choosing between two mobo's

[neocronix2]

i'm doing a new build and i need to choose between two mobo's, the Asus ROG Maximus VIII Ranger(product page) and the Gigabyte GA-170X-Ultra Gaming(product page).

Price- and specwise not very different, which one would you choose?

[TheSuspenceful]

They are both great boards, but personally, i would go with the Gigabyte GA- 170X because it has one more M.2 drive. They are making SSDs now that plug into the board via M.2 and are faster than standard SATA drives, and they are not that expensive. So, what is wise to do, is have 2 M.2 SSD drives(one 120GB one to boot, and a larger one for storage, or whatever you want to do). If you don't plan on using M.2 drives, it's good to future-proof, considering that SATA drives might become obsolete, or you might want to upgrade to M.2 later.

[neocronix2]

Good point, i have just one minor concern about this board, i dont know if you can turn off the red leds on the board or not? I know you can turn off the red trace path between the audio section of the board and the rest, but i dont know about the other ambient leds.

[TheSuspenceful]

My mistake. i was looking at the wrong board. The Gigabyte  GA-Z170X has only one M.2 slot. sorry about that.