Help me pick socket 1151 mobo, please!

[Tweak155]

Hello all

I received a gift card to Best Buy so was looking at the options they have there. I currently have an I5 3570K setup so I'm still debating if I should even upgrade all my components... what makes it semi-tempting is my 3570k system can replace my wife's aging I7 920 system that I gave her when I got my 3rd gen system lol.

Anyway, I found this as it's on sale and only a little more expensive than competitors:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-z17...ket-1151/4832512.p?id=bb4832512&skuId=4832512

Seems to hit all the key features I'd be looking for... M.2 slot, SLI, RAID if I end up not going M.2, USB 3.1 and GB LAN.

I guess the biggest question I have is about the M.2 slot... are desktop mobos like laptop mobos where the M.2 slot can be SATA or PCIe? MSI's page doesn't seem to specify, but I'm sure I could look through the manual if I need to.

The second question I can't seem to figure out by looking between different boards is the support of 2133mhz vs 2400mhz. Looks like native DDR4 speeds will be 1 of these 2 variants and it seems like I should go for the 2400mhz variant.. is this even something you have to look out for these days? The mobo I linked only shows (OC) once you go past 2400mhz so it seems like it natively supports either 2133mhz or 2400mhz without any overclock. It's been a while, but the memory speed is no longer tied to the CPU speed, right?

I've been out of the game too long... any info would help or suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Tweak155]

Actually, I notice the MSI page states that when M.2 is in use, SATA5 & 6 are unavailable... that might mean it is SATA. Pretty sure the speeds are higher if I find a PCIe version...

 

[sze5003]

I'm also looking for a new mobo. Can you see if that model from best buy has any more specs listed on new egg?

M2 types usually should be listed in some numerical format weather it's a long m2 support , short , or both. I remember seeing this on newegg for another board I was looking at. Sata should be listed too if it supports it or it should have separate sata connectors.

For the ram speed, it says up to 3600 speed but it really should list the frequencies that it supports. I would go to the Asus site and grab the manual for that board.

Might be the one I pick up too along with a 6700k sometime soon.

 

[Tweak155]

I'm also looking for a new mobo. Can you see if that model from best buy has any more specs listed on new egg?

M2 types usually should be listed in some numerical format weather it's a long m2 support , short , or both. I remember seeing this on newegg for another board I was looking at. Sata should be listed too if it supports it or it should have separate sata connectors.

For the ram speed, it says up to 3600 speed but it really should list the frequencies that it supports. I would go to the Asus site and grab the manual for that board.

Might be the one I pick up too along with a 6700k sometime soon.

This is where it mentions that SATA5&6 are unavailable while M.2 slot is in use... making me think it is SATA only M.2:

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-KRAIT-GAMING.html#hero-specification

I found this other board at BB (although It's a bit more expensive, and seems overpriced compared to Newegg), but appears to have 2xM.2 slots... one PCIe and one SATA. What's odd is it says you can RAID them together... wouldn't the speeds not match up?

BB link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-des...51-multi/4832519.p?id=bb4832519&skuId=4832519

MSI Page:

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-M5.html#hero-specification

 

[sze5003]

The config says 1 m2 + sata or 1 m2 pcie + m2 sata + 4 sata. You can raid the 2 m2 slots together but the speeds I imagine would default. Or you can raid the regular sata as well but I don't think they can be done together.

The user manual should describe more how the raid works.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I, too, am trying to narrow down a choice of a good Z170 board for an i7-6700K.

I just finished looking at a review by a UK web-site of some 10 Z170 boards, including ASUS, MSI and AsRock.

What I like about ASUS is based on my experience with the Z68 and Z77 boards we currently have deployed in the house.

The UK review didn't include the ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1, but I'd read a very good review of that board in Maximum PC. Yet, I also take Maximum PC reviews with a grain of salt . . . sometimes . . . for some items.

While I don't want to spend $400 on a top-end board, I want a board that offers the same stability and approximate overclocking range of the top-end. In previous iterations of Sabertooth, the boards had a phase-power design of 10, while the top-end and some midrange boards offered as much as 12. Now I see from the specs summarized at the Egg: "8 +4 Digital Phase Power Design."

The Sabertooth price-point is currently about $210 -- about $30 less than I paid in 2011 for my P8Z68-V Pro.

Apparently, the Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 rates the "HardOCP Editor's Choice Gold Award" in its review:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/11/09/asus_sabertooth_z170_mark_1_lga_1151_review/#.V0nS1cv2aUk

which I'm going to look at more closely today.

I could also ask "Anybody know of any shortcomings or problems with this board?" But after looking at that rundown of 10 boards -- budget, midrange and gaming -- I still have this one in my sites for pulling the "checkout" string when I get to placing my parts order.

Generally, based on what I've seen so far, you'll spend at least $130 on a Z170 board, even for those at the budget end of the spectrum. I'd ordinarily budget as much as $300 for a good board, but it's been 9 years since I've spent that much.

 

[sze5003]

I, too, am trying to narrow down a choice of a good Z170 board for an i7-6700K.

I just finished looking at a review by a UK web-site of some 10 Z170 boards, including ASUS, MSI and AsRock.

What I like about ASUS is based on my experience with the Z68 and Z77 boards we currently have deployed in the house.

The UK review didn't include the ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1, but I'd read a very good review of that board in Maximum PC. Yet, I also take Maximum PC reviews with a grain of salt . . . sometimes . . . for some items.

While I don't want to spend $400 on a top-end board, I want a board that offers the same stability and approximate overclocking range of the top-end. In previous iterations of Sabertooth, the boards had a phase-power design of 10, while the top-end and some midrange boards offered as much as 12. Now I see from the specs summarized at the Egg: "8 +4 Digital Phase Power Design."

The Sabertooth price-point is currently about $210 -- about $30 less than I paid in 2011 for my P8Z68-V Pro.

Apparently, the Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 rates the "HardOCP Editor's Choice Gold Award" in its review:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/11/09/asus_sabertooth_z170_mark_1_lga_1151_review/#.V0nS1cv2aUk

which I'm going to look at more closely today.

I could also ask "Anybody know of any shortcomings or problems with this board?" But after looking at that rundown of 10 boards -- budget, midrange and gaming -- I still have this one in my sites for pulling the "checkout" string when I get to placing my parts order.

Generally, based on what I've seen so far, you'll spend at least $130 on a Z170 board, even for those at the budget end of the spectrum. I'd ordinarily budget as much as $300 for a good board, but it's been 9 years since I've spent that much.

I too was looking at an Asus sabertooth model but I don't think it was the mark 1 board. This one on newegg was about $155. I took a look at the reviews on new egg and they seemed alright.

I may get this model if I want to upgrade now. I figured I would get a gpu first then a new board and CPU if needed. But looks like I have to wait until July to make my decision on the gpu.

Generally I've had this asrock board for as long as built my current PC and I've had zero issues. They are not as popular as asrock but they seem to get the job done.

Also looking at that mark 1 board do you know if it would have issues with a evo hyper 212 cooler. Looks like the plastic guards on the sides could make it difficult.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I too was looking at an Asus sabertooth model but I don't think it was the mark 1 board. This one on newegg was about $155. I took a look at the reviews on new egg and they seemed alright.

I may get this model if I want to upgrade now. I figured I would get a gpu first then a new board and CPU if needed. But looks like I have to wait until July to make my decision on the gpu.

Generally I've had this asrock board for as long as built my current PC and I've had zero issues. They are not as popular as asrock but they seem to get the job done.

Also looking at that mark 1 board do you know if it would have issues with a evo hyper 212 cooler. Looks like the plastic guards on the sides could make it difficult.

Good point about the cooler, and I was thinking exactly the same thing.

For a few reasons in late 2014, I was looking for a good Z77 board, and of course you know even then what prospects there were. The only "new" Z77 boards available were the Asrock Z77 Extreme 3 and the ASUS Z77A. So I scoured EBay, Amazon, Ascendtech and other possible sources. A fellow who lives approximately 80 miles north of here was offering a Sabertooth Z77 bundled with i5-3570 and 16GB 4x4 Corsair XMS RAM for $200. It was clear that he "knew what he was doing," the components were never overclocked and especially never abused. But in the process of installing a different CPU, my hand slipped, the corner of the CPU struck the socket pins hard enough to damage a few of them, and I broke one trying to straighten it out.

But even before I discovered how I damaged the board (before breaking the pin), I tried installing an EVGA ACX cooler, and found that the TUF Armor interfered slightly with a heatpipe. I had to clip off a 1/2" piece of plastic in the vented part of the thermal armor covering the VRMs.

My current plans include a C70 case and an H115i AiO cooler, so there shouldn't be a problem. Even so, if I should want to revert to air cooling, or simply test the board with a 212 EVO, I could see that same problem emerging. And who wants to clip off part of the thermal armor on a new board, anyway?

The other shortcomings might not be so forbidding. The review notes that the DDR4-3000 RAM could only be clocked to 2666, while citing that 2666 was the "sweet spot" for RAM speed anyway. The reviewer speculated that compatibility with faster RAM would likely be corrected with a BIOS revision, since all the VRMs and other relevant aspects of the board should be very accommodating to higher RAM specs.

That leaves the issue that ASUS chose not to include "full" overclocking features in the Suite III software. But I'd never used those features, choosing to OC through the BIOS. At most, you'd want to use any "automatic" OC features just to get a preliminary idea of voltage and speed potential. That's what I did with my first Z68 board, and never used that feature more than once or on the first day of my "OC investigations."

Here's a promising yet inconclusive indication:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/nM9WGX

 

[sze5003]

Good point about the cooler, and I was thinking exactly the same thing.

For a few reasons in late 2014, I was looking for a good Z77 board, and of course you know even then what prospects there were. The only "new" Z77 boards available were the Asrock Z77 Extreme 3 and the ASUS Z77A. So I scoured EBay, Amazon, Ascendtech and other possible sources. A fellow who lives approximately 80 miles north of here was offering a Sabertooth Z77 bundled with i5-3570 and 16GB 4x4 Corsair XMS RAM for $200. It was clear that he "knew what he was doing," the components were never overclocked and especially never abused. But in the process of installing a different CPU, my hand slipped, the corner of the CPU struck the socket pins hard enough to damage a few of them, and I broke one trying to straighten it out.

But even before I discovered how I damaged the board (before breaking the pin), I tried installing an EVGA ACX cooler, and found that the TUF Armor interfered slightly with a heatpipe. I had to clip off a 1/2" piece of plastic in the vented part of the thermal armor covering the VRMs.

My current plans include a C70 case and an H115i AiO cooler, so there shouldn't be a problem. Even so, if I should want to revert to air cooling, or simply test the board with a 212 EVO, I could see that same problem emerging. And who wants to clip off part of the thermal armor on a new board, anyway?

The other shortcomings might not be so forbidding. The review notes that the DDR4-3000 RAM could only be clocked to 2666, while citing that 2666 was the "sweet spot" for RAM speed anyway. The reviewer speculated that compatibility with faster RAM would likely be corrected with a BIOS revision, since all the VRMs and other relevant aspects of the board should be very accommodating to higher RAM specs.

That leaves the issue that ASUS chose not to include "full" overclocking features in the Suite III software. But I'd never used those features, choosing to OC through the BIOS. At most, you'd want to use any "automatic" OC features just to get a preliminary idea of voltage and speed potential. That's what I did with my first Z68 board, and never used that feature more than once or on the first day of my "OC investigations."

Here's a promising yet inconclusive indication:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/nM9WGX

Ah thanks for that. Guess I won't be going with the mark 1. I'll just pickup one of the $150-180 Asus boards on newegg. My case is ok but the hyper 212 barely touches the plastic panel window on the side. I don't want to have to cut anything or run into memory issues as the heatsink covers the other slots.

I only plan on using two memory sticks at a time too. I imagine if try to use 4 the hyper 212 would have an issue.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Ah thanks for that. Guess I won't be going with the mark 1. I'll just pickup one of the $150-180 Asus boards on newegg. My case is ok but the hyper 212 barely touches the plastic panel window on the side. I don't want to have to cut anything or run into memory issues as the heatsink covers the other slots.

I only plan on using two memory sticks at a time too. I imagine if try to use 4 the hyper 212 would have an issue.

I won't question your decision, and my interest in the Mark 1 could change. But like I said -- the Sabertooth boards with their 5-year warranty had always come with a phase-power design of 10. The new one is 8+4 or 12. ASUS in some of their promotions for another board suggests that this isn't an accurate measure of overclocking potential -- that the use of superior components makes it less relevant. But then, that's what you get with the Sabertooth -- solid components to a mil-spec in some "re-specs."

Also, that review was written last fall. I thought I saw somewhere, in some forum post, that someone didn't have any problem running some DDR4-3000's at their full spec. As for the software, well . . . even the BIOS has an "automatic overclocking" feature on these old 3rd-gen motherboards I'm using. I don't see it as a decision factor for me.

And since I'm not in a hurry about this, I'd be very interested in someone else's ideas about a "great Z170 board" that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

On the matter of the cooler, it only looks promising, if inconclusive. But for the RAM, no -- I don't think there should be a problem with any of a number of air-coolers if you choose low-profile sticks. I think, for not being "entirely low profile" -- a set of RipJaws V sticks would fit just fine. They're the same size as my DDR3 Ripjaws which "come close" to my D15 and ACX coolers, but never touch. It's just a bit of a bitch to replace the stick closest to the cooler, but not impossible to do without removing the cooler itself.

 

[sze5003]

I won't question your decision, and my interest in the Mark 1 could change. But like I said -- the Sabertooth boards with their 5-year warranty had always come with a phase-power design of 10. The new one is 8+4 or 12. ASUS in some of their promotions for another board suggests that this isn't an accurate measure of overclocking potential -- that the use of superior components makes it less relevant. But then, that's what you get with the Sabertooth -- solid components to a mil-spec in some "re-specs."

Also, that review was written last fall. I thought I saw somewhere, in some forum post, that someone didn't have any problem running some DDR4-3000's at their full spec. As for the software, well . . . even the BIOS has an "automatic overclocking" feature on these old 3rd-gen motherboards I'm using. I don't see it as a decision factor for me.

And since I'm not in a hurry about this, I'd be very interested in someone else's ideas about a "great Z170 board" that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

On the matter of the cooler, it only looks promising, if inconclusive. But for the RAM, no -- I don't think there should be a problem with any of a number of air-coolers if you choose low-profile sticks. I think, for not being "entirely low profile" -- a set of RipJaws V sticks would fit just fine. They're the same size as my DDR3 Ripjaws which "come close" to my D15 and ACX coolers, but never touch. It's just a bit of a bitch to replace the stick closest to the cooler, but not impossible to do without removing the cooler itself.

I just realized I can move the fan up on the heatsink to make room for the ram. So as long as those guards don't get in the way of mounting the hyper cooler I should be alright.

I do plan on using low profile ram most likely ddr4 3200 or 2666. I just wish the new gpu's were out already so I could see if I really need to upgrade my processor in the first place.

Don't really want to wait until July to find out if I should buy an nvidia gtx 1070 or whatever amd releases to compete with that and the 1080.

Then again getting the board out and cleaning the case, etc will have to be done anyway and popping in a gpu is simple.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I just realized I can move the fan up on the heatsink to make room for the ram. So as long as those guards don't get in the way of mounting the hyper cooler I should be alright.

I do plan on using low profile ram most likely ddr4 3200 or 2666. I just wish the new gpu's were out already so I could see if I really need to upgrade my processor in the first place.

Don't really want to wait until July to find out if I should buy an nvidia gtx 1070 or whatever amd releases to compete with that and the 1080.

Then again getting the board out and cleaning the case, etc will have to be done anyway and popping in a gpu is simple.

On another thread and forum, our friend Ketchup had posted a comment with his sig, which I noticed. It was a Z97 i7-4790K build with the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1, and a Hyper 212 EVO cooler. So I just came out and asked him. No problem.

They would not have resolved the slight interference on a last-gen board, and then designed the current-gen version with the problem they eliminated.

 

[bonehead123]

TWeak,

If you are still shopping, lookie here for a great board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128835

This is the board in my sig, and I love it. Has all the features I wanted and then some.

As for the m2 slots, yes they can be either SATA or PCIE, but most of the mid-to-upper range boards almost always have pcie/nvme m2 slots & support built in. Just be sure you buy a nvme drive instead of an SATA drive for the fastest possible speeds.

I say this because there are SATA drives that come in the m2 form factor, which appear to be the same physical size and length as pcie/nvme drives. But the connector is keyed differently, as are the slots.

And yes, these slots do take bandwidth from 2 of the reguler onboard SATA slots, but since most of these boards have at least 6 of them, that really should not be an issue unless you are one of those people who stuff their rigs with multiple SATA devices (ODD/HDD/SSD's).

As for ram speeds, IIRC, the z170 chipset has native support for a minimum of 2133mhz, with XMP/overclocking ranging up to 3000-3400.

 

[sze5003]

TWeak,

If you are still shopping, lookie here for a great board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128835

This is the board in my sig, and I love it. Has all the features I wanted and then some.

As for the m2 slots, yes they can be either SATA or PCIE, but most of the mid-to-upper range boards almost always have pcie/nvme m2 slots & support built in. Just be sure you buy a nvme drive instead of an SATA drive for the fastest possible speeds.

I say this because there are SATA drives that come in the m2 form factor, which appear to be the same physical size and length as pcie/nvme drives. But the connector is keyed differently, as are the slots.

And yes, these slots do take bandwidth from 2 of the reguler onboard SATA slots, but since most of these boards have at least 6 of them, that really should not be an issue unless you are one of those people who stuff their rigs with multiple SATA devices (ODD/HDD/SSD's).

As for ram speeds, IIRC, the z170 chipset has native support for a minimum of 2133mhz, with XMP/overclocking ranging up to 3000-3400.

That's a decent one. Also I'm thinking of going with this too. Although not sure if you need dvi connections, if so then an HDMI to dvi adapter should work.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16813132567

Or the Asus sabertooth mark 1 which is a bit more expensive.