Looking for a motherboard for an upgrade

[Laucien]

I'm doing an upgrade to Skylake and while I have a couple motherboards in mind to chose from (basically 3 different ASUS models) I want to make sure that whatever I end up buying will be able to handle everything I'm gonna end up pluging into it for my future upgrades. 

 

The three boards I have in mind are: 

• Maximus VIII Formula
• Z170-Deluxe
• Maximus VIII Hero (For a slightly cheaper option) 

 

I'll be using it in a Corsair Obsidian 750D so space shouldn't be an issue (though the three are standard ATX size) and right from the get go is going to have all this plugged into it: 

• i7 6700k + My current H100i (will be doing some OC). 
• 4x8 G.Skill Tridentz DDR4 3200MHZ. 
• MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X. 
• ASUS Strix Raid DLX sound card. 
• 2 SSDs + 3 HDDs for a total of 5 SATA devices. 
• A bunch of USB devices but dunno if the type of devices matter or just the available number of ports. 

And in the future (6 months window) I will be adding: 

• A second 1080. 
• An M.2 drive to use as boot drive and replace my oldest SSD. Probably a Samsung 950 Pro. 
• Not adding but I'll probably be removing some HDDs. Truth be told I have that many because my HTPC died and plugged everything into my main rig. 2 out of 3 HDDs are currently going completely to waste. 

 

 

So, among those 3 options. Is there one that would handle all that load better than the rest? Would all 3 be the same?. I don't understand much about PCIe lanes and how the affect bandwidth with so many things plugged in or if plugging in an M.2 drive would render some of the SATA ports unusable (I think that's the case on my current M7 Ranger) so I'd rather ask and look dumb than make a mistake :P. 

 

 

Thanks!. 

[PsuedoFurry]

The Z170-Deluxe is probably the best suited for workstation and professional usages. Whereas the ROG boards are more tuned for gaming performance. The Skylake architecture doesn't need crazy 12 or 16 phase motherboards unless you're using exotic cooling options and pushing a ridiculous amount of voltage to the chip. This means that the Maximus VIII Hero should be perfect for your needs, as it has SLI support, and M.2 slot, plenty of SATA ports, and of course PCIE slots that could have the sound card in them.

[SLAYR]

1 minute ago, Aezesel said:

The Z170-Deluxe is probably the best suited for workstation and professional usages. Whereas the ROG boards are more tuned for gaming performance. The Skylake architecture doesn't need crazy 12 or 16 phase motherboards unless you're using exotic cooling options and pushing a ridiculous amount of voltage to the chip. This means that the Maximus VIII Hero should be perfect for your needs, as it has SLI support, and M.2 slot, plenty of SATA ports, and of course PCIE slots that could have the sound card in them.

Motherboards don't affect performance.

 

Pick one that has the features you want such as expandability or aesthetics. 

[PsuedoFurry]

16 minutes ago, SLAYR said:

Motherboards don't affect performance.

 

Pick one that has the features you want such as expandability or aesthetics. 

The Maximus VIII Hero has a 10 phase power design, whereas the Z170-Deluxe has a 16 phase design and is $80 more. The extra phases are not needed necessarily; however, as I did not note before I'll add it now: the Z170-Deluxe comes with wireless built in.

 

They both offer:

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode)
4 x PCIe x1

 

So expansion isn't a problem.

 

They both have Gigabit LAN controllers.

Both have multi GPU support.

 

The Deluxe will give you 4 more USB 3.1 ports though. I can't offer every single thing that's different, besides that in this case. The Maximus VIII Hero is probably the way to go. I rest my case.

[Laucien]

Yeah, the Z170-Deluxe isn't as 'geared' towards gaming as the other two but it seems to share pretty much all the features with the Formula while adding a PCIe expansion card while staying at the same price (at least here in Argentina) so that's why I was considering it. 

 

Here's how I think my rig would end up looking like after I'm done with all the planned upgrades -> http://pcpartpicker.com/list/CvKxcc <- Picking the Formula as the board as a best case scenario, might go with the Hero if it is enough. Depending on what is more available here. 

 

Most of that I already have. My immediate (within a month/month and a half) buys would be the RAM+board+CPU then in around 6 months from now the SSD and the other VGA for SLI though that can get pushed further away if I can get a good 4k screen somehow (Prices for that here in Argentina are ridiculously high as almost no retailer actually sells gaming-grade monitors). 

 

Can you guys see any incompatibilities between all those components together that might bite me in the ass eventually or does all look good?. 

[marshmallowbam]

1 hour ago, Laucien said:

Yeah, the Z170-Deluxe isn't as 'geared' towards gaming as the other two but it seems to share pretty much all the features with the Formula while adding a PCIe expansion card while staying at the same price (at least here in Argentina) so that's why I was considering it. 

 

Here's how I think my rig would end up looking like after I'm done with all the planned upgrades -> http://pcpartpicker.com/list/CvKxcc <- Picking the Formula as the board as a best case scenario, might go with the Hero if it is enough. Depending on what is more available here. 

 

Most of that I already have. My immediate (within a month/month and a half) buys would be the RAM+board+CPU then in around 6 months from now the SSD and the other VGA for SLI though that can get pushed further away if I can get a good 4k screen somehow (Prices for that here in Argentina are ridiculously high as almost no retailer actually sells gaming-grade monitors). 

 

Can you guys see any incompatibilities between all those components together that might bite me in the ass eventually or does all look good?. 

when looking for the board just specifically look for 32gig ram support, m.2 support, multi gpus support ddr4 3200mhz support, and btw the pcei/e lane support is stored within the cpu itself. it is not determined by the board itself. but just put together a list with all of those functions then pick the one you like best.