all-rounder, and Asus UEFIs are solid.
This particular motherboard comes with WiFi AC (2x2) and Bluetooth 4.0, 6 SATA ports, 2 SATAexpress ports (which doubles as 4 more SATA ports), a full length (80mm) M.2. port, the best integrated sound in any motherboard, and more ports than I care to look at. It has 2 PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (x16/x0 or x8/x8 mode), one PCIe 2.0 x16 port (running x4 mode), and four PCIe 2.0 x1 ports. The top port is a PCIe x1 port which my case would block access to, so I can use my graphics in the top PCIe x16 port with no problems.
The M.2 port shares resources with one SATAe port, whilst the other shares resources with two USB3 ports and the third PCIe x16 port. On one hand, it's cool that you can actually use M.2 and SATAe at the same time on this board (leaving 6 SATA3 ports left to use), but on the other hand it sucks that using the second SATAe port takes lanes away from the already limited PCIe x16 port, or using that PCIe port means you lose access to two potential SATA ports. That said, with such good integrated audio and integrated WiFi, and with two Intel NICs that support Teaming, that only leaves RAID cards and Capture/Tuner cards that might need to use the expansion ports, and there are still plenty of SATA ports available in the rest of the system. Oh, and that 2 port SATA3 card I've been waiting to use will make up for some of those inconveniences.
I could also talk about performance, but one Z97 board performs the same as the next. This one doesn't use a PLX chip so there's no added latency to devices, nor any real need to disable the abundance of controllers (doing so speeds up POST times). It's a good all-rounder, and Asus UEFIs are solid.
Gigabyte in my eyes means the middle ground of motherboards. They tend to be cheaper, tend to be well thought out, and tend to be relatively stable. They don't quite boast as many features as Asus, but not having to pay the premium generally means better value for those who don't actually use said features. That doesn't mean they don't always try, as the Gaming G1 is aimed at enthusiasts looking for monster gaming rigs.
Whilst you'd need to shell out an extra £80 to get the WiFi Black edition with a bundled WiFi AC/BT4 expansion card and the promise that the board has survived an extensive stress test before being shipped from the factory, it does come with 8 SATA3 ports, one SATAe port (doubles as 2 SATA3 ports), four PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (running dual x16 mode, x16/x8/x0/x8, or quad x8 mode), 3 PCIe 2.0 x1 ports, Killer E2200 and Intel gaming NICs, and an integrated audio controller featuring "upgradable OP-AMP". Ignoring the silly names, being able to run quad SLI is certainly a feature for extreme gamers pushing those 4k UHD graphics. On the other hand, the top PCIe port is the primary graphics port so I'd have to upgrade my case to use dual-graphics at full speed, or just stick to one graphics card (I can live with that for now).
Another benefit with this board is that there is no resource sharing, as there are enough lanes to handle all the features listed above at the same time. Now, the eagle eyed of you may notice that M.2 hasn't been mentioned, and that's because this board doesn't support M.2. That explains how they got around having to juggle a limited number of lanes. For now, that's not a big loss as there are only 2 M.2 cards with getting, but for future-proofing...
So in short, this motherboard leans towards gamers more than the other boards lacking two features that gamers probably wouldn't miss - WiFi and M.2.
Whilst you'd need to shell out an extra £80 to get the WiFi Black edition with a bundled WiFi AC/BT4 expansion card and the promise that the board has survived an extensive stress test before being shipped from the factory, it does come with 8 SATA3 ports, one SATAe port (doubles as 2 SATA3 ports), four PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (running dual x16 mode, x16/x8/x0/x8, or quad x8 mode), 3 PCIe 2.0 x1 ports, Killer E2200 and Intel gaming NICs, and an integrated audio controller featuring "upgradable OP-AMP". Ignoring the silly names, being able to run quad SLI is certainly a feature for extreme gamers pushing those 4k UHD graphics. On the other hand, the top PCIe port is the primary graphics port so I'd have to upgrade my case to use dual-graphics at full speed, or just stick to one graphics card (I can live with that for now).
Another benefit with this board is that there is no resource sharing, as there are enough lanes to handle all the features listed above at the same time. Now, the eagle eyed of you may notice that M.2 hasn't been mentioned, and that's because this board doesn't support M.2. That explains how they got around having to juggle a limited number of lanes. For now, that's not a big loss as there are only 2 M.2 cards with getting, but for future-proofing...
So in short, this motherboard leans towards gamers more than the other boards lacking two features that gamers probably wouldn't miss - WiFi and M.2.
MSI for me means overclocking. Well, Asus ROG also means overclocking, but whilst Asus does it with flare, MSI does it with military grade 4 efficiency. Or so the marketing seems to imply. Undoubtedly they're good at overclocking, but overclocking is one of those things that most motherboards seems to be able to do equally well these days. Nearly every board can reach the 4.8Ghz that review sites see as a standard, and struggle to reach 4.9Ghz.
The XPOWER AC has 10 SATA3 ports, an M.2 port, five PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (one dedicated to the CPU to avoid latency, and the other four using the PLX chip to split the 32 lanes between the 2-4 graphics cards you plug in), two PCIe 2.0 x1 ports and the usual networking extras like the built in WiFi AC/BT4 adaptor and Intel NIC (just one this time). And "Audio Boost". Moving on.
No SATAexpress this time, and the M.2 port will knock out two of the SATA ports. However, with 10 ports, that's still more than enough. Also, this is an XL ATX motherboard, so mid-tower cases just won't cut it. Full tower or go home. Finally, this is the most expensive motherboard on the list. It does a lot, but you're paying a hefty premium for it, and that's not even including getting all those graphics cards (4x GTX Titan Black anyone?) to fill up the slots.
It's pretty much an extreme board for overclockers and extreme gamers. Overwhelming.
The XPOWER AC has 10 SATA3 ports, an M.2 port, five PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (one dedicated to the CPU to avoid latency, and the other four using the PLX chip to split the 32 lanes between the 2-4 graphics cards you plug in), two PCIe 2.0 x1 ports and the usual networking extras like the built in WiFi AC/BT4 adaptor and Intel NIC (just one this time). And "Audio Boost". Moving on.
No SATAexpress this time, and the M.2 port will knock out two of the SATA ports. However, with 10 ports, that's still more than enough. Also, this is an XL ATX motherboard, so mid-tower cases just won't cut it. Full tower or go home. Finally, this is the most expensive motherboard on the list. It does a lot, but you're paying a hefty premium for it, and that's not even including getting all those graphics cards (4x GTX Titan Black anyone?) to fill up the slots.
It's pretty much an extreme board for overclockers and extreme gamers. Overwhelming.
The dark horse of my list. When I first started building PCs, I often with with ASRock partially because they were so cheap and partially because I was able to source them below market price (the benefits of haggling). That also meant that I saw more of them die than I care to remember (you get what you pay for). Average lifespan was 1-2 years. These days however they're turning up more and more often in review sites as being affordable, reliable, and ridiculously feature filled. I mean, just look at that ASRock Z87 Extreme 11ac again. 22 SATA3 ports, 2 mSATA ports (shares resources with two SATA ports), and an eSATA connector, all for £360. Too much, unless you really need RAID 50 or 60 with 16 SSDs or something on that SAS controller.
So back to the Z97 Extreme 9. This one has 6 SATA3 ports, 2 SATAe ports (or 4 SATA3), M.2 2.0 x2 port, Ultra M.2 3.0 x4 port, 4 PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (dual in x16 mode, triple at x8/x8/x16/x0 and quad in x8/x8/x8/x8, thanks to a PLX chip), 1 PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (x2 mode, which is SILLY), a mini-PCIe slot, 2 Intel NICs with Teaming, integrated sound and no WiFi.
The lack of WiFi is made up for with the mPCIe slot, so you can plug in your own WiFi AC/BT4 card if you wanted/needed it. I suppose that keeps costs down, as this is the cheapest motherboard in the list. Also, the M.2 x2 slot shares resources with one of the two SATAe ports, whilst the UM.2 x4 port has four dedicated PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU giving it the best possible speeds (claiming up to 32Gbs theoretical, or 1.16GBs speeds compared to 0.79GBs actual speeds with a Samsung XP941). That by itself actually tells you what this motherboard is designed for - to get the most out of a Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 card. The PLX enabled quad-SLI is just an afterthought in this otherwise insanely built motherboard. Also, it claims it can support up to 110mm M.2 devices, which currently don't exist. Yet.
But is this motherboard worth the latency on the PCIe 3.0 x16 devices? Well, I don't know enough to be able to tell what difference that might make. I may update this if I find out. In other news, it's also the second motherboard in this test that can support an M.2 card and SATAe drive at the same time, and even support a third at the same time.
One other point to make, is that I don't know how the Realtek powered "Purity Sound 2" audio compares to others. Surely not as good as Crystal Sound 2 of the Asus, but these are just names until you've got them side by side blasting music at you. That and all these controllers built into the motherboard make the POST times top over 20 seconds, so disabling any unused controllers can easily reduce it down to around 7 seconds, depending on your setup.
So back to the Z97 Extreme 9. This one has 6 SATA3 ports, 2 SATAe ports (or 4 SATA3), M.2 2.0 x2 port, Ultra M.2 3.0 x4 port, 4 PCIe 3.0 x16 ports (dual in x16 mode, triple at x8/x8/x16/x0 and quad in x8/x8/x8/x8, thanks to a PLX chip), 1 PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (x2 mode, which is SILLY), a mini-PCIe slot, 2 Intel NICs with Teaming, integrated sound and no WiFi.
The lack of WiFi is made up for with the mPCIe slot, so you can plug in your own WiFi AC/BT4 card if you wanted/needed it. I suppose that keeps costs down, as this is the cheapest motherboard in the list. Also, the M.2 x2 slot shares resources with one of the two SATAe ports, whilst the UM.2 x4 port has four dedicated PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU giving it the best possible speeds (claiming up to 32Gbs theoretical, or 1.16GBs speeds compared to 0.79GBs actual speeds with a Samsung XP941). That by itself actually tells you what this motherboard is designed for - to get the most out of a Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 card. The PLX enabled quad-SLI is just an afterthought in this otherwise insanely built motherboard. Also, it claims it can support up to 110mm M.2 devices, which currently don't exist. Yet.
But is this motherboard worth the latency on the PCIe 3.0 x16 devices? Well, I don't know enough to be able to tell what difference that might make. I may update this if I find out. In other news, it's also the second motherboard in this test that can support an M.2 card and SATAe drive at the same time, and even support a third at the same time.
One other point to make, is that I don't know how the Realtek powered "Purity Sound 2" audio compares to others. Surely not as good as Crystal Sound 2 of the Asus, but these are just names until you've got them side by side blasting music at you. That and all these controllers built into the motherboard make the POST times top over 20 seconds, so disabling any unused controllers can easily reduce it down to around 7 seconds, depending on your setup.
So which motherboard to get? The Gigabyte doesn't have M.2, the MSI doesn't have SATAe, the Asus doesn't have PLX for triple/quad-SLI, and the ASrock doesn't have the dedicated graphics port and audio quality isn't as good as its competition. Still pretty good I hear, as only audiophiles with high quality headphones/speakers will notice the difference. On paper, the ASRock comes out top with the lowest price and the most features, but I will always hesitate to jump into another ASRock board without first doing all the research. On the other hand, Asus is also a good bet with a decent price and the features to meet my needs, but is the most handicapped by resource sharing (due to the fact that it doesn't use PLX).
Another factor to take into account is whether I get Core i5 or i7 to go with the motherboard, as I would need to get both at the same time. i5 is enough for gaming, and i7 is better for multi-threaded tasks which I do from time to time. Additionally, if I want to start running Virtual Machines (I've got the software now, just need the time to set it up and maybe reorganize my filing structures across my drives), I will benefit from both HyperThreading as well as getting more memory (and faster memory). Memory is easy to upgrade at a later time, at any time, so it's not worth thinking about right now.
Then there's the issue of M.2 or SATAe. With no major reason to get them yet, I'm only considering them for future-proofing, for when they step it up a few notches. May take a year, may take 2, but it's an option and one I can take, with fairly clearly defined advantages, suffering only from lack of products in the market and high price per GB for the ones in the market (£350 for the Plextor 512GB and £400 for the Samsung, compared to £150 for Crucial MX100 512GB and £160 for Samsung 840 EVO 500GB).
Finally, there's the matter of which case I will ultimately upgrade to. First I'm focussing on my more immediate needs in the motherboard and CPU, but my upgrade path will ultimately pull me out of my current case and get a more modern one with better support for my system expansion. What was once a gaming and testing machine is now becoming something like a mini-server, and the case needs to reflect that. I dropped a few names in my last post, but probably the next post I make will be one of those focussing on which case to get and how it will all fit in the case. And when I do finally open my wallet to these upgrades, I'll probably write another post with plenty of pictures to show how it is done (partially for educational purposes, and partially to display my price as an enthusiast).
