Skylake Z170 Motherboard Round-Up

[sao123]

Extremely dissappointed that there STILL is not an 8 RAM slot consumer board for non-xeon, non-extreme cpu.

INTEL... YOU SUCK!

 

[JTsyo]

Saw cpu/mb combos on newegg for pre-order.

 

[wiretap]

Microcenter has them in stock by me.

Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI (5 in store)
ASUS Z170-AR (10 in store)

 

[phillyman36]

Microcenter has them in stock by me.

Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI (5 in store)
ASUS Z170-AR (10 in store)

The Microcenter in Philly had the same ones and same amounts. I went ahead and got a Asus Z170 Deluxe(mobo only no bundle) from Newegg.

 

[JTsyo]

There no differences for PSU for these motherboards, right? 550W should be enough to run a i5-6600 and a GTX 970?

 

[Berryracer]

How come all these motherboards don't have any that supports Dual GPUs in x16 PCIe mode? only single GPU @ x16 or Dual @x8? This seems like a downgrade from the current motherboards.

 

[JM Popaleetus]

How come all these motherboards don't have any that supports Dual GPUs in x16 PCIe mode? only single GPU @ x16 or Dual @x8? This seems like a downgrade from the current motherboards.

Unless you buy an X99 setup with a 5830K, you'll never get x16/x16 SLI.

 

[ShintaiDK]

There no differences for PSU for these motherboards, right? 550W should be enough to run a i5-6600 and a GTX 970?

Correct.

 

[ddarko]

The Microcenter in Philly had the same ones and same amounts. I went ahead and got a Asus Z170 Deluxe(mobo only no bundle) from Newegg.

I've had an eye on that Asus Z170 Deluxe as well but have decided to wait till Asus releases the version that integrates the Alpine Ridge controller. The current board uses an Asmedia controller for the USB 3.1 ports and Asmedia controllers - both USB and SATA - have historically been mediocre performers. What's the point of getting USB 3.1 if it's hobbled by an Asmedia controller? The Gigabyte boards are interesting because they have Alpine Ridge out of the gate.

 

[ddarko]

Btw phillyman36, the microcenter in st David's has the Asus z170 deluxe in store. I am literally standing in front of it right now. Doesn't show up in the site but there's 2 on the shelf. Also have five Asus Maximus VIII Hero, lots of the Asus z170-AR, one of the Asus Z170-P D3 and two Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI.

 

[Deders]

What do people think of this article that says there will be no benefit to the Asus Deluxe sockets due to all the pins on skylake being used up?

http://www.eteknix.com/asus-z170-lga-1151-deluxe-socket-pictured/

 

[utahraptor]

I want the Gigabyte G1 Gaming badly, but at $499 it is too rich for my blood. The Gaming GT at $299 seems more realistic. It still has the good stuff except 3 way SLI.

 

[Wag]

I want the Gigabyte G1 Gaming badly, but at $499 it is too rich for my blood. The Gaming GT at $299 seems more realistic. It still has the good stuff except 3 way SLI.

Why are the PLX Skylake motherboards so damn expensive?

Does the PLX chip take a big performance hit? I'd like to add a 3rd card if it ever comes to that.

Could we start a list of Skylake boards that support 3-way/4-way SLI setups? That would make things much easier.

 

[phillyman36]

Btw phillyman36, the microcenter in st David's has the Asus z170 deluxe in store. I am literally standing in front of it right now. Doesn't show up in the site but there's 2 on the shelf. Also have five Asus Maximus VIII Hero, lots of the Asus z170-AR, one of the Asus Z170-P D3 and two Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI.

WHATT?!!??. How much was it? They told me whatever they had in stock would be online. If I would have know that I would have stopped by there

 

[phillyman36]

I've had an eye on that Asus Z170 Deluxe as well but have decided to wait till Asus releases the version that integrates the Alpine Ridge controller. The current board uses an Asmedia controller for the USB 3.1 ports and Asmedia controllers - both USB and SATA - have historically been mediocre performers. What's the point of getting USB 3.1 if it's hobbled by an Asmedia controller? The Gigabyte boards are interesting because they have Alpine Ridge out of the gate.

How much of a performance difference are we talking?

 

[Spydermag68]

The MC in Denver had motherboards but no CPUs. The are going to be in next Friday. I will be making a jump from an AMD 965 to i7-6700k.

Currently I am looking at the Gigabyte UD5.

 

[ddarko]

WHATT?!!??. How much was it? They told me whatever they had in stock would be online. If I would have know that I would have stopped by there

None of the Z170 motherboards had price tags and I was just looking so I didn't ask. Sorry. If you can't go there immediately, you might be able to call and ask them to set it aside for you. Explain that the online system isn't showing it in stock so you can't order it for pickup but you know it's on the shelf. Maybe the sales people in the area will be willing to put one behind the counter. Some pics:

How much of a performance difference are we talking?

You know, I may have spoken too soon. Historically, Asmedia SATA versus has been really bad but their USB controller may be on par with Intel. Anandtech tested the Asus USB 3.1 daughter card which uses an Asmedia controller that also included USB 3.0 numbers for Intel and Asmedia and the latter were pretty comparable:

I still think the Intel Alpine Ridge USB 3.1 will be faster but it may not be that big a gap.

 

[phillyman36]

None of the Z170 motherboards had price tags and I was just looking so I didn't ask. Sorry. If you can't go there immediately, you might be able to call and ask them to set it aside for you. Explain that the online system isn't showing it in stock so you can't order it for pickup but you know it's on the shelf. Maybe the sales people in the area will be willing to put one behind the counter. Some pics:

You know, I may have spoken too soon. Historically, Asmedia SATA versus has been really bad but their USB controller may be on par with Intel. Anandtech tested the Asus USB 3.1 daughter card which uses an Asmedia controller that also included USB 3.0 numbers for Intel and Asmedia and the latter were pretty comparable:

I still think the Intel Alpine Ridge USB 3.1 will be faster but it may not be that big a gap.

I just got back from there. The Z170 Deluxe is priced at about $350.00 I believe. It took him a while to find the price in the system. The i7 6700k is priced at about $380.00 though he said that may not be the final price when they have it in stock. Not sure whats going on with them and why they are not updating their online inventory.
The Maximus I must say looked good.
He also said they get deliveries Wednesday and Fridays so unless they get some emergency drop shipment there wont be any over the weekend.

 

[Jagercola]

Any easy way to tell which of these have Alpine Ridge versus the 3rd party solutions? Looking for one <$200 for overclocking, Intel LAN, and the best long term outlook for adding fast storage.

 

[ddarko]

Any easy way to tell which of these have Alpine Ridge versus the 3rd party solutions? Looking for one <$200 for overclocking, Intel LAN, and the best long term outlook for adding fast storage.

Right now, only Gigabyte boards have Alpine Ridge. They seem to have exclusivity on it for the Z170 launch. The Anandtech Z170 mobo article mentions that other motherboard makers plan to launch boards with Alpine Ridge in September. I've read elsewhere Asus and MSI will among them.

 

[Soccerman06]

So this might be a silly question and maybe a better place would be in the memory forum, but anyways Im looking at ram and see the ddr4 3000mhz only comes in 1.35v. Does that work with skylake mobo or do I need the 2800mhz sticks that operate at 1.2v?

 

[YBS1]

It will work, 2800mhz 1.2v sticks running at 1.35 will probably clock as fast or faster than the 3000mhz sticks anyway though. My 2666 kit has no problems running 3000.

 

[FAUguy]

I have XP, Vista, Win 7 & 10 on my 2TB HDD, installed on a ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty with a 3770K ( upgraded from a 2600k last month which now may have been a bad decision).
What I'm wondering is if the Z170 or X99 boards are compatible with Win XP, as I don't see any drivers listed from the MB manufacturers. I use Win 7 most of the time, but still need XP on occasion, and can't see going with a Z170 or X99 if it won't work with XP.

 

[Ketchup]

Since XP extended support ended over a year ago, I wouldn't expect XP drivers to be developed for Intel's latest chipsets.

 

[frankpc]

So which Skylake / Z170 motherboards offer HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2?