So I'm putting together a build for my parents and I'm trying to find a decent Z170 motherboard. I'd prefer ATX but mATX will be fine as well. I am looking at under $140 preferably close to $120.
Really having trouble here. Motherboards are not my forte and the reviews have put me off several. Some say they are crap some say they are amazing. I just really don't want something with a high likelihood of being DOA or failing within a few months.
I've found a few that I have liked including The Z170 A from ASUS(although this one seems to have issues and some people are reporting receiving refurbished ones) as well as the Asrock Z170M Exteme4 and Z170A-X1/3.which have good reviews and are nice and cheap.The Z170A SLI and Krait from MSI also look good
So anyone have any guidance/suggestions?
Yes I'd like to stick with Z170 unless someone can find a very cheap yet good quality motherboard with similar connectivity/performance on a lesser chipset.
The real question here should be what are your parents going to do on this computer? Are they watching movies, gaming, or just using the internet? That would help us aim you toward a good board as well as maybe getting your price down since you might not need the newest 1151 chips.
The CPU is already decided. Getting a 6600K. Can pick one up for $209 at Microcenter which is a hell of a good deal. Plus my parents do play games including many AAA titles like Doom. So I want a fairly powerful part and future OCing ability would be nice to extend the CPU's life.
Again I don't need a super cheap motherboard. I just want one under $140ish. Which there are a bunch. I just need some help picking them out because honestly there is so much back and forth about reliability and quality. Really can't have this dying on them a month in. I live 6 hours away so i can't hop over and fix it.
you can get an i7 6700 for the same price and end up with a much better CPU overall man, 8 threads at 4ghz turbo > 4 threads at probably 4.5ghz in the end
and see above edit for the budget board stuff, you probably don't need anything Z170 gives you
I wouldn't exactly say an i7 is "much better" slightly more cache and clock speed (which OCing can counter), and HT which isn't that big of a deal for gaming. Highly dependent on your workload.
Because they do some serious multitasking and I'd like the machine to last a while. Considering some games now already don't support dual core CPUs I'd rather not go with that. Especially when the 6600K is about $50 more I feel it is worth it. Plus my dad wants me to get him a 1440p monitor eventually too so I'd like to have more speed. TBH I don't even think we should be making dual cores anymore but I digress.
Money really isn't a super huge issue. I'm totally fine with around $1000. Less is better but I don't think making a jump to an i3 is worth the relatively small savings.
and the 8 thread CPU costs the same as the 4 core CPU, it's pretty much a nobrainer to go for the upgrade because .5ghz at the same price point isn't going to be worth it
Again HT really makes little difference in many games. In some it actually hurts. Some don't allow dual cores anyway regardless of HT. This will only continue. Dual core CPUs even with HT really should be a thing of the past. Should also say he does do photo work and especially with an OC an i5 will be much faster there and in most other productivity applications.
In what world does $200=$300 or $350 considering the 6600K I have is unlocked and the 6700 isn't?
Okay? So buying a 6600K for $200 makes me a poor soul? Alrighty then.
Hyperthreading is just a technology to get more threads, it has nothing to do with games.
If you mean that games don't use 8 threads, most games don't, but that's what DX12/Vulkan are supposed to help with, and 8 threads will probably be the norm to use for the future.
and an i3 is a 4 thread CPU, it will run games like Far Cry 4 and GTAV 100% fine because it has more threads unlike say a G3258 which is a true dual core, as long as the CPU has 4 threads to give the game the game will run fine.
- - Far as the CPU goes, it's fine, factoring out the few bonus features on the Z170 board the K part basically forces you to buy, you can't really beat an 8 thread CPU with a 4ghz turbo on price:performance for that price range. The most you're probably going to get out of that i5 is probably around 4.5ghz, which in my mind does not equate to having more threads at the same price.
I've been really happy with my Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI I got it for $110 at microcenter and it overclocks really well. I'm running a 6600k at 4.6Ghz 1.275v. It has usb type c, decent audio, SLI support, etc. Good board for a good price