Mini ITX Z170 Motherboard - i7 6700K

[Kabigon]

I'm building a mini ITX gaming machine that will also be used for mostly gaming but also things like school, work, movies and TV shows, etc.

I have normally always stuck with Asus Rog motherboards and was planning to use a Maximus VIII Impact and still may do so. However, that particular board costs about $100 more then all of the other z170 mini ITX offerings.

I've tried comparing them all on web sites like Newegg, watching videos, and reading reviews but they all seem to be extremely similar. Can you guys please help me to differentiate between the impact, gigabyte gaming board, MSI gaming board, and the other Asus Pro board.

By the way, business build will be done in an NZXT Manta. It is the red and black ones so I'd like to follow a red and black color scheme for all components. Thank you for your help.

 

[Burner27]

I was in the same position as you as my current system is using a Maximus Impact VII motherboard and I wanted to get the Maximus Impact VIII for my new build. I decided against it because it does not have an M.2 slot on it and i wasnt going to invest in a SATA Express drive.

I went with this board instead:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170I-PRO-GAMING/