Best Z170 board for £100 or thereabouts?

Gimpymoo · 14 Dec 2016 at 22:25

Or are they mostly all the same at that price point?

Thanks.

pastymuncher · 15 Dec 2016 at 09:55

This is a decent board for the money and even better value at a tenner off at the moment. There's a review here.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £99.95

warren_1979 · 20 Jul 2017 at 16:34

Is this board still viable for overclocking a non k i5?

pastymuncher · 20 Jul 2017 at 19:13

I have no idea and it's not something I would do as there are too many compromises for my liking.

RavenXXX2 · 20 Jul 2017 at 20:29

warren_1979 said:
Is this board still viable for overclocking a non k i5?

Yes it is and can be had for £90. There are really no drawbacks with non k overclocking. you lose IGPU and power saving, skylake sips that little juice it makes little to no difference.

Bios for non K OC.

http://overclocking.guide/download/gigabyte-ga-z170-gaming-k3-non-k-oc-bios/

warren_1979 · 20 Jul 2017 at 21:21

Cool thanks.

Can the BIOS on the Gigabyte be downgraded because I think the 2c BIOS for OCing will be an old version now for that board?

RavenXXX2 · 20 Jul 2017 at 21:37

Plenty of threads detailing how and you get a dual bios so if one fails you have a backup.

warren_1979 · 21 Jul 2017 at 08:49

Are there any M-ATX Z170 boards?

pastymuncher · 21 Jul 2017 at 09:40

warren_1979 said:
Cool thanks.

Can the BIOS on the Gigabyte be downgraded because I think the 2c BIOS for OCing will be an old version now for that board?

You have to stick with the special bios which means that you can never update the bios. This is another downside to this method of overclocking because when a gpu is launched that needs a motherboard bios update to make it compatible you either flash the bios and lose your overclocking ability or return the card and make do with a older one. You may think this doesn't happen very often but it is in fact very common.

jabbz · 23 Jul 2017 at 20:35

I have the z170 gigabyte G1 sniper and its a brilliant motherboard. I had to pay around £120 for it but it OC well and has most things you would need.
Yes you could go overboard but not for that kind of cash. I almost got the £100 k3 but for the extra you get a much better board.