Help me choose Motherboard/Ram combo

[leonardotmnt]

I keep agonizing over which motherboard/ram combo to get and I know it probably doesn't matter all that much. I'm going to use the build for Lightroom and maybe eventually some Photoshop and otherwise general web browsing and word processor stuff.

CPU - i7 6700k
PSU - Corsair RM550X
Case - Fractal Design Define R5
Video card - none at this time
SSD for programs and HDD for storage

I know I don't need a "Gaming" motherboard but I do want a good quality board that I can easily overclock a little bit (4.4-4.6 Ghz). I want good audio, USB 3.1 type A and C, and at least one m.2 slot. I was originaly leaning toward the bundle with the Gigabyte Gaming 7. It does look like it just went up $15 but which is the best value of these. Someone make a decision for me please

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

Partly I can't decide because I can't tell how much Ram speed matters for Lightroom. I know amount matters but am not as sure about speed so I figured the faster the better in general. Thanks!

 

[whm1974]

I would go with ASUS or ASRock myself.

 

[UsandThem]

Partly I can't decide because I can't tell how much Ram speed matters for Lightroom. I know amount matters but am not as sure about speed so I figured the faster the better in general. Thanks!

Newegg's bundle prices usually aren't that great to begin with. You would probably come out ahead by buying the components separately when they are on sale in their daily deals, etc.

That said, DDR4 3000 is plenty fast and gives you plenty of bandwidth, as performance gains are miniscule once you go above that......you pay a more for not much gain. Just Google 'DDR4 speed scaling' or 'DDR4 3600 review' and decide if it's worth it to you.

There are many good boards to choose from, and the ones you linked to are all good choices, and they are capable of giving you a good overclock (depending on the silicone lottery of course).

 

[BonzaiDuck]

For that, notice that quite a few of those bundles use either G.SKILL TridentZ or Ripjaws V. Those boards are known to work well with those G.SKILLs. The Corsair line has also proven itself to me in other systems.

I somehow picked up the folklore and fact suggesting that DDR4-3200 is a "sweet spot" choice.

Among the ASUS boards, I made some compromises in choosing the Sabertooth Z170 S (and the Mark 1 -- more expensive -- would be otherwise near identical except for color presentation.) I used the TridentZ 3200's -- 14-14-14 @ 1.35V.

There has been talk here and there -- no less about the Sabertooths -- that you could only get some RAM kits to run at a lower speed than their spec, or that you had to tweak the VCCIO and VCCSA voltage at CPU overclocks. I haven't found any such problem. My board will take those TridentZ's and run them at 3200 XMP with no adjustments that the mobo doesn't make automatically by choosing XMP. And -- at my highest overclocks.

So on my board, there was a lag in BIOS updates, and to my knowledge, it was fixed some time ago and before I bought the board.

But bundles? As you would expect -- the savings (if any) need to be considered against the compromises you intend, and those you didn't plan on.

A bundle is sort of like a box of cake-mix. I'd rather start with the basic ingredients, purchased separately. Sometimes, though, you could find a bargain.

 

[denis280]

There are many good boards to choose from, and the ones you linked to are all good choices, and they are capable of giving you a good overclock (depending on the silicone lottery of course).

Reading my mind, and +1 on this

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Reading my mind, and +1 on this

What I usually do is to investigate the features of "boards of interest," and see if I can get a handle on how much extra I'm paying for them. For instance, a skt-1155 board "Deluxe" model of my 1155 ASUS came with a 3.5" frontpanel dual USB3. I could buy a 4-port device for about $25. In other cases, it's harder to estimate. Then there's my Sabertooth board -- the Z170 S model. How much would I have paid for the Mark 1's molded plastic duct-plate?

I'd also compare phase-power-design. My board only has 12 or 8+4. top tier ASUS boards now have 16. If you don't need to win LN2 competitions, a compromise in phase-power-design spec is not a deal-breaker anymore, but you may give up 100 Mhz in potential.

Even with the Sabertooth choice, I might have spent months contemplating a board choice, and then discover that 12-phase is no longer "top-tier" in this socket generation. It's easy to overlook stuff. I'm just not all that eager to pay top-tier prices. There is often some midrange board which gives you what you fundamentally want and what you functionally need.

Put it another way. If you pay $450 on a motherboard and retire it in five years, you can either sell it, recycle it or redeploy it. Either way, it makes a $250 board look more appealing -- IF -- the funda-func wants and needs are met.