Motherboard Decisions: I'm a noob and need help

[Jvill40]

Hey I'm in the process of putting together my first gaming PC. I'm trying to decide between the MSI Z170A SLI plus (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130900) or the gigabyte ga-z170x gaming 3 (http://pcpartpicker.com/product/rskwrH/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170xgaming3). I don't really care about aesthetics as much as I do features. The gigabyte mobo is a little more expensive than the MSI one and after looking at the features of both I've kind of gotten lost in all the jargon. Any help or advice you can provide as to which mobo is the better of the two would be great. Thanks in advance. 

[Jvill40]

The processor I'm going with is the i5 6500 (yes i know it is a locked processor and these mobo's allow for overclocking) and I'm not buying a graphics card yet but will most likely be buying the R9 480 when it comes out. 

[GDRRiley]

1 minute ago, Jvill40 said:

The processor I'm going with is the i5 6500 (yes i know it is a locked processor and these mobo's allow for overclocking) and I'm not buying a graphics card yet but will most likely be buying the R9 480 when it comes out. 

then get a b150 or h170 board.

[Jvill40]

Thanks for your response but I'm looking for comparisons between these two boards.

[spartaman64]

the gigabyte one has 2 m.2 slots and the msi one has 1 m.2 slot. the gigabyte has more usb ports. i would probably go for the cheaper motherboard unless you for some reason want to add 2 m.2 ssds

[GDRRiley]

2 minutes ago, Jvill40 said:

Thanks for your response but I'm looking for comparisons between these two boards.

it is a waste of money to buy one of those boards because you don't have a unlocked CPU. If you so badly want 1 of the 2 go with the MSI mobo 

[JefferyD90]

13 minutes ago, Jvill40 said:

Hey I'm in the process of putting together my first gaming PC. I'm trying to decide between the MSI Z170A SLI plus (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130900) or the gigabyte ga-z170x gaming 3 (http://pcpartpicker.com/product/rskwrH/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170xgaming3). I don't really care about aesthetics as much as I do features. The gigabyte mobo is a little more expensive than the MSI one and after looking at the features of both I've kind of gotten lost in all the jargon. Any help or advice you can provide as to which mobo is the better of the two would be great. Thanks in advance. 

The Gigabyte board that you have chosen is a higher end model, when compared with the MSI model that you have chosen.  The MSI Z170A is, by its model name, a Z170 (skylake platform) based chipset and the "A" at the end detonates a "Average" feature set, like Asus has a Z170A model, which is really kinda a "baseline" model.  (Yes, I know the "A" doesn't stand for "average", I just use that as a illustration point.)  Where as the Gigabyte model you have chosen is a Z170X Gaming 3 model.  This model is, just like the previous, a Z170 chipset with a "X" detonator, which I will say stands for "X-treem".  Which means that it will be a bit more bleeding edge, with USB 3.1 type C, probably will offer slightly better power delivery, some kick butt M.4 connectors, and so on.

 

Basically, if you're wanting a "I don't want to fight with it" kinda build get the MSI model.  It wont have any extra frills and has less points for things to go wrong.

If you're going to overclock, or if you don't mind playing with drivers and such to get that "next best thing" to work correctly, then go with the Gigabyte model.