Final Motherboard Selection

[cctaylor88]

Currently set on purchasing either an i5 6600k or i7 6700k and need a motherboard to pair up with the CPU. I have narrowed it down to the following three motherboards. Really just looking for everyone to weigh in (yes I will be OC'ing). No SLI.

 

[DigDog]

go with the Asus; the other two use Killer NICs which are inferior to the Intel NIC the Asus has.

 

[Emo]

I would pick the Gigabyte, it has dual Ethernet (one Intel, one Killer), dual M.2 slots and better audio chipset (ALC1150 vs ALC892). The MSI board is overpriced compared to the Gigabyte.

 

[Tweak155]

This deal posted on SlickDeals looks like it covers most of the features of these boards for a good price:

http://slickdeals.net/f/8803203-msi...g-com?p=85637291&comment=success#post85637291

Only thing that seems to be missing is SATA Express.

 

[DigDog]

it does? didn't notice.
imho the gigabyte UD3 is better, i think it costs about the same or slightly less.

 

[bonehead123]

I would pick the Gigabyte, it has dual Ethernet (one Intel, one Killer), dual M.2 slots and better audio chipset (ALC1150 vs ALC892). The MSI board is overpriced compared to the Gigabyte.

^^THIS^^

I have the Gaming 7 and love it ! It is more $$ than the 5 but has a few more features too.....

I've been running it in the rig in my sig for over 4 months now neveranottaproblemo

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The ASUS "Z[xxx]-A" line of boards may all have 8-phase power design, or the ones I'm familiar with do. We have a Z77-A board here. Generally the feature-set doesn't change much with changes in chipsets and CPU-sockets, and if the Z170-A boards have better phase-power design it would be 10. But I'll bet it is 8.

So as I read the ASUS promotion, I was almost stunned that you could clock the i7-6700K or maybe the 6600K as well to 4.8Ghz.

The board is definitely overclockable. The Z77-A that I know has a lean BIOS, where you thought a feature would be available (like adjusting CPU PLL voltage but the board only offers default and 1.8V. But you could tune the sucker.

And for what you pay, I can only bet that the Z170-A board is as good as any you'll get at that price.

 

[xLegenday]

I would remove MSI from your list, their quality lately is well bellow average. The last few mobos I've got from them were rubbish, plagued with issues and then their support was equal to none.
Check ASrock boards as they are build with overclocking in mind, they are solid choice when it comes to overclocking, If your into overclock the OC formula models are good fun but bit too much for average user.

 

[cctaylor88]

I would remove MSI from your list, their quality lately is well bellow average. The last few mobos I've got from them were rubbish, plagued with issues and then their support was equal to none.
Check ASrock boards as they are build with overclocking in mind, they are solid choice when it comes to overclocking, If your into overclock the Extreme OC models are good fun but bit too much for average user.

I appreciate your response, I ended up going with the Gigabyte-GAZ170X-Gaming 7

 

[cctaylor88]

^^THIS^^

I have the Gaming 7 and love it ! It is more $$ than the 5 but has a few more features too.....

I've been running it in the rig in my sig for over 4 months now neveranottaproblemo

Question for me, I have this board up and running now and I notice there are two slots for ethernet. I picked the one on the bottom that is next to the USB hubs... is there any real difference in speed? I think you're completely capped by your ISP anyways.

 

[fastman]

Run some ping tests and you tell us. It's all about latency and what you got. Real world as in yours.

Edit... I'm looking at getting the same Board too.

 

[bonehead123]

Although there seems to be some Killer-hate around these parts, I have used both my Intel NIC and the Killer without any noticable difference in speed, latency or anything else (I am on a 50mb/s down/15mb/s up connection with avg 8-9ms pings)

It seems to me that the issues from earlier Killer NIC's have been resolved with the latest versions (e2400), when using up to date drivers and BIOS....

I haven't actually tested either since I got the board, but I can do so & post back this weekend.

And yes, your ISP controls your actual speeds, but with a good, solid NIC, at least you can make full use of whatever they give you to work with......

 

[EmMayEx]

I just ordered an MSI Z170A SLI Plus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...130900&cm_re=msi_z170a-_-13-130-900-_-Product

It has Intel NIC and Realtek ALC1150 sound and attractive price. I doubt I'll ever use SLI but for the price I did not see a better match for an Intel i5 6600K.