Which of these motherboards would be better to go with the Asus z97m-plus,Msi z97m-g43,Gigabyte z97m-D3h,or the Asrock z97m-pro4?Also my friend is looking for a board that is stable,has the new m.2 port,can overclock to at least 4-4.2 ghz with ease,and (This is selfish because it does nothing for performance)can fit with his black with blue color scheme.Also Price is not a issue as long as it's under 150$.
Asrock is the only black and blue from the choices you made. They do produce some good motherboards. Asus is not bad either if you don't mind the gold. MSI ones looks overpriced right now.
For your friend if he wants an atx board, Asrock extreme 4 z87 or z97. There have good power phases and looks good. Only the z97 is black and blue though. The z87 is mainly black.
Ok...
basically, ignoring the gigabyte which i havent looked at...
all 3 boards have basically identical specs with the only real difference being slightly different audio on the asus although all 3 use realtek and for LAN, asrock and asus use intel LAN while MSI uses realtek...ok those are minor difference
a major difference is the asrock doesnt have M.2.
The other major difference is...whether or not he wants legacy PCI. the asrock and asus have 2 legacy PCI slots where the MSI has 2 x1 PCI-E instead (only one of which can be used at one time)...
So basically it comes to needs. if you want M.2 taht discounts the asrock.
So flip a coin between the gold asus with legacy PCI or the black and blue MSI with PCI-E x1
Why would Asus put legacy pci slots into a motherboard that's supposed to be "next gen"?Also I think I am leaning to the Msi motherboard but then the Asus has purity sound while the Msi board has the realtek alc892 but then msi motherboard does not have a ridiculous color scheme like the Asus one but then the Asus board has a intel LAN while the Msi board has the realtek but then the Msi has no useless legacy pci slots.......I can't choose!!!!!
Out of that list - any really. If I were to be picky it'd be between the asus and asrock. If your buddy is looking at black and blue colour schemes then you only option is the asrock board. Any of those boards will oc an 'k' i5/i7 easy enough. The board wont be the limiting factor his cooling will be.