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Z170 Upgrade Motherboard Choice Help

Footslogger
Level 7
My system is 3 or 4 years old and needs an upgrade.

My questions are:

1. Should I get an Asus Z170 Sabertooth Mark 1 Motherboard or the Asus Maximus VIII Formula?
a. Warranty of Sabertooth is 5 years.
b. Warranty of Maximus is 3 years.
c. Only using for gaming.
d. Best CPU that I can afford if the I5 6600K.
e. Intend to use Corsair Dominator (2x8gb) 3000mhz.
f. Possible upgrade to M.2 drive in future.
g. Can I still use an Old ANTEC TRUEPOWER QUATTRO 850W MODULAR POWER SUPPLY?
h. Can I still use a Zalman CNPS9900 MAX cooler with the Corsair Memory?
I. What is the SnR of the onboard audio these 2 Motherboards? Asus can't tell me.

Thanks for any help.
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7 REPLIES 7

Chino
Level 15
For a gaming oriented build, I'd grab the Maximus VIII Formula. It has all the features that you will need. As for RAM, I'd pick HyperX over Corsair. I don't like their overpriced stuff. I'm note sure if your PSU will be compatible with the new platform. Check Antec's site to see if it's Haswell compatible. If so, then it should work for the Skylake platform. Not sure about the SnR for the Z170 motherboards. But on the previous Z97 motherboards, the SnR is around 120dB.

Vlada011
Level 10
I would choose this... i7-6700 without K if you don't have money, you can save on memory 50-60$...
I would go with Maximus VIII Gene or VIII Hero because they are enough good and rest to transfer for better processor.
i7 start to show up as recommended for games before some time.
That doesnt mean he is necessary but if customer have only little chance somehow to use CPU with HT Link could last much much longer.
And i7-6700 is cheaper and with new BIOS is possible to OC, enough 300-400MHz and on that speed he will serve well years.
Maximus VIII Formula cost almost 400$... If you buy Sabertooth or Hero you have money for i7. If someone tell you i5 is enough now, ignore him.
Such people always earlier figure out that i5 should be replaced again and i7 could stay more. You can save over 100$ on motherboard and memoryProblem is because Kingston now QVL 2800 or 3000MHz for some ROG boards. QVL is Trident Z F4-3000C15D-16GTZ 2x8 cost arround 120$, if you can find cheaper Kingston you can go with him, it's risk but both are cheaper than Dominator Platinum.
Do you understand i5 + Maximus VIII Formula = i7-6700 + Maximus VIII Hero/Sabertooth Mark 1.
I didn't tell you some bad motherboard, Hero ALPHA or normal Hero are excellent.

Decide what you think it's better but i7-6700K or non K are important part of your computer and worth saving on memory and motherboard.
I'm first who always go on premium motherboard, I never save money on that, except if need money for higher class of CPU or GPU and cheaper motherboard is similar quality.

And Kingston is not much cheaper, Savage 2400 2x8 cost 130$, for same money or cheaper is GSkill Trident Z 3000 2x8 QVL for ROG boards. GSkill is not bad, they have most world records for fastest kits and they are not overpriced. Even now they improve look of heatsinks. But if you like Kingston than go with Kinsgton.

I found information and TruePower Quatro 850W is compatible with Intel Haswell/Skylake processor.
There are list of supported models.

So I a now considering the Asus Rog Maximus VIII Ranger. Its is on sale for $199.99

So as for the Hero, (Currently $234.99) this is what I'm concerned about:

6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports (4 ports from 2 x SATA Express)*, by Intel Z170 Express Chipset
2 x SATA ports (black@mid-board), by ASMedia SATA controller***
*** This function will work depending on the CPU installed

The Ranger says this:

6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray, 4 ports from 2 x SATA Express

See, I will need 2 hard drive ports (Samsung 840 pro and WD Black 2Tb) and a Asus SATA DVD burner and a SATA Blu-Ray Burner.

Then I will have enough for the I7 6700 CPU.

I also could wait for the Hero to come down in price.

One thing Antec told me is that I need to disable the C6/C7 Sleep State on the Motherboard Bios to use the old Power Supply.

Footslogger wrote:


One thing Antec told me is that I need to disable the C6/C7 Sleep State on the Motherboard Bios to use the old Power Supply.

That means that it is not Haswell compatible. Frankly I'd invest in a new PSU to avoid future headaches. Personally I consider Seasonic units to be the best out there.

Buy neither motherboard!

Get the Z170-A and spend the money you save on a 6700K!


Ask yourself if you really need all the features of the more expensive motherboard! The Z170-A will do just fine, and overclock great.

For RAM, go for GKill RipJaw V 3200 MHz.. it's specifically designed for Skylake!

For PSU, I'd advise a multi-rail PSU. Won't perform better than single rail but will better protect other system components in the event of an issue.

Nate152
Moderator
Hello Footslogger

The corsair dominators are over priced, the G.Skill trident Z would be a good choice and save you a few bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231926

That is a great cpu cooler for the price and can handle up to 300w. Depending on the cpu socket type of your previous motherboard you may need to get a new mounting bracket for your cpu cooler. If you have a socket 115x board previously, it will work with socket 1151. It may have come with a socket 115x mounting bracket and shouldn't have any clearance issues with ram.

It will depend on the game how much better the 6700k performs over the 6600k, in some games performance is identical but in others the 6700k wins by a decent margin, if you can get the 6700k go for it.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=6600k+vs+6700k+gaming+benchmarks&qpvt=6600k+vs+6700k+gaming+benc...

It would be a good idea to upgrade your psu to ensure compatibility as Chino says seasonic psu's are good, the evga supernova psu's are good too with a 10 yr. warranty. Psu's come in different certifications, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and titanium. It's good to go with at least a gold psu, the higher the certification the better for your electric bill.

For choosing a motherboard I would determine this by if you're going to do any overclocking, the hero and formula would be the boards to look at if you will be overclocking.

Now the one thing that will make the biggest difference in your gaming rig is the gpu. What gpu do you currently have and did you plan on upgrading it? Your monitor will determine what gpu you should get so you can list your monitor for us if you plan on upgrading your gpu.

Vlada011
Level 10
Yes you can buy some cheaper motherboard for i7-6700.
For memory best option is 2x8 GB 2800 or 3000 MHz...
I would go and on lower speed only to save money for K processor or at least i7-6700 non K.
Now is possible overclocking and non K models but I think that temp monitoring and downlocking in idle are important parts and that's flaw of overclocked non K models.
But i7-6700 is still better than i5-6600K.
For memory you should look GSkill Ripjaws V or Trident Z and CORSAIR LPX...
Depend what cost less.
If you need to buy 2400MHz DDR4 and i7-6700K never mind go on 2400, but price between 2400 and 3000 MHz less than before several months.

Yes you can use your Zalman cooler and with lower memory as CORSAIR LPX and GSKill. He is compatibile with LGA1151. You asked for SnR, that's I think signal/noise ration, higher value more clear sound...
If you don't have sound card and you can choose ASUS Z170-PRO Gaming motherboard, she cost arround 150-160$ and she have excellent SnR with SupremeFX Audio, 115dB.


You can pay attention on this memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231878&cm_re=GSKILL_RIPJAWS_V-_-20-231-878-...

One guy explain that she work only on 2800MHz on ASUS Z170-PRO Gaming but guy from GSkill technical support explain that newer kits will work better and say this kit is perfect for Z170-PRO Gaming. That was before several months and probably now this memory is not bad choice for that money. If you want something else, Trident Z cost 30$ more on same speed 3000MHz.