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Thresher
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New Z170 Motherboard

Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:01 pm

I'm going to be jumping on the Z170 train.  I'm not that far behind, but I'm going to take the old computer and make it into a media PC.  This one will be for gaming. I need an ATX board and I do like a lot of bells and whistles. 

I usually go with higher end motherboards and have almost always gone for Asus.  But looking at reviews, it's looking like the Gigabyte boards are actually reviewing a little better.  Any suggestions?
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: New Z170 Motherboard

Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:31 pm

Gigabyte's boards tend to use the Alpine Ridge chip for USB 3.1 instead of ASMedia, and the company seems to have garnered a lot of good will by adding free Thunderbolt 3 connectivity to boards after launch. I have the Mini ITX Z170N-Gaming5 and it's a fantastic board with lots of bells and whistles (though it never got the Thunderbolt certification that the ATX versions did).  If I was building a Skylake system with an ATX motherboard, I'd consider a Z170X Gaming 5 because I'm a tightwad. Since you like all the bells and whistles, why not consider the Gaming 7?  Dual x4 M.2 slots is probably the biggest practical draw, but dual Gigabit Ethernet (one Intel and one Killer) could also be useful.
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JustAnEngineer
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Re: New Z170 Motherboard

Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:59 pm

My gaming PC uses the same GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 motherboard that Mr. Funk recommended.  I suggest looking at the $136 Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5.  You might find that it has all of the features that you need.

If you really do need a giant motherboard to create a quad-Crossfire system, a $113 -20MIR Asus Z170-E might do the trick.
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