Conundrum: which overclocking z170 to get?

[HumblePie]

So I current have what is in my signature. A MSI z170a g45 board I got as a package with a I7 6700K. While it runs, it isn't a particularly good board. I and a few friends bought several packages of the deal when it was a deal a few months back and put all the systems together. Went through some headaches even trying to do some mild overclocking with this board.

Well I was "settled" into the performance of it until I decided to get a 1080 video card awhile back. Since then, but system has been flaky. Lots of D6 beep code errors from the motherboard, but it would still boot into windows just fine. Would run great sometimes, and crash/burn other times. Was flaky as hell.

I decided to see what the problem was, and there was a bios fix for compatability with the 1080 video card for my mother board. So I did that, which wiped out all my settings. Luckily I had written them down. Still, now the board overclocks even worse than before. I went back to old bios and overclocks fine, but hates video card. New bios is fine with vid card, but sucks on overclock. Ugh.

Biggest problem by far with this board is lack of LLC adjustment. That and a crappy memory controller.

So I have a few possibilities of an upgrade. Really trying to stay under $200 and lower the better to get what I want would be ideal.

Here is what some of my research as turned up from least to most expensive.

Asus z170a = seems about what the current MSI board I have has, but with better overclocking maybe? Price about $140

Asrock fatality z170 K6 or K6+= plus has the card reader from what I can tell for another $25 which doesn't seem worth it. But the K6 goes for about $175.

Gigabyte z170x gaming 7 = seems to be really recommended the most. Price about $200

Asus Rog Maximums Hero/whetstone = about the same as the gigabyte in price and features.

Basically I am trying to reach 4.6Ghz stable again with my 2x16gb sticks about to run at rated 3200 speeds. as well as have no problems with my gigabyte 1080 vid card.

Which of these seems like the best bet?

 

[Shmee]

Just a slight correction, but the memory controller is on the CPU. As for the board, it sounds like you are having issues keeping the OC stable, and have already tried different BIOS'? In that case, while not an expert on the Z170 series, I would lean towards the Asus ones or the Gigabyte ones.

 

[HumblePie]

Just a slight correction, but the memory controller is on the CPU. As for the board, it sounds like you are having issues keeping the OC stable, and have already tried different BIOS'? In that case, while not an expert on the Z170 series, I would lean towards the Asus ones or the Gigabyte ones.

The pathway to the controller then? The main reason I state that is several memory chips list only working at certain speeds with a smaller selection of boards versus others. If you read my post I went through different bios installs. Some were far more stable with over clocks that others on the MSI, but had other major issues. Even still, the MSI g45 board is missing some key configuration settings in the bios to do good overclocks. Hence the decision to buy something else instead of settling with what I got.

Yea, that Asrock Fatal1ty K6+ it's pretty solid. Has 12 Power Phases if Im not mistaken.

I had a love/hate with my last Asrock fatality p67 for my 2600K chip. Some great features but some major compatibility issues. Namely with memory and power supplies. Once I got rocking though it stayed rocking, but I went through a few iterations of both memory and power supplies to get to that point.

Not sure if they have ironed out their game so to speak. Originally they were the brand to buy because they did offer quality parts at a very good price. The downside being their bios software and compatibility was not so great. Now the price seems to be on par with everyone else.

 

[HumblePie]

well went ahead and got the Asrock K6+ ordered after trying to decide which would be best.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Get the EVGA board

 

[HumblePie]

Well, originally right before the last rollback of these forums a few weeks back, someone had posted in this thread asking how my board selection went. I got the Asrock K6+ in awhile ago, but because of life complications I didn't have any time to install it until last night. Seriously have 2 kids, one being 2 years old and the other 2 months old means I don't have much free time to do these kinds of projects.

Still I managed to squeeze in time last night to switch out the boards.

WOW is all I have to say. Rock solid at 4.6 Ghz at 1.31 volts. No problem. I was also able to set my memory to full XMP spec. So running at 3200 dual channel for 32GB of memory that the MSI board would throw a complete fit over.

My only concern is that the temps are reading pretty high. Even before I messed with the overclocking at all it was high. I mean HIGH. Sitting idle at 50 C and spiking to 92 C during prime runs last night. This was even when I was at stock settings it was at this. My original thought was that the bios was having a problem with the temp sensor. So I went to go update the bios. Wow what a fun time that was. Asrock put in all sorts of "new" ways to update the bios of which almost none of them worked. They have an internet way of updating that I couldn't get to work at all. Bios update through the Bios. Nope. Through their "instant' flash utlity? Nada on outcome there. Had to use their windows based flash setup to get the bios to update to the latest bios. Man what a pain on that point. Doesn't anyone ever test this stuff for these guys?

Anyhow, after the bios update I was getting the same high temps. So thinking it was a re-seat problem, I went ahead and redid everything for my cooling. Didn't change a thing on temps. So either my cooling is going out (a possibility) or the sensor on the board is bad/wrong. For reference I have the corsair H80i (older version) cooler in my system. It is a few years old and has a few bent fins at this point. So it just might be the cooling is not working as great any more. I think I'll try some other cooling method as I have a decent Noctua air tower around my closet somewhere.

Beyond that I'm much happier with the Asrock compared to the MSI board. Almost a night and day difference in performance and stability.

 

[MadOver]

Generally Asrock mobos are better choice compared to MSI, I had my issues with MSI and decided to give Asrock a try and never looked back ever since..

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The AsRock boards are supposed to be competitive, and I might have tried one, but it just happened to be the one and only board I ever received in shrink-wrap for which I decided to do a close magnifier examination of the socket pins/springs before proceeding with it. Several of the pins were f***ed up -- one had been inserted in a crevice instead of the intended hole. RMA'ed for a refund.

I can't recommend well what I don't know firsthand, and the best of what I know secondhand was derived from analyses and reviews comparing top-tier ASUS boards with mine:

ASUS Sabertooth Z170 S

I find this very strange, looking at Egg's offering today. It simply doesn't make sense to price the Saber Z170 S at $370, which is a price of a top-tier motherboard. I purchased mine on September 2 for about $180 -- from the Egg.

It, too, has 12 power phases as 8+4. The components are solid. I can easily clock my CLU-re-lidded 6700K to 4.7. The two "VCORE" VRMs don't warm up beyond 44C under severe stress. I DO have an overall cooling strategy that assures that part of the motherboard is "hyper"-ventilated. The top-tier boards -- two or three in the Maximus sub-models and a Z170 Deluxe board -- are simply slivers of benchtest barcharts beyond the Sabertooth Z170 S, and my board variously takes 5th through 2nd place on the comparison tests among them. The top-tier all have 16-phase power designs.

The Sabertooths -- Z170 S and Z170 Mark 1 -- have additional thermal sensors with front-end software to monitor and tweak the fans, or control those fans from any of the additional sensors besides "CPU" and "Motherboard."

I really don't understand that price for this board, though. You should be able to find one for under $200.

The Mark 1 is currently priced at $245 -- up by about $20 from the time I was window-shopping the two models. Essentially, the S board should cost less because you don't get the duct-plate that screws onto the board and holds two fans. I built my own plate with Lexan to use with a 12" Cross-flow barrel fan.

$370 is out of line with the ASUS MSRP's -- I'm really sure. It's a $200 board, offered by Egg for around $180 this fall. And frankly -- I'd seen it offered at Egg weeks later for around $170.