Building a new system - Z170 MB thoughts please

[Slick Fork]

Hi there,

So I'm building a new system based on the I7-6700K and I'm having a hell of a time picking a motherboard so I was hoping for some input.

When I built my last one it seemed really straightforward but now I feel like I'm a little overwhelmed without a lot of really clear great choices quality wise. My other components are as follows:
* EVGA 1070 SC - video card
* Soundblaster Z - sound card
* Samsung EVO SSD - system drive.
* RAM will be picked based on MB compatibility but I usually like Gskill & Corsair

My heavy use is about 50/50 photography editing (hence the I7) and gaming. Gaming titles I'm playing the most right now - WItcher 3, Civ series, DCS flight simulator.

One of my big snags is USB port requirement. I seem to have an obscene # of USB devices related to flight simming (Track iR, pedals, hotas etc.).

I overclocked my 2500 to 4.4 on air pretty comfortably so I'd like something I can overclock with but I wouldn't describe myself as an enthusiast level OC'er. I'll look for what will give me an easy no fuss OC. I won't be spending hours trying to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of the setup.

I don't need good onboard sound and I don't care about the video ports since I've got the graphics and sound cards to cover me there. I use a cabled connection so I don't need wifi and I don't care about Bluetooth connectivity. Don't care about looks because it's in a closed case.

So basically, I'm looking for something reliable and good quality and part of my conundrum is that my historical preferred brand (Asus) seems to show a very high percentage of 1 egg reviews no matter what the brand, particularly relating to RAM. Gigabyte seems to not be a ton better.

Budget wise, I'm hoping to keep it around $170-$180 CDN but I'll spend a little more if it means I'm getting quality in the components that I will use.

Right now the two I'm considering the most are the Pro-Gaming aura from Asus and the Gigabyte UD3 ultra so I'd appreciate any thoughts. Both are more feature rich then I need so I'm wondering (hoping) that a more expensive board will have better quality components... particularly since both seem to be revisions of the original pro-gamer/UD3 so maybe they ironed out their issues...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The "one-egg" review phenomenon is more common with motherboards in general. Sometimes the good boards only have a 50% 5-egg rating. First, people who are unhappy have more of an incentive to post a review than those who aren't unhappy. this biases the ratings, or if one-eggs have some quality assurance implication, the QA standard is probably considerably lower as a percentage than the number of bad reviews. Second, there is as mix of people who post reviews, and many of these either don't know what they're doing or they know it incompletely. Of course, some folks complain about some feature they didn't want, or some feature they did want, or some "inconvenience" they suffered.

"Choosing the board" is almost as important as choosing the PSU, but good choices from the lower price and feature tier can be made for the right reasons. You can build a great computer (with its limitations) from a $90 board.

I still incline toward ASUS, although I've had boards by EVGA, Gigabyte and Intel. I would like to get top-tier features for a mid-range price. The top-tier boards like the ASUS Maximus or Deluxe (Z170) boards have 16-phase-power-design, for which "bigger or more means better." Skinny on the street suggests that these top-tier boards may get you an extra 100Mhz in an overclock to the same CPU.

On the other hand, ASUS itself had published board promotions insisting that the quality of components was a factor of equal weight.

Personally, I could have afforded more than my $170 ASUS Sabertooth Z170 S (and the Mark 1 is essentially the same board and features for ~$220). 12-phase power-design, but tremendous monitoring, fan-tweaking and other features on a board with a MIL-spec. I was influenced by the reviews we're discussing on top-tier boards.

So far, though, I'm pretty happy with the choice, and my computer-building intentions included a high-priority for "Overclocking right away" after verifying that the board worked properly within the RMA period. Enough reviews of the Z170 S Sabertooth suggest that it's as least as good (and for overclocking) as any board in the "gaming" category. Among some ten or more boards with ASUS Maximus and Deluxe models always reaching the highest benchtest results, the Sabertooth comes in between 2nd and 4th place depending on the benchmark. If it were actually 4th place generally among the Maximus (two models) and the Deluxe, the bench results are very close to the top-tier, and it never drops below 4th place in that review.

Beyond the more general considerations, you may want features as "extras" on a board, willing to pay a bit more. Or -- you don't want certain features, and look to pay less.

Hi there,

So I'm building a new system based on the I7-6700K and I'm having a hell of a time picking a motherboard so I was hoping for some input.

When I built my last one it seemed really straightforward but now I feel like I'm a little overwhelmed without a lot of really clear great choices quality wise. My other components are as follows:
* EVGA 1070 SC - video card
* Soundblaster Z - sound card
* Samsung EVO SSD - system drive.
* RAM will be picked based on MB compatibility but I usually like Gskill & Corsair

My heavy use is about 50/50 photography editing (hence the I7) and gaming. Gaming titles I'm playing the most right now - WItcher 3, Civ series, DCS flight simulator.

One of my big snags is USB port requirement. I seem to have an obscene # of USB devices related to flight simming (Track iR, pedals, hotas etc.).

I overclocked my 2500 to 4.4 on air pretty comfortably so I'd like something I can overclock with but I wouldn't describe myself as an enthusiast level OC'er. I'll look for what will give me an easy no fuss OC. I won't be spending hours trying to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of the setup.

I don't need good onboard sound and I don't care about the video ports since I've got the graphics and sound cards to cover me there. I use a cabled connection so I don't need wifi and I don't care about Bluetooth connectivity. Don't care about looks because it's in a closed case.

So basically, I'm looking for something reliable and good quality and part of my conundrum is that my historical preferred brand (Asus) seems to show a very high percentage of 1 egg reviews no matter what the brand, particularly relating to RAM. Gigabyte seems to not be a ton better.

Budget wise, I'm hoping to keep it around $170-$180 CDN but I'll spend a little more if it means I'm getting quality in the components that I will use.

Right now the two I'm considering the most are the Pro-Gaming aura from Asus and the Gigabyte UD3 ultra so I'd appreciate any thoughts. Both are more feature rich then I need so I'm wondering (hoping) that a more expensive board will have better quality components... particularly since both seem to be revisions of the original pro-gamer/UD3 so maybe they ironed out their issues...