Motherboard hunting
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I'm in the market, as it were.I'm looking at these three boards at the moment (upgrade time! yay, me)
- Asus Z170-K https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/Z170-K/
- Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5521#ov
- Asus B150 PRO GAMING/AURA https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/B150-PRO-GAMING-AURA/
I'm leaning towards the Z170-K as I don't need the "Gaming Features" of the B150 and the H170 has some weird thing called cFosSpeed (Apparently "a network traffic management application") which seems a little suss to me.
I'm not overclocking, which means that this is a feature that will go unused on the Z170-K. This is going to be a multipurpose rig where I will game to a certain degree and also play around with VMs in Hyper-V.
All three boards are with in $10 of each other, so that's not the deciding factor.
I am open to other suggestions but I'm going for DDR4 (future proofing) and Skylake.Any thoughts on these three boards?
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Both good vendors, but I've always been an Asus fan myself.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Both good vendors, but I've always been an Asus fan myself.
My Desktop system is running a Gigabyte board. But I'm also partial to Asus, myself.
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Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.
Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata expressGA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata expressB150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata expressSo, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.
*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear
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@MattSpeller said:
Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.
Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata expressGA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata expressB150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata expressSo, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.
*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear
Optical Output? You mean a monitor??
You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.
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@gjacobse said:
@MattSpeller said:
Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.
Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata expressGA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata expressB150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata expressSo, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.
*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear
Optical Output? You mean a monitor??
You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.
This
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@MattSpeller said:
@gjacobse said:
@MattSpeller said:
Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.
Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata expressGA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata expressB150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata expressSo, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.
*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear
Optical Output? You mean a monitor??
You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.
This
TOSLINK, the crappy low grade digital audio option.
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@nadnerB I have mainly had Asus boards. My previous build was a Gigabyte that lasted about 6 years and my current one I went with an Asrock.
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@MattSpeller said:
Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.
Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata expressGA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata expressB150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata expressSo, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.
*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear
Ah, good point about the USB ports. MOAR USB!
I shall factor that into final consideration. -
I can only add that most of my systems the last decade have been ASUS boards, they are rock solid.