Hi all. So in my thread in the nVIDIA Flavor section of the Video Card forum, I mentioned that I was going to do a Skylake build in terms of core parts (CPU, mobo and memory) but also an updated chassis. I already decided on CPU, memory and chassis shown below:
Core i7 6700K CPU
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 32GB (4X8GB) DDR4-2800 memory
Corsair Vengeance C70 Gunmetal Black ATX mid-tower chassis
But now comes the hard choice: the motherboard. 3 are on my mind right now but it's early and there's time for others to change my mind on what I choose. For now here are the 3 preliminary finalists (and Newegg.com link to each board)
ASUS Republic of Gamers Maximus VIII Hero: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ASUS_Maximus_VIII_Hero-_-13-132-565-_-Product
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gigabyte_z170_gaming_7-_-13-128-835-_-Product
eVGA Z170 FTW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...78&cm_re=eVGA_Z170_FTW-_-13-188-178-_-Product
Now before I continue I know I can spend more and get say eVGA's Z170 Classified or Gigabyte's G1 series Z170 but I don't want to break the bank for this build and spending more on mobo than CPU I feel is kinda silly. Plus, for the price range I want to spend on a mobo (under $250 before tax) these 3 aren't a bad trio to start a conversation with.
What I like about each mobo so far is starting with the ASUS, I've never owned one of their ROG boards before and of what they're offering for the money it provides a lot of what I'm looking for (USB 3.1, SATA3, DDR4 memory, strong OC capability, design layout) based on what other parts are going into and to at least say in this technician's life I used one of their ROG boards is kinda like a feather in the cap. However; some say their onboard audio solution for that board stinks out loud, ASUS's support in general I know already sucks worse than Joshua "J.C." Chasez's solo album (if you don't know who that is he's one of the former members of N*Sync errr...N*Stink) so its in the conversation for its pros but has some cons.
On the Gigabyte board, I want to first say to HardOCP's staff that your review of this board swayed me into putting it in my preliminary finalists so far. The Gigabyte board sounds excellent, it has a similar feature set to the ASUS board, has a better audio solution than the Maximus VIII Hero, has a great layout as well and seems to have finally taken a big step toward solving some UEFI BIOS issues.
On the eVGA board, I've been a frequent customer of eVGA products and have owned 2 of their mobos. The first one was a forgettable AMD board which had a borked memory controller so it didn't work after installing Windows on it. The 2nd board I owned I still use (the X58 3X SLI board) and it's been rocksteady with giving me no issues and a lot of good days. I know the Z170 FTW board isn't as feature rich as the other 2 and even costs less ($190 instead of $225-$230 for the other 2) but it seems to be a good board with some good qualities (6-layer PCB support, M2 support, 6-phase PWM) going for it too.
Well, enough about my descriptions and talk. I now open the floor to the rest of you. Of these 3 preliminary finalists what are your thoughts? Do any of these seem like a clear cut winner? Would you choose something different than these 3? Thanks in advance for your answers and until next time I am out!
Core i7 6700K CPU
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 32GB (4X8GB) DDR4-2800 memory
Corsair Vengeance C70 Gunmetal Black ATX mid-tower chassis
But now comes the hard choice: the motherboard. 3 are on my mind right now but it's early and there's time for others to change my mind on what I choose. For now here are the 3 preliminary finalists (and Newegg.com link to each board)
ASUS Republic of Gamers Maximus VIII Hero: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ASUS_Maximus_VIII_Hero-_-13-132-565-_-Product
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gigabyte_z170_gaming_7-_-13-128-835-_-Product
eVGA Z170 FTW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...78&cm_re=eVGA_Z170_FTW-_-13-188-178-_-Product
Now before I continue I know I can spend more and get say eVGA's Z170 Classified or Gigabyte's G1 series Z170 but I don't want to break the bank for this build and spending more on mobo than CPU I feel is kinda silly. Plus, for the price range I want to spend on a mobo (under $250 before tax) these 3 aren't a bad trio to start a conversation with.
What I like about each mobo so far is starting with the ASUS, I've never owned one of their ROG boards before and of what they're offering for the money it provides a lot of what I'm looking for (USB 3.1, SATA3, DDR4 memory, strong OC capability, design layout) based on what other parts are going into and to at least say in this technician's life I used one of their ROG boards is kinda like a feather in the cap. However; some say their onboard audio solution for that board stinks out loud, ASUS's support in general I know already sucks worse than Joshua "J.C." Chasez's solo album (if you don't know who that is he's one of the former members of N*Sync errr...N*Stink) so its in the conversation for its pros but has some cons.
On the Gigabyte board, I want to first say to HardOCP's staff that your review of this board swayed me into putting it in my preliminary finalists so far. The Gigabyte board sounds excellent, it has a similar feature set to the ASUS board, has a better audio solution than the Maximus VIII Hero, has a great layout as well and seems to have finally taken a big step toward solving some UEFI BIOS issues.
On the eVGA board, I've been a frequent customer of eVGA products and have owned 2 of their mobos. The first one was a forgettable AMD board which had a borked memory controller so it didn't work after installing Windows on it. The 2nd board I owned I still use (the X58 3X SLI board) and it's been rocksteady with giving me no issues and a lot of good days. I know the Z170 FTW board isn't as feature rich as the other 2 and even costs less ($190 instead of $225-$230 for the other 2) but it seems to be a good board with some good qualities (6-layer PCB support, M2 support, 6-phase PWM) going for it too.
Well, enough about my descriptions and talk. I now open the floor to the rest of you. Of these 3 preliminary finalists what are your thoughts? Do any of these seem like a clear cut winner? Would you choose something different than these 3? Thanks in advance for your answers and until next time I am out!