Motherboard Help

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:02

Hi all.

Im building my new gaming PC within a week or 2 now, and need a little help with picking a Z170, I cant settle on which board to go with.
Spec will be a 6600K, 980Ti, SSD, nothing fancy, I just cant settle on a motherboard.
Any recommendations on a good Z170 board?
Preferably Asus / Gigabyte, never rated Asrock, and last time I had msi it was an NF3 board, and not sure about them.

Would like ATX sized, and dont want to spend a fortune on one, as nice as they are lol.

Cheers, Jason

mickyflinn · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:28

There are some good cpu and mobo bundles but all depends on what you mean by good. Do you have a budget ?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI - Intel Core i5 6600K Bundle **£20 Saving** = £308.98
1 x MSI Z170A Gaming Pro - Skylake Core i5 6600K Bundle **£20 Saving** = £309.98

Uaon · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:37

If I was buying an 1151 board, my choice would be this

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:41

I would spend a max of £150 for the motherboard.

Cheers

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:44

Uaon, that motherboard looks amazing and looks like it has some good features, but im not sure if they would get used.

Another point, good onboard sound would be a bonus, saving me buying a separate sound card.

Uaon · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:55

Jasoncmor said:
Uaon, that motherboard looks amazing and looks like it has some good features, but im not sure if they would get used.

Another point, good onboard sound would be a bonus, saving me buying a separate sound card.

Sounds to me like you want this then

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:56

Slightly cheaper than the Asus Deluxe board, is the sabertooth mark 1 board, which i could stretch to, if it was worth it, it has the same audio as the deluxe and looks cool, lol.

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 12:57

Uaon said:
Sounds to me like you want this then

Looks tacky with the while, but is that audio chip better than the crystal sound on the asus boards ?

Uaon · 30 Jan 2016 at 13:09

Jasoncmor said:
Looks tacky with the while, but is that audio chip better than the crystal sound on the asus boards ?

I thought the same when I seen it in pictures, but actually looks great when you see them in person.

personally it's been years since I have used any form of on board sound, I use a xonar essence stx.. Generally speaking creative sound cards are generally better for positional audio in games where as Asus sound cards are more for purists and better for music .

The sabertooth is nice, Im using a z77 sabertooth, but feature wise they are pretty similar to the Asus pro series.

If you like you could go for a Z170 pro and a nice soundcard. I hear the new strix series of soundcards are great for games and relatively affordable

.

So you could do go this or this and this

I personally love the xonar stx but yoiu would need a quality set of heaphones to really benefit form it

You can also go for any of those boards and just buy an external dac but I do know that both the stx and that strix card have great built in dacs anyway

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 13:30

Cheers for you help mate.

I want the high quality audio more for music than gaming.

Uaon · 30 Jan 2016 at 13:38

Jasoncmor said:
Cheers for you help mate.

I want the high quality audio more for music than gaming.

happy to help, best for music would be the stx imo and that's coming from personal expereince

8 Pack · 30 Jan 2016 at 13:42

Hero or Gene ASUS are very Solid.

ASrock OCF very good no matter what you say!! in the lower priced bracket Xtreme 4 solid.

MSI X Power Titanium graet.

Jasoncmor · 30 Jan 2016 at 18:50

Cheers for all your help guys, much appreciated.

flowrider99 · 30 Jan 2016 at 23:28

I have 4 ASRock motherboards, 2 H77's, 1 H61 and 1 Z170, all have been rock solid so far. One of the H77's is in my server which is powered on 24/7.