Well it's time to upgrade my aging 4790K and Asus Maximus VII Formula build. I'm looking at either a 9700K or 9900K due to the single thread performance which I still need for old stuff like Microsoft Flightsim X. It needs max single thread performance to do well. I'm not sure where to even start looking for boards this time though. Last time the options were really narrowed down by wanting built in wifi and needing sound with a built in headphone amp. I don't need any of those this time around though. I want the ability to overclock but won't be planning on doing anything extreme at first. I may eventually go full water and try to push it a bit down the road though. I don't do SLI so that's not concern either.
I was thinking of EVGA's Z390 FTW since I've run EVAG boards before but it's been a while (like P59 a while) and I know for a while the boards weren't well like or had some serious bugs. I'm on Asus now and it's been ok other than a notable lack of real updates not too far in. I haven't used Gigabyte before but I've always heard good things about their stuff. Trying to keep the board cost around or under 200 if possible but really don't want to go past 250 if it can be helped. I figure since I'm not looking for the extra wifi or high end sound goodies like headphone amps that might be easier?
I'm just doing some preliminary looking right now. It'll probably be a couple months before I actually do the build. Oh, I will not be re-using my Noctua NH-D14 a 3rd time. I'm planning on at least an AIO water solution if not full custom this time.
AMD Ryzen 5950X | Asus Crosshair VIII Hero | Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 w/EK Vector2 | GSkill Trident Z Neo 2x16GB DDR4-3600 | WD SN850 2TB | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB & 860 Evo 2TB | Phanteks Enthoo 719 | Seasonic Prime Ultra Gold 1000W | Steelseries M750 TKL | SteelSeries Prime Wireless | SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC | Kanto YU2 + Yamaha sub | Schiit Magni 2 Uber & Modi 2 Uber | LG 34GN850 | Asus PG279Q | Win 11 Pro | Custom water loop