Can't pick between 2 motherboards - help?

q974739 · 24 Dec 2015 at 14:14

Hi All

Can't decide between the two overclockers i5 bundles. Only difference is the motherboards.

Why would I pick https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-530-gi.html over https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-306-ms.html ? Or vice-versa?

Am stuck. Is either of them better, at anything I'm likely to care about?! Need to decide before I can order. Can't decide based on coin toss, because it might be the Wrong Choice.

mickyflinn · 24 Dec 2015 at 19:49

There is little diffrence between the 2 boards so it may come down to a coin flip or color scheme.

StudentDavid · 25 Dec 2015 at 00:04

If I am looking at this right the first board will run 2 cards at x16 x8 and the second x16 x16. Other than this not much difference.

UTmaniac · 25 Dec 2015 at 09:03

I chose the MSI bundle for my better half, it was the bundle I was likely to pick up for myself, until the insane Black Friday X99 deal.

It has a better m.2 socket that could run a Samsung 950 at full speed, unlike the Gigabyte (including mine), which needs a PCI-e adapter to overcome the more basic 10 Gb/sec m.2 socket (i.e. ~1250MB/sec throughput).

It is a lovely board and has little touches that work well, such as SATA sockets that face the open side of the case, rather than the front. Plus the strengthened PCI-e slots.

Looking forward to seeing how it performs, hopefully later today, just a few cables left to connect and to transfer the R7 265 and Pioneer Blu Ray player from her old system.

alphaomega16 · 26 Dec 2015 at 16:17

UTmaniac said:
It is a lovely board and has little touches that work well, such as SATA sockets that face the open side of the case, rather than the front.

This, all day every day.

Facing front of the case direction is such a massive PITA.

It says

" - 6x SATA 6 Gb/s (2 ports reserved for SATA Express)"

Does that mean only 4 are usable for standard drives ?

theaterix · 26 Dec 2015 at 16:26

Id probably root for the MSI board, simply because of how good it looks, and little neat touches, and its obvious MSI have paid attention to the board.

Bossman · 26 Dec 2015 at 21:53

UTmaniac said:
It has a better m.2 socket that could run a Samsung 950 at full speed, unlike the Gigabyte (including mine), which needs a PCI-e adapter to overcome the more basic 10 Gb/sec m.2 socket (i.e. ~1250MB/sec throughput).

Where does it say that the Gigabyte has issues with the m.2 slot?

katinacooker · 26 Dec 2015 at 21:55

alphaomega16 said:
This, all day every day.

Facing front of the case direction is such a massive PITA.

It says

" - 6x SATA 6 Gb/s (2 ports reserved for SATA Express)"

Does that mean only 4 are usable for standard drives ?

On my Z87-G45 you can use all 6 as normal sata drives, until you use an Esata, then you can only use 4

UTmaniac · 27 Dec 2015 at 00:00

Bossman said:
Where does it say that the Gigabyte has issues with the m.2 slot?

Most, if not all Gigabyte motherboard are lagging behind in the m.2 socket speed race, limited to 10Gb/sec rather than the turbo m.2 32Gb/sec.

This appears to include the Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI and definitely includes my X99 Gaming 5P (I have my Samsung 951 on an Asus Hyper PCI-e adapter).