Asus vs MSI H170

[N.E.A]

Hi all, 

 

I'm considering one of these two motherboards: 

Asus H170 Pro Gaming - https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/

or 

MSI H170 Gaming M3 - https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H170-GAMING-M3.html#hero-overview

 

I want to know which one do you recommend or prefer. 

Also when I get RAM for the build, most sticks available to me are 2400 MHZ and both boards support a max of 2133 MHZ so when I get RAM that is higher than what they support, would they be scaled down automatically or do I need to configure something by myself?

[Zyndo]

31 minutes ago, N.E.A said:

Also when I get RAM for the build, most sticks available to me are 2400 MHZ and both boards support a max of 2133 MHZ so when I get RAM that is higher than what they support, would they be scaled down automatically or do I need to configure something by myself?

All RAM will run at 2133 MHz when you initially put it into any Skylake board. If you want to run it faster than that, you're going to need to adjust it yourself.

 

As for which board to get, I would get the Pro Gaming board from Asus. I would get it solely because it has USB type C and the M3 does not. There are other features for and against either board, but on my computer I would want a USB type C. So when you make your decision on your motherboard, decide what is important to you, and then pick the board that has those features. There are too many boards with too many similarities to do it in any other way. A motherboard will not affect raw gaming performance (Except in rare cases with premium overclocking motherboards).

[Funtron5000]

I would go off of I/O. The MSI has more 3.1 USB's in the back. But, the ASUS has a USB Type-C. And I would hope they can technically run DDR4-2400. You can definitely set it to 2133 if you have to in the BIOS. Maybe someone has one of these boards or an H170 and can help witht the RAM speed.