So which z170 1151 board and why?

[Pepi93]

I've been doing some research into a skylake build and from what I've read so far I'm very hesitant in making the transition. I basically only need the mobo, ram and cpu.

For cpu it will be the 6700k and ram I was thinking a 3000mhz 2x8gb, keep it simple, 15 CL. I figured the 3000 will give me enough headroom to OC.

The mobo is where I'm stuck. I'm not sure if you guys find reviews on newegg, ncix reliable but it seems that no matter which company you choose there seems to be a lot of issues with the new boards and the reviews are recent (2016).

The boards I am interested in include a gigabyte gaming 6 or the asus equivalent, sabertooth, ROG hero is nice (I know these are overkill for what I actually need) but they are nice boards.

From what I'm reading the more bells/whistles a board has the more issues as well?

I like to OC but I don't do benchmarks so a modest OC is fine for me, similar to what I have now. (4.5ghz @ 1.2Vcore)

I will never do 3 way SLI, 2 at most and that's even iffy. I like to stay with single gpu builds.

What boards would you guys suggest to look at? Where do you guys go for reliable user end reviews?

Thanks.

 

[The_Jizzler]

FWIW I have a asus z170-m_Plus and am very happy with it

 

[Woomack]

I would pass anything from Gigabyte. There are various issues with these boards and at least in this generation I don't trust them enough to recommend them. On the other hand I see that new MSI are solid. I had two of them and both were great. ASUS or ASRock are good options too. I don't know if there is a point to pay premium for ROG. I think you should compare additional features as base for all Z170 boards is the same and most are overclocking the same. Memory on all will work at least up to 3200-3400. On lower series can be problem with higher memory clock.

 

[KharmaKazi]

i would have to agree on the Gigabyte comment above, and there e-support was crap too. and it took me over 5 months to get a refund.
which in the end the PC shop gave me the refund not Gigabyte.
i had to buy a cheaper board than the high end Gigabyte i had, while the Gigabyte board was getting sent back twice.

bought an Asus hero viii at the time to keep me going and been very happy with it. running SLI GPU's. 16gb 3000mhz memory.
i didn't really think much of the on board sound on it, so just fitted a sound card. but i'm a bit fussy with sound.
overall though iv'e been very happy with the Asus board...

 

[Pepi93]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[l1amrob]

Some of the top players have been cutting their quality lately and the smaller guys, specially ASRock going opposite trying to get attention their way.
I'm running my Z170 Fatal1ty K6 24/7 and never had any issues. Solid board with excellent features.

 

[RollingThunder]

I've been doing some research into a skylake build and from what I've read so far I'm very hesitant in making the transition. I basically only need the mobo, ram and cpu.

For cpu it will be the 6700k and ram I was thinking a 3000mhz 2x8gb, keep it simple, 15 CL. I figured the 3000 will give me enough headroom to OC.

The mobo is where I'm stuck. I'm not sure if you guys find reviews on newegg, ncix reliable but it seems that no matter which company you choose there seems to be a lot of issues with the new boards and the reviews are recent (2016).

The boards I am interested in include a gigabyte gaming 6 or the asus equivalent, sabertooth, ROG hero is nice (I know these are overkill for what I actually need) but they are nice boards.

From what I'm reading the more bells/whistles a board has the more issues as well?

I like to OC but I don't do benchmarks so a modest OC is fine for me, similar to what I have now. (4.5ghz @ 1.2Vcore)

I will never do 3 way SLI, 2 at most and that's even iffy. I like to stay with single gpu builds.

What boards would you guys suggest to look at? Where do you guys go for reliable user end reviews?

Thanks.

Pepi,

Some excellent motherboard reviews here by our guys:

http://www.overclockers.com/category/reviews/

Helped me a lot.

 

[DaveB]

I built one Z170 setup just for the hell of it and bought the cheapest mATX motherboard in stock at Microcenter at that time - the ASRock Z170M Pro4S. It was a very stable board that overclocked well for $60 after rebate and the $20 CPU/Motherboard bundle discount.

ASRock Z170M Pro4S mATX Motherboard

 

[EarthDog]

Goes to show what we were saying... nearly ANY board will be fine. Just make sure it has the features you require, the look, and price!

Im really REALLY not a fan of people's anecdotal experiences. What some tend to lose sight of is that their experience is one out of THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS for the same board. So the chances of that same issue or same experience is pretty slim. Returns of mobo's are, for the most part, WELL less than 5%... so... consider that when you hear complaints about boards from individuals.

 

[cdawall]

On that not I build probably one of these per day on average and I would steer clear of any Asus board that is not a rog, even those are immensely overpriced IMO. The Z170-a is probably my least favorite board of all time, everyone of them seems to want a different slipstreamed windows 7 installer, not to mention it has by far the worst ram compatibility of any board I have ever seen.

My personal bang for the buck pick of the lot? Just grab a gaming 5 msi or gb. They seem to be the least problems I deal with.