Skylake Motherboard Quality

[Vergil2501]

So I'm in the market for an ASUS skylake board. Looking at the Maximus VIII hero and Ranger boards. How is the stability of the boards and quality of the drivers under windows 10 for these boards today. I see a lot of negative feedback on newegg and amazon reviews, I rather hear it from you guys than trust amazon reviews.

[verydogesuchwow]

overpriced imo, but that's expected with these type of boards lol (you're paying the premium for aesthetics)

they work just fine

[TidaLWaveZ]

The prices are absurd, I only paid $250 for my X99 Deluxe.

[sushisharkjl]

They work fine, but the prices are ridiculous. If you don't need the extra "features" then go something cheaper like a Gigabyte UD series.

[Vergil2501]

Price aside, how is skylake as a platform today with the ASUS and Gigabyte boards in terms of stability.

[porina]

I have a Maximus VIII Hero + i7-6700k (@4.2GHz) since August. It seemed fine at first, but I was getting the occasional error (one or two a week). At this point I should mention I look for prime numbers, and the software I run 24/7 is equivalent to Prime95 in loading. If there is any stability problem at all, I will notice it. To cut the story short, every time they release a new bios, often the release notes will say improve memory compatibility and I see the error rate go down. They have released a lot of bios updates for this model... I was down to an average of one error a month, but still not zero. Ram was G.skill Ripjaws 4 3333 4x4GB kit something or other, which is on the movo QVL but it is X99 era ram. Getting fed up with that, I swapped it with Ripjaws 5, 3200 2x8GB kit, and had only one unexplained error in over 3 months, just after yet another bios update strangely enough. For less stressful uses I don't think the above would have been detectable.

 

Since then I've built two more Skylake systems with MSI Gaming Pro, one each with i7-6700k and i5-6600k. I used the Ripjaws 4 taken from my original system and sure enough the errors returned. I think the ram wasn't quite stable at its rated speed and it has been error free since reducing it to 3000. Also I found one of those mobos had problems overclocking, even after swapping components between them to rule out those as the cause, it followed the mobo. So I wouldn't recommend that specific model. They did work fine at stock so I couldn't say they were faulty. If I were to build another system I think I'd stick with Asus.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

The prices are absurd, I only paid $250 for my X99 Deluxe.

HOW my X99 Pro was $284 but then again, my CPU was $299

[TidaLWaveZ]

36 minutes ago, TheCovertCamper said:

HOW my X99 Pro was $284 but then again, my CPU was $299

All eBay all day!

 

I got my X99 Deluxe and 2 970's all on ebay within $10 OF $250 each, got my 5820k at microcenter for $299.

[Vergil2501]

Thanks porina for that, its so rare to get real world feedback this day and age from owners of the platform. I just want to know if today with the recent string of bios updates if at least for ASUS boards if its rock solid stability. The most stressful thing I guess would be running various MMOs, I may OC the i5-6600k I'm getting to 4.0GHz just for the hell of it. The rig I'm building is going to be at my house where my mother lives and the primary user (currently in the military and move a lot and I want a dedicated tower at my house when I'm on leave and want to PC game).

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

All eBay all day!

 

I got my X99 Deluxe and 2 970's all on ebay within $10 OF $250 each, got my 5820k at microcenter for $299.

Gotta love Microcenter. So you drove all the way up here to Cincinnati for it? Damn. It's totally worth it, though.

[TidaLWaveZ]

46 minutes ago, TheCovertCamper said:

Gotta love Microcenter. So you drove all the way up here to Cincinnati for it? Damn. It's totally worth it, though.

My parents live in Cincinnati, so I was up there for Christmas.  Microcenter is like mecca to me, I make my pilgrimage up there every year.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

My parents live in Cincinnati, so I was up there for Christmas.  Microcenter is like mecca to me, I make my pilgrimage up there every year.

Yeah, I'll usually get a great open box deal every month or two ($187 R9 380X, $620 iPad Pro but they gave me a new one because the cash register wasn't working.)

[TidaLWaveZ]

4 minutes ago, TheCovertCamper said:

Yeah, I'll usually get a great open box deal every month or two ($187 R9 380X, $699 iPad Pro but they gave me a new one because the cash register wasn't working.)

 

I spent my entire wad there this Christmas a bunch of watercooling stuff, a 5820k, and a shield.  When I was walking out the guy that got the commission ran up and gave me a remote and an extra controller for the shield, he said it was some promotion. I NEVER leave that place disappointed. 

[Guest]

Just now, TidaLWaveZ said:

 

I spent my entire wad there this Christmas a bunch of watercooling stuff, a 5820k, and a shield.  When I was walking out the guy that got the commission ran up and gave me a remote and an extra controller for the shield, he said it was some promotion but I NEVER leave that place disappointed. 

Agree, they just cut things down and price match everywhere like crazy. Staff are really good, always see the same people there.

[TidaLWaveZ]

1 minute ago, TheCovertCamper said:

Agree, they just cut things down and price match everywhere like crazy. Staff are really good, always see the same people there.

 

Definitely, it's a great feeling to be able to ask questions to people who can actually answer them.

[Vergil2501]

Side question: How do I know if the motherboard supports NVMe drives. I have a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe drive and want to make sure the board supports that standard. Most of the motherboards say it supports SATA & PCIe modes).

[Guest]

Just now, TidaLWaveZ said:

 

Definitely, it's a great feeling to be able to ask questions to people who can actually answer them.

A guy working over in cases helped me realize that my monitor was artifacting and not my graphics cards... saved me countless RMA's (already had like 3.)

[TidaLWaveZ]

Just now, Vergil2501 said:

Side question: How do I know if the motherboard supports NVMe drives. I have a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe drive and want to make sure the board supports that standard. Most of the motherboards say it supports SATA & PCIe modes).

 

Manufacturer website feature listing or the Mobo's manual

[Vergil2501]

4 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

 

Manufacturer website feature listing or the Mobo's manual

I understand that, but there is a lot of motherboards that got NVMe via BIOS updates but the manual or manufacturer's website never update *cough* ASUS *cough*

[TidaLWaveZ]

Just now, Vergil2501 said:

I understand that, but there is a lot of motherboards that got NVMe via BIOS updates but the manual or manufacturer's website never update *cough* ASUS *cough*

Which board are you thinking of? I can guarantee Z170a-Pro-Deluxe all have nvme support.

[Vergil2501]

$250 USD is my limit, I'm correctly looking at the following ASUS boards: Maximus VIII Hero, Z170-E, Z170-Pro, Z170-A, Z170-AR, Sabertooth. I'll slim down the selection later when I get back to my PC and look at the boards and their selection of USB ports and such.

[VagabondWraith]

Why Asus? Others offer more for the same price. I have the Gigabyte Gaming 7 which is $20 dollars cheaper than the Hero and offers more. I have the VII Hero and had the VIII Hero before I returned it because of onboard sound issues. The Gigabyte offers:

 

- 2 M.2 slots over Asus' 1.

- Dual Bios

- Dual NIC (Killer e2400 and Intel)

- HDMI 2.0 (Asus is 1.4)

- Creative Sound is far superior to SupremeFX

 

Those are some that I can think of. Why pay more for less? Asus is all cost no substance.