Hi guys,

I'm looking at doing a new build after pay-day, and whilst I've decided on most of the components, I'm trying to decide on a motherboard, power supply, and SSD.
 
Power Supply
I'm trying to choose between the EVGA SuperNova G2 750W (£85) and the Corsair AX760 (£120).  Both are obviously excellent units, and are significantly over-specified for my requirements (I would pick a 500-550W unit, but there's a lack of high quality ones around here).

My head says go with the EVGA, because it has about half the amount of ripple on the 12V rail (the Corsair is still excellent, though).  However, my heart says pick the Corsair as it's really a Seasonic X-Series Platinum, and is marginally better than the EVGA for most things (ripple aside).  Also, as I'll be using a Fractal Design Define R4 case and replacing the intake fan with a pair of Noctua's, I'll have a spare 140mm fan.  If I use the Corsair, I can use that fan as a bottom intake, but if I use the (longer) EVGA it won't fit (120mm only).  Granted, I probably won't need the extra fan, but my OCD says "I have a spare fan, therefore I must use it" ...
 
SSD
I'm looking at using an SSD for storing only the OS and applications (Visual Studio, Office, GIMP, Lightroom, VLC, VirtualBox, Steam, and a couple of others) - my profile data, swapfile, and games will go on a mechanical drive.  Adding up what I'm looking to install, I think it comes to around 60GB - would it be sensible to get a ~120GB SSD, or would it be more sensible to get a ~250GB drive..?  I can get a Samsung 850 Pro 128GB for ~£90, or an 840 EVO 120GB/250GB for ~£55/£85 respectively (or a SanDisk X300s for another ~£5)...

Motherboard
I'm trying to choose between the ASUS Z97-A (£110), and the Z97-Pro (£140).  I'm leaning towards to Pro, and I'm not sure if that's rational or not.

In terms of features, the Z97-A does everything I'd need, and only points in favour of the Z97-Pro that are likely to be of use to me are:

• Better on-board audio (ALC1150 vs ALC892).  I've heard the ALC982 chip on the Z87-A, and it sounds absolutely fine playing music, but I guess better is never a bad thing...
• 4 SATA cables - I need 4 and the Z97-A only comes with 3, so I'd need to spend another £4 (and it wouldn't match the others).  Minor, I know...
• More VRM phases (12+2 vs 8).  Whilst I won't be overclocking, my primary concern is stability and longevity (I'm hoping for 5 years+).  I don't know if having the extra phases will help with this..?  I'll be using an i7-4790K, and won't be using SLI, if it makes a difference.
• Bigger heatsinks (I'm assuming this is a good thing)

However, it also has a few unexpected drawbacks when compared to the Z97-A:

• Two of the rear USB3 ports, the bottom PCI-Ex16 slot, and the bottom PCI-Ex1 slot all share bandwidth.  I don't believe I'll be using any of these expansion slots (although if I were to add a sound card, it'd go in the bottom PCI-Ex1 slot to keep it as far away from the GPU as possible), but I will be using 4 of the 6 rear USB ports (keyboard, mouse, printer and backup disk), so it's getting close to being a potential issue (although I could run one of the internal USB3 headers to a rear bracket if needed?).  The second and third PCI-Ex1 slots share bandwidth, although as the second one will be covered by the GPU, this shouldn't be an issue.
• The extra SATA-3 ports can't be used for optical drives, and effectively drop to SATA-2 when both are in use (although this is unlikely to happen, and should be adequate for HDDs).

So, would you go with the Z97-A, or the Z97-Pro? It's entirely possible that I'm over-thinking this, but the unreasonable geeky perfectionist in me looks at the Z97-Pro, and thinks "that needs another 4 PCI-E2 lanes" ...

Thanks!

DAVE2HOT4UThis is a U.S.A. product made in texas I think (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX1AV8749) Is what I have in my computer works great.

Thanks, but it looks like it's not available over here (I'm in the UK).

boredgunneryou've clearly done your research on both PSUs already

Yeah, I'm very much of the opinion that a decent PSU is a good idea for the rest of the PC.  I once had a cheap one fail (it was a "£30 for the case with PSU [early/mid 90's]" job), which manifested itself as a loud "crack" and a bright white flash out of the back of the PC - that was ... "interesting".  The next power supply I bought was a Seasonic ...
 

boredgunnerthe price of the 840 EVO is hard to beat, especially the 250GB so I'd go that route.

That would probably be the sensible option (I know I tend to over-spec ).I keep on looking at the 850 Pro due to the significantly higher write endurance, but the "sensible" part of me says it's highly unlikely that I'd generate enough writes to kill the 840 EVO. 
 

boredgunnerI recommend checking out the Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97.  Amazing value, Gigabyte now has the best onboard audio design by far, excellent features.  ASRock has some extremely attractive motherboards too, like the Fatal1ty Z97 Professional.

I'll have a look at them.
 
The Gigabyte looks nice, and at £120, it works out in the middle of the Z97-A and Z97-PRO cost-wise.  The 4 year warranty (5 on the UD series) is inviting, too...    Unfortunately, ASRock are harder to find than ASUS/MSI/Gigabyte here - I can find the Fatal1ty Z97X Killer (£105), Pro4 (£105), and Extreme 4 (£105) and 6 (£130), but not the Fatal1ty Professional. (minor niggle - I don't like the blue colour scheme - the black of the Gigabyte black range and ASUS looks much better to my eyes, not that it really matters)
 
I was originally looking at the ASUS ones because everyone says they're the best in terms of overall quality and BIOS..? I must admit, I've been impressed with the BIOS of the Z87-A (I used one to build my parents' PC).  However, unlike Gigabyte, their warranty service is supposed to be not good, from what I've read (though obviously you hope you never need it!)
 
 
 
Of course, the 5820K just released at a lower price than I thought it would (£290, vs £245 for the 4790K), as did the X99-A (£175 vs £140 for the Z97-PRO) ... just that DDR4 is another £140.  I know I don't need six cores ... but that doesn't stop me being tempted!

RainStrykeI would definitely go for the X99 platform.

I am genuinely tempted, and the computer geek in me says to go for it with the reasoning, "because...6 cores", but this is tempered by the little voice in the back of my head that says (in the voice of Ronnie Barker as Arkwright), "how much?!", whilst pointing out that I likely don't really need 6 cores, and Intel's recommendation of using water-cooling.  Whilst the CPU might only be another ~£40 (15%) and the motherboard another £35 (25%), the memory's another £140 (110%) - all added up it comes to another ~£215, which increases the total system cost by a noticeable amount.

andrewc513With the SSD, I'd recommend sticking with the Samsung 850 for the 10-year warranty alone.

Good point - that is something I'd totally forgotten about!