Motherboard hunting

nadnerB

I'm in the market, as it were.

I'm looking at these three boards at the moment (upgrade time! yay, me)

Asus Z170-K https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/Z170-K/
Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5521#ov
Asus B150 PRO GAMING/AURA https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/B150-PRO-GAMING-AURA/

I'm leaning towards the Z170-K as I don't need the "Gaming Features" of the B150 and the H170 has some weird thing called cFosSpeed (Apparently "a network traffic management application") which seems a little suss to me.

I'm not overclocking, which means that this is a feature that will go unused on the Z170-K. This is going to be a multipurpose rig where I will game to a certain degree and also play around with VMs in Hyper-V.

All three boards are with in $10 of each other, so that's not the deciding factor.
I am open to other suggestions but I'm going for DDR4 (future proofing) and Skylake.

Any thoughts on these three boards?

scottalanmiller

Both good vendors, but I've always been an Asus fan myself.

dafyre

@scottalanmiller said:

Both good vendors, but I've always been an Asus fan myself.

My Desktop system is running a Gigabyte board. But I'm also partial to Asus, myself.

MattSpeller

Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.

Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata express

GA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata express

B150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata express

So, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.

*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear

gjacobse

@MattSpeller said:

Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.

Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata express

GA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata express

B150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata express

So, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.

*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear

Optical Output? You mean a monitor??

You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.

MattSpeller

@gjacobse said:

@MattSpeller said:

Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.

Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata express

GA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata express

B150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata express

So, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.

*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear

Optical Output? You mean a monitor??

You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.

This

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK

scottalanmiller

@MattSpeller said:

@gjacobse said:

@MattSpeller said:

Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.

Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata express

GA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata express

B150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata express

So, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.

*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear

Optical Output? You mean a monitor??

You weird Kah-Nah-Dee-Eeens.

This

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK

TOSLINK, the crappy low grade digital audio option.

wrx7m

@nadnerB I have mainly had Asus boards. My previous build was a Gigabyte that lasted about 6 years and my current one I went with an Asrock.

nadnerB

@MattSpeller said:

Stuff I look for that matters to me but might not to you but I'll post anyway because... why the @(#* not.

Z170-K
4x USB3
3x USB3.1 (1A/2C)
1x M2
1x sata express

GA-H170-D3HP
7x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
2x Sata express

B150 PRO GAMING/AURA
6x USB3
2x USB3.1 (1A/1C)
1x M2
zero sata express

So, TL;DR I'd lean towards the GA-H170-D3HP for more USB goodness but I don't think any of them have optical* out for audio which is a must for me. Ehhhhh none are really bad, but go for the gigabyte if its the same price. Can't have too many USB ports.

*edit: B150 does, so that's my pick, but only because I have fancy audio gear

Ah, good point about the USB ports. MOAR USB!
I shall factor that into final consideration.

RojoLoco

I can only add that most of my systems the last decade have been ASUS boards, they are rock solid.