8086k Motherboards

[Culbrelai]

So I won an 8086k, just came today.





My question is, do I try to sell it and deal with paypal chargebacks and other nonsense (not really interested frankly) or do I buy a Z370 motherboard and use it. (though, I could try to sell it on this forum and then ill be able to publicly shame anyone who tries to pull anything =P)

I'm leaning heavily toward buy a Z370 motherboard, even though I do need a new graphics card to replace my long in the tooth 670s, most games I play these days are HEAVILY cpu bound (Paradox Interactive titles) so I might actually see a benefit from the 8086k. Plus, I was never really happy with the overclocking of my particular 6700k, seems like I got a bottom of the barrel one.

I am looking for recommendations for motherboards $200 or less.

Prefer: ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA

Requirements:

Good overclocking potential on CLC AIO or air (Corsair H80i V2 or Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, I'll try the Corsair first but it didn't seem to work well on my 6700k and might be faulty or I might be stupid, one of the two)
Good audio solution (I have $400 speakers)
As few resource conflicts as possible
As many SATA ports as can be had (I dont care if they have added controller chips, I just have a lot of mechanical drives)

Supports NVME (of course they all should but you never know, I have a PCI-E AIB Intel 750 SSD)
Supports x8/x8/x4 (two graphics cards plus the x4 SSD)

Supports at least 1 SATA M.2 drive (I have a Samsung EVO SATA m.2 drive, which I bought before I knew what NVME was... le sigh)

 

[EarthDog]

All overclock the same really...

No resource conflicts (outsode of ones for the whole platform m.2 and sata)

Best onboard audio is realtek alc1220 codec of asus' spin on it supremefx s1220a

How many sata ports do you NEED? Native is 6 to z370.

The board needs to support sli to go 8/8/4...(get rid of sli already )

Since you have a sata based m.2 stick you will lose a sata port regardless im pretty sure.

 

[mackerel]

I'm running the 8086k on an Asrock Z370 Pro4, which is usually one of the cheapest OC mobos for the platform. I had past bad experience with MSI who are often the other brand with the cheapest mobos. On my sample, I got 5.1 GHz all cores without delid, on a Noctua D15. It was thermally on the edge then. With a delid, I got 5.2 and hit the voltage wall before I could stabilise 5.3. Thermals were not the limiting factor there. You can certainly do better on your budget, but basic overclocking isn't necessarily a concern on a budget board.

The CPU only directly supports 16x total, which will be split 8+8 in SLI. If there are more PCIe lanes for M.2 or otherwise, they run off the chipset. I run an Optane 900P off the chipset, and there is hardly any detectable difference in benchmarks running on there compared to off CPU. Real world, not significant.

 

[Culbrelai]

I'm considering the Gigabyte (Aorus) Gaming 7 or, of course, the MaxiPad X Hero

The Gaming 7 will disable 2 SATA ports when using a SATA M.2 drive. Apparently on the Maxi Hero, only 1 will be disabled. Looks like I'm leaning toward the Hero.

EDIT: Seems like I'm wrong, both only disable 1 SATA port, the Gigabyte just disables two if you use the top m.2 port, one if you use the 2nd m.2. Weird.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb..._HERO/E13645_ROG_MAXIMUS_X_HERO_UM_V2_WEB.pdf (PG x)

Motherboards these days all seem to be much the same. Its a shame Intel's mainstream platform is so limited. I wish I would have gotten in on time on that 1950x promo. Then again, I'd be quite happy if I could find a Z370 mobo that had an ISA or PCI slot =P

 

[EarthDog]

Boards will be different in how they disable and how many ports. So youll have to read the manuals (or some list on their specs) to see which are disabled.

That said, the taichi is always solid from asrock.

 

[Culbrelai]

Paid the $20 ASUS tax since I was pretty happy with my Maxi 8 hero, why not continue.

People on amazon were complaining that they got used Maxi X's but mine appears to be new, meh people on amazon are always complaining about something. Gonna do a full rewire, clean off my desk, organization, etc etc gonna be a long one. Hopefully its not DOA or anything. Also got a new Steelseries mousepad and a PS/2 to USB converter so I can use my old Model M if I want.

 

[Brando]

i was too late...damn! here goes anyways. i'll be rolling with asrtock extreme series from this point forward unless something changes in the way they do things when making mobos. this z370 extreme4 is the second motherboard ive had that was painless in pretty much every way. both my last 2 asus boards had issues with xmp. gigabyte kept forgetting settings. abit wouldnt boot with an aftermarket heatsink attached. my msi board worked great on my old amd cpu back in the day. so big ups to asrock and msi i suppose.

 

[caddi daddi]

I have my first of three asrock extreme4/8086K rigs up and running.
slapped it together and BAM-O, up and running.
At 5.3, 1.55 volts and only setting the vcore to fixed and the core ratios to all and 53, setting the ram at xmp, no other adjustments in the bios!!!!!
I have one that has been delided, and I can't wait to run it neked under that cooling system, xspc raystorm, EK pump and a 5 gallon reservoir cooled by an mora, 4x18o rad.
I am finding that cooling the vrm section really counts, I have removed all the shrouds on the mother board and flooding with a good bit of fan action helps.

 

[wingman99]

I have my first of three asrock extreme4/8086K rigs up and running.
slapped it together and BAM-O, up and running.
At 5.3, 1.55 volts and only setting the vcore to fixed and the core ratios to all and 53, setting the ram at xmp, no other adjustments in the bios!!!!!
I have one that has been delided, and I can't wait to run it neked under that cooling system, xspc raystorm, EK pump and a 5 gallon reservoir cooled by an mora, 4x18o rad.
I am finding that cooling the vrm section really counts, I have removed all the shrouds on the mother board and flooding with a good bit of fan action helps.

Were you having VRM throttling before your actions taken to cool the VRM?

 

[caddi daddi]

yes, at the very highest clocks.
they are induced by me, I just shot the juice to it and did not work my voltages back.
when I get back I'll have a chance to work on them some.

 

[Culbrelai]

Some of you might find this ironic

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?104476-Maximus-X-Hero-Wifi-Code-00

When/if I get my refund I'll be getting the gigabyte

If it was that easy to brick a Maxi 10 Hero with ONE BIOS update, then I don't want it at all lol. I've been updating the BIOS on my 8 Hero every time a new one comes out with no issues using the exact same flash utility ASUS has on their UEFIs for a while now. Suddenly its an issue. Sigh. Although I'm starting to have fun troubleshooting PCs, it used to stress me out. Now that I know the procedure I am less stressed by it and more annoyed.

 

[EarthDog]

You returned it, to never get one again, over that? Seriously?

Enjoy your giga!

 

[Culbrelai]

You returned it, to never get one again, over that? Seriously?

Enjoy your giga!

I'll probably get a Maxi 12 Hero, I never said I'll never get another one =P

This isn't old Culbrelai.

Although it'll probably be a decade before I buy anything AMD again

 

[EarthDog]

Ok.. id just get another. Surely it was anomolous. Stuff happens. If it happens repeatedly, then its an issue.

 

[Culbrelai]

Sigh I just can't catch a break. Now this Gigabyte doesn't post, but I bet I know what it is. Only the newest motherboard bios revision supports my 8086k. My mobo is rev 1.0 and I bet it has an old BIOS.

CPU led is on, no q code shows, no posting, just reboot loops.

Question is, does anyone have a coffee lake CPU near me I can borrow =P or do I buy the cheapest Coffee Lake CPU and update the bios and then return it?
Humm...

 

[EarthDog]

Any PC place around you that you can pay a small amount to flash your board for you? There has to be something around you...?

 

[OC-NightHawk]

Paid the $20 ASUS tax since I was pretty happy with my Maxi 8 hero, why not continue.

People on amazon were complaining that they got used Maxi X's but mine appears to be new, meh people on amazon are always complaining about something. Gonna do a full rewire, clean off my desk, organization, etc etc gonna be a long one. Hopefully its not DOA or anything. Also got a new Steelseries mousepad and a PS/2 to USB converter so I can use my old Model M if I want.

View attachment 200788

I've always been fond of Asus motherboards.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Edit:


Bummer sorry to see you return it. My Crosshair had to get updated but I used EZUpdate from Windows and it downloaded it and did whatever it needed to do then rebooted into the bios update screen and did it's thing. If you decide to try again hopefully it works better next time.

 

[Culbrelai]

The ASUS was fine, just a single BIOS update bricked it for some unknown reason. I could have avoided all of this if I just didnt try to update the bios right from the get go, but I usually do that to maximize hardware compatibility and minimize future issues etc. Who knows, I could have tried to update it outside of the warranty period much later and been SOL, so perhaps its a blessing in disguise.

I like to look on the brightside, given this unique opportunity to effectively sample two high end Z370 boards, I can say I am (subjectively) pleased with the build quality of the Gigabyte, its on par with or better than the Maxi X Hero. Very nice board. Lets just hope the cheap-o $40 celeron I bought will allow me to cure my BIOS problem.

 

[wingman99]

The ASUS was fine, just a single BIOS update bricked it for some unknown reason. I could have avoided all of this if I just didnt try to update the bios right from the get go, but I usually do that to maximize hardware compatibility and minimize future issues etc. Who knows, I could have tried to update it outside of the warranty period much later and been SOL, so perhaps its a blessing in disguise.

I like to look on the brightside, given this unique opportunity to effectively sample two high end Z370 boards, I can say I am (subjectively) pleased with the build quality of the Gigabyte, its on par with or better than the Maxi X Hero. Very nice board. Lets just hope the cheap-o $40 celeron I bought will allow me to cure my BIOS problem.

I purchased a ASUS z370 and the BIOS update also bricked it.

 

[Woomack]

Pretty much the same can be on any mobo but I won't hide that I had problems with BIOS on older ASUS mobos (pre X370/Z270). Most RMA were related to dead BIOS (like no chance to even run recovery) or CPU socket issues. On GB all RMA were on the same + power section issues. I had no issues with BIOS or sockets on ASRock and MSI boards and I'm testing a lot of ASRock mobos in last months.
For 8086K I'm using MSI Z370I GC ITX. It runs in pretty hot ITX box without issues for couple of weeks.

I'm not sure if any Z370 mobo requires BIOS update for 8086K only to make it work. Microcode supposed to be the same as on every other CPU. At least I was using my CPU on 3 mobos, all with first BIOS and all were working fine.