Hey you guys I was wondering if someone could tell me the differences about the Asus sabertooth motherboard its that I'm currently doing in my build. I'm involving the z97 motherboard currently in my wishlist is the mark 1, but I recently went to the newegg because I wanted to see the sales because of black Friday and cyber Monday, and the mark 1 is currently the same price and its too much for me to purchase at the moment, but the mark 2 is more lower price, and I was wondering should I wait to buy the mark 1, or should I just grab the mark 2. I want to include an i7 4790, and a gigabyte 970 in my build.
IMO this Asus Z97 Pro is a much better board than the Mark 2 ... The Pro has a 12 +2 digital phase power design for monster power control and handling capability. The Mark 2 only has a 8 +2 digital phase power design which is not terrible ... but. ... The Pro has Bios flashback ... which means you can not brick your bios.
And it has EZ XMP Ram Switch & much better isolated on board sound & more Sata ports an M.2 slot ... more display options and just more of everything and it is a dollar cheaper than the Mark 2 ATM.
http://www.asus.com/us/site/motherboards/Z97/comparison/
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97PRO/
$152 @ newegg & free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132116&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
And as for the i7 4790 CPU ... get the K part ...it is $10 cheaper and it makes your system worth more even if you do not plan to OC
Edit ... and if you ask me ... that thermal armor will actually hold in the heat rather than help it to disapate. just a gimick