Which motherboard to chose for my build?

[amitgelbhart]

Hello all,

 

I am looking to replace the motherboard and cpu on my brothers PC but I am not sure which motherboard to go with, both are within my budget and seem to be compatible with the parts we already have.

I will be getting the i7-6700 for him and since his current board doesnt support it we need a new one;

 

1) GA-Z170X-Gaming 6

2)Z170A GAMING PRO

 

any other suggestions will be fantastic, also explanation to the reason behind the choice will be welcomed so in future I can increase my knowledge pool on these sort of things,

cheers 

[Blackhole890]

get  msi b250 m3 (or any) b250 motherboard... Z boards are for unlocked processors, which in this case, it's useless because you can't overclock

[genexis_x]

for a locked CPU, H110/B150/H170/B250/H270 mobo will work fine.

[Maxinfamily]

Well, the cpu to be locked doesnt mean you cant OC, It only means that Its ready to be OCed in terms of construction materials quality (they endure better the temperatures and the higher voltajes). Ive bought my i5 4690 almost 4 years ago and Ive OCed it to 3.9GHz (from 3.5) thanks to my mobo utilities (I have the Asus Z-97 P). The H and B tiers are also goob mobos, but since you are buying a i7 6700 I would go for the Z series, so you can OC it in 3-4 years so Its keeps delivering the performance youll need. 

Regarding the brands; for "equal" mobos I always have this order preference Asus>Gigabyte>Others since from my experience they are the ones who has been more reliable. I always check the other options, because Its stupid to always buy from the same brand no matter what. 

 

Ive taken a glance at the mobos and the main differences are the sound quality, which is told to be better on the Gigabyte and the rgb fringe on the msi one. Personally, I would go for the Gigabyte because I really care about sound quality, and If you are not going to buy a sound card and you care about it, I would say that the Gigabyte is your mobo.

 

Edit: if you are not an "advanced user" and you dont want to OC and stuff, go for the ones @ZM Fong suggested, truth be told, It is stupid to buy a Z series if you are not into OC or you dont want to learn/plan to do It.

[amitgelbhart]

thanks for all the help guys, for some reason notifications werent pushed to my email so i thought i got no responses, will definatley update when the build is complete