upgrading to skylake, mobo reccomendations?

kaesden

Member
Nov 10, 2015
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I'm upgrading my pc and wanted to get some recommendations on what board i should go with? I don't need/want any wifi connectivity, only need a single gigabit NIC, and want decent onboard audio with DTS connect support for 5.1 over optical. Currently running a GTX970 and will probably upgrade to next-gen soon after they are released(assuming there's a good performance increase), but not immediately. No plans or desire to go to an SLI setup at any point. Also no plans to upgrade to M.2 storage yet as I already have a 1TB drive, but may upgrade down the road if it ever makes sense. Just going from SATA 2 to 3 will be a bit of a boost already.
 

kaesden

Member
Nov 10, 2015
61
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any options that would include USB 3.1? forgot to mention that. Not needed, but would be nice to have as a future-proofing option. Also isn't ASRock the entry level / low end Asus brand? Would I be better off looking at an actual asus board like the asus z170-A?
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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any options that would include USB 3.1? forgot to mention that. Not needed, but would be nice to have as a future-proofing option. Also isn't ASRock the entry level / low end Asus brand? Would I be better off looking at an actual asus board like the asus z170-A?

A lot of Asrock boards are just as good as, or better than Asus boards. They started out as a budget division for Asus, but they were spun off a long time ago. Just like the rest of the manufacturers, they have a low-mid-high product line-up.

I read somewhere that Asus doesn't make their own boards anymore since 2012. Plus, that z170-a motherboard has a low-end sound chip.

I like my Gigabyte GA-z170x-UD5 motherboard and it has been flawless for me.
 

kaesden

Member
Nov 10, 2015
61
2
11
A lot of Asrock boards are just as good as, or better than Asus boards. They started out as a budget division for Asus, but they were spun off a long time ago. Just like the rest of the manufacturers, they have a low-mid-high product line-up.

I read somewhere that Asus doesn't make their own boards anymore since 2012. Plus, that z170-a motherboard has a low-end sound chip.

I like my Gigabyte GA-z170x-UD5 motherboard and it has been flawless for me.

does the GA-z170x-UD5 support DTS connect and/or Dolby Digital Live for 5.1 encoding over optical?