Is there any point getting a Z170 motherboard besides overclocking?

[steffeeh]

I'm currently lightly planning a build for my dad that will happen probably sometime between April and May. I am waiting for Ryzen to see what they have to offer on the lower end, but in the meantime I'm sticking to an i3 6100 doing research for it.

Now, previously I've planned on just getting an H110 chipset motherboard that's not too expensive to keep a good budget for my dad's PC, but I have myself an overclocking motherboard, and I notice the GUI in the BIOS is so much better when compared to H110 (just by looking at images), so I've actually searched and found a cheaper Z170 motherboard that I've added to the build list for now.

But on the other hand I'm wondering if it's really worth the extra money getting a Z170 board just for the GUI in the BIOS... I won't do any overclocking, I just want a good quality BIOS where you can actually do stuff. What other advantages do the Z170 have over H110?

[Droidbot]

for reference the pentium g4560 is essentially the i3 6100 with a 200Mhz downclock for significantly cheaper. 

you'll need either updated skylake boards or b250/z270 for it though, so if those boards are expensive stick with the 6100 + h110

 

And unless he's using workloads that take advantage of the CPU loads and allow for higher clocked memory to do something, nope. 

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

basically: none

overclocking is pretty much the whole purpose of that fancy Z

[Cyndre1033]

14 minutes ago, steffeeh said:

I'm currently lightly planning a build for my dad that will happen probably sometime between April and May. I am waiting for Ryzen to see what they have to offer on the lower end, but in the meantime I'm sticking to an i3 6100 doing research for it.

Now, previously I've planned on just getting an H110 chipset motherboard that's not too expensive to keep a good budget for my dad's PC, but I have myself an overclocking motherboard, and I notice the GUI in the BIOS is so much better when compared to H110 (just by looking at images), so I've actually searched and found a cheaper Z170 motherboard that I've added to the build list for now.

But on the other hand I'm wondering if it's really worth the extra money getting a Z170 board just for the GUI in the BIOS... I won't do any overclocking, I just want a good quality BIOS where you can actually do stuff. What other advantages do the Z170 have over H110?

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure you can OC a locked chip on a Z series board by changing the base clock rather than the multiplier. 

 

[Drak3]

Z series chipsets often have the "full gamut" of features, things like onboard RAID, overclocking support, etc. It's a no compromise consumer chipset, with a price tag to match.

 

Many features you can find on Z series, can be added to B and H series boards, just not overclocking. Just look for something that has the features you want/need, and has a decent UEFI layout.

[Himommies]

34 minutes ago, Cyndre1033 said:

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure you can OC a locked chip on a Z series board by changing the base clock rather than the multiplier. 

 

Not as much though

[typographie]

2 hours ago, steffeeh said:

What other advantages do the Z170 have over H110?

Z170 allows you to overclock unlocked processors, use XMP to overclock memory, use SLI and Crossfire, and it gives you a lot more chipset PCIe lanes than H110 for things like M.2. H110 also limits you to single-channel memory.

 

It's not a binary choice, though. B150/B250 are a pretty good alternatives if you want, say, more PCIe connectivity and dual-channel RAM but don't plan to overclock.