Havent bought a mb in many years

[Sammy]

I tend to stress over all things electronics when deciding what to get. Anyone have any of these or have good knowledge of them? I did a lot of reading. The ones with the higher price are just at the limit of my price range. But the lower priced ones are preferred to apply the savings to a cpu. Most of the time general daily use or typical games. But also some heavy 3D and video work + encoding.

 

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR4-Motherboards-H170-PRO4/dp/B0148DP41E

 

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Motherboards-FATAL1TY-Z170-GAMING/dp/B012D7GXNK

 

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR4-Motherboards-Z170-EXTREME6/dp/B012D7H9JC

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-LGA1151-Intel-Motherboards-GA-Z170X-Gaming/dp/B012N6E996

 

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Motherboard-Z170A-GAMING-PRO/dp/B013TSG7LA/

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013ALA6T0/ref=twister_B013LGH2HI?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

Sucks that one or more things died on me this morning. Could be mem because at one point only 32MB (with an M) posted. If it posted at all. Other times only 2 or 4 gb but windows froze or the screen went black except for the pointer. So that is likely the cause. But its about time for me to upgrade anyways.

[Slackernet]

In my opinion the gigabyte has the edge as far as specs go

 

Paste:  

 

Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX DDR4 G3

 

Audio Noise Guard with LED path lighting. Realtek ALC1150 with gain boost cover audio noise guard. 2-way SLI and 3-way Cross Fire support. SATA Express support for 16 Gb/s data transfer. M.2 for SSDs drives with up to 32 Gb/s data transfer. Long lifespan Durable Solid caps. APP Center including Easy Tune and Cloud Station utilities. GIGABYTE UEFI Dual BIOS. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 23.5cm

 

evga kicks azz in the video cards, but the motherboards are ready for an update soon...usb3.1 and m2 sockets will be calling the shots in speed for data transfer real soon . right now evga has only one board with usb3.1 and its 400

 

so z170 you should be good on

ddr4 speed - well i higher rated board is better for ram choices..xmp has yet to ever produce stable long term game or data transfer result..IMO XMP sucks so if you can get decent ram to run at its listed speed or one step below and run a game for 8 + hrs without an issue....that's dead on point 

 

pcie3.0 speeds 16 , 8 , 4

m2 sockets

usb3.1 ports

 

and the nic's witch seems to be about dead even at this point. I have tested killer and intel and they are both quite fast, but the edge goes to intel for many years of reliable nic's but i don't think its a deal breaker on the board purchase

and finally the audio....most alc based audio is decent enough. Some hard core music people want the 7 channel surround with amps and that is cool if that's your thing. hell I'm just happy to plug in the speakers so i can hear whats happening in game ;-)

 

 

If dual nic cards and audio is important then the g5 may be a better choice then the g3 without breaking the bank

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-LGA1151-Motherboard-Motherboards-GA-Z170X-GAMING/dp/B012IBPPWG/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1457046118&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Gigabyte+LGA1151+Intel+Z170+ATX+DDR4++g5 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Slackernet

[Sammy]

Yea that one looks pretty good also and only a little bit more. I have been hedging on an i5 6600 or 6600k. But I doubt I will overclock anything so the more expensive one maybe isnt worth it. Use the difference to something else and every little bit helps.

[Slackernet]

That sounds like a wise choice since they line up almost exact without overclocking

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-6600

Edited March 4, 2016 by Slackernet

[Smeggie]

Having built systems with Gigabyte, Asus and ASRock M/B's, I would be hard pressed to go with anything other than ASRock anymore. My last two have been rock solid and dependable. I will take dependability over a slight improvement in performance any day. A faster computer isn't going to make a big difference in my skill level. Right Ayaq?

[J3st3r]

Why not a i7 6700k? other than it's $100 more than the i5 6600 lol but it has 4 cores and 8 threads.

 

This is a much much better motherboard.Gigabyte boards are OK but there RMA warranty crap is a Huge pain in the ass.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132586

 

I will never buy another cheap ass Asrock motherboard.They pack them with nice features but they do Not last.I've had 4 Asrock boards and they have all either overheated and burnt up the northbridge or the Lan and sound burnt out.

[Sammy]

Well Im trying to stay within a budget and that extra $120 could instead go towards maxing out memory or a water cooler etc. So its all about tradeoffs and whether or not I would use the extra power of the 6700. At least for the foreseeable future.

 

I guess thats the thing about asking for recommendations. One person could love a particular company's products. Another can hate them and think its products are shit.

[Blackbart]

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2466098

[JohnnyNashville]

I prefer Asus products, your mobo determines your future upgrades. I would spend the extra and go with a I7 and hold off on memory expansion or even water cooling. Those are easily added at a later date.

 

aj

[Sammy]

I probably have to get a new cooler anyways. The one I have is many years old, loud, and from what I read the older ones may or may not put too much physical stress on the new processors.

[Sammy]

Shit. Had this already written out and power went out just before I could hit send. So these are the options I narrowed down for a mid-range with a decent upgrade path some time in the future. Various reviews say both are good. But obviously some do not like the brands at all.  Good choices that are reliable, do what they say they will, and wont fail on me within a year or two?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-LGA1151-Motherboard-Motherboards-GA-Z170X-GAMING/dp/B012IBPPWG ($167)

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR4-Motherboards-Z170-EXTREME6/dp/B012D7H9JC ($173)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-I5-6600-FC-LGA14C-Processor-BX80662I56600/dp/B0136JONRM ($230)

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Boxed-I5-6600K-Processor-BX80662I56600K/dp/B012M8M7TY ($250)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-2400MHz-PC4-19200-Memory/dp/B00S51XHUQ ($85)

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC4-19200-BLS2K8G4D240FSA-BLS2C8G4D240FSA/dp/B00MTSWFMM ($75)

 

One way or another I will have to get a cooler. My current one (2007/2008) might not be compatible with the i5. Also, I do have in the back of my mind whether or not the ps played a role in the other parts failing. That one is only three years old I think. I didnt spend much time looking at h170 boards and if I am certain I wont OC I am sure there are some good ones there that will save me some money for other things.

[JohnnyNashville]

Why buy a i5 that has to be overclocked and require water cooling to compete with a i7? Whatever do what you want... it's not like your playing BF4....or planning on the next greatest game.

 

enjoy,

 

aj

[Sammy]

wow. sorry but I have a limited budget and its a matter of doing the best I can with what I can afford. I cannot afford a $370 processor when there are many other things I need to get as well.  As it is, I am pushing it by going with Intel and all those goodies instead of AMD. But for what I need I preferred Intel so its a matter of making the numbers work so I can do it.  Whatever I do, I need a cooler now. Not 6 months from now.  Not for overclocking, which I am not going to do. But for the loads associated with development, typical games and video processing.

 

In any case I am still researching options to find a good match. I dont need 'k' processors since no overclocking. So it is not important that boards have the ability either and there look to be some good less expensive choices there as well that will allow me to move some funds around.

[JohnnyNashville]

Doing a little research it looks like if you go with a 1151 mobo you can run a i5 now and if needed upgrade to a i7 later if needed.

 

I did not know that...

 

aj

[Slackernet]

your list is in pretty good shape...the rest will most likely be preference

 

as far as coolers go I have been using corsair liquid cooling for years and they are quite reliable

 

depending on the room in the case  ... something like this would be nice to use  .....

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Extreme-Performance-Cooling-CW-9060024-WW/dp/B019954Y2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1457188520&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+h80i+v2

[Sammy]

Yea I have been looking at that one or the h100 since I have one of the corsair cases with the top opening made for it. I do read that they are somewhat noisy and some replace them with higher qualify fans eventually. But if so that can be done later. I already live with a whining zalman so it would have to be pretty noisy to be worse than that.

[Sammy]

I hate reading customer reviews on power supplies. There are always going to be people that say some product dies within a week or caught fire and nearly burned the house down. There is a seasonic that looks good for the recommended wattage and price.

 

Anyways good thing I double checked memory. Neither option was listed as compatible with the mb.

[SupaDupa]

Gigabyte mobos are so freaking solid!! the drivers provided are always flawless! Get er done!!!

[Sammy]

Anyways my nvidia gpu RMA isnt working either while my older Raedon still does. So its either bad luck or maybe psu. Or something with the mb. I dunno anymore. Maybe something with voltages but I didnt mess with those either. I dont think driver issues should affect post.

 

Big purchases always make me nervous that something will go wrong. After shifting $$$ around among the different parts needed, this is what I am getting. Higher than I originally wanted to spend but I wasnt planning on a psu. Not before the rma didnt work either. I have to consider the possibility that something happened to the psu that hopefully didnt screw up the rma in the process. Otherwise when I send it back I have in the back of my mind that they will say too bad, ship it back, and keep the money.

 

And prices in general are more expensive than I figured for good parts. But they should last me a long time.

 

 

i5 6600 (already here)

Gigabyte GA-Z170X-GAMING 5

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 80+ GOLD, 750W

Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2

Edited March 8, 2016 by Sammy

[Slackernet]

pretty solid build.....what's the plan on video ?

[Sammy]

I dont know. If neither of them work on this build then I can only surmise that both of them are bad. That was the last option that I couldnt do. I didnt have another system available to test it on. I was getting near to upgrades anyways so I figured now was as a good time to do it as any. I will have to watch the money tho for awhile.

 

Worst case scenario, send the original back to get my cross-ship money back. Continue to work with the RMA card for awhile. If that doesnt work do that process again but without the cross-shipment. I dont think I will do that again. Since the i5 has the gpu I can do fine without the card except for newer games.

 

evga is supposed to have a good reputation and they did the RMA this time without any fuss. Considering I just spent a lot of money to build a new system earlier than I wanted due to this card I would hope they wouldnt mess with me to do a second RMA.

[Slackernet]

I forgot they did that exchange on the card....you should be good to go

[Sammy]

I hope. I just have that little nag in the back of my head that when its all put together everything will work great... except both cards again.

[KaptCrunch]

IMHO  go with one single GPU with lots of horsepower and matches your MB specs  .eg  v.3 PCI-e

[Sammy]

Yea if all goes well I will just have my single 960, with the RMA'ed one returned. Then when its time to actually get a new one, which might be a long time, get a new single card. Unless I get another 960 really cheap for sli.