Can't decide motherboard

[babadoctor]

So I am trying to find an LGA 1151 motherboard for my i7 8700k, and I have to choose between 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-H-GAMING/

and

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z370-GAMING-PRO-CARBON

 

 

 

Pros of Asus Motherboard

• 8 USB Ports
• Colored Audio Jacks
• SupremeFX audio (is this good? It also has a lot more audio caps than the MSI one)
• Reinforced PCIE lane

Cons

• Only lighting is the ASUS logo
• No RGB capabilities

 

Pros of MSI motherboard

• RGB Lighting
• Reinforced PCIE lanes and ram slots
• I can attach my RGB LED strip to it and make my computer look colorful, i guess...

Cons

• Only 7 USB ports I can use (i don't use usb c)
• No colored audio jacks (not really a big deal)

I really don't know if I should care about looks, since i will be using the shit stained noctua nh-d15, but...

This is the case it would go in

 

 

What do you guys think?

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, babadoctor said:

Pros of Asus Motherboard

• 8 USB Ports
• Colored Audio Jacks
• SupremeFX audio (is this good? It also has a lot more audio caps than the MSI one)
• Reinforced PCIE lane

Cons

• Only lighting is the ASUS logo
• No RGB capabilities

 

Pros of MSI motherboard

• RGB Lighting
• Reinforced PCIE lanes and ram slots
• I can attach my RGB LED strip to it and make my computer look colorful, i guess...

Cons

• Only 7 USB ports I can use (i don't use usb c)
• No colored audio jacks (not really a big deal)

These are all things you have the weigh up yourself.

We don't know what you like. I'd say one thing to keep in mind is usb hubs exists so the number of usb ports is never an issue. 

[Streetguru]

4 minutes ago, babadoctor said:

 

Are you building an entire new PC? If so what budget/country and monitor set up?

And what do you need that PC for?

Do you already have a GPU if you're doing gaming?

[babadoctor]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Are you building an entire new PC? If so what budget/country and monitor set up?

And what do you need that PC for?

Do you already have a GPU if you're doing gaming?

The reason why I didn't make a post saying "I am building a new PC" is because I only had a specific question about which motherboard I should choose.

but yes, I do have a gpu already

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

These are all things you have the weigh up yourself.

We don't know what you like. I'd say one thing to keep in mind is usb hubs exists so the number of usb ports is never an issue. 

I see

Do you think the noctua NH-d15 fans look bad?

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, babadoctor said:

 

If you haven't purchased the rest it's probably a good idea to post what you're buying and what you need it for

What GPU do you already have? If it's anything about a 1050ti sell it while it's worth a ton and get some extra money for a higher end Next Gen GPU in a few months.

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, babadoctor said:

Do you think the noctua NH-d15 fans look bad?

Yes. They are the color of prostethic limbs. 

[babadoctor]

3 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

If you haven't purchased the rest it's probably a good idea to post what you're buying and what you need it for

What GPU do you already have? If it's anything about a 1050ti sell it while it's worth a ton and get some extra money for a higher end Next Gen GPU in a few months.

It's actually a gtx 1070 I bought for 400$ a year or so ago

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

Yes. They are the color of a prostethic limbs. 

Yikes

Do you recommend me anything?

 

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, babadoctor said:

It's actually a gtx 1070 I bought for 400$ a year or so ago

Yikes

Do you recommend me anything?

 

Nice, should sell it for $600 or more and live on a simple Ryzen 5 2400G system which will be alright for 1080p gaming, then when next generation GPUs are out you can get 1080ti tier performance for that same $600

[emosun]

1 minute ago, babadoctor said:

Yikes

Do you recommend me anything?

no I don't. I typically run cpu's at stock speeds and use server heatsinks. Cpu cooler is up to you for what you want , again idk what you like. 

[babadoctor]

Just now, Streetguru said:

Nice, should sell it for $600 or more and live on a simple Ryzen 5 2400G system which will be alright for 1080p gaming, then when next generation GPUs are out you can get 1080ti tier performance for that same $600

aw

well i already bought the newest i7

oh well

[Streetguru]

6 minutes ago, babadoctor said:

aw

well i already bought the newest i7

oh well

You could sell it and just use a GT 1030/ RX 550 if returning the i7 is out of the question. Still leaves you probably $500 for a next gen GPU.

[SquintyG33Rs]

18 minutes ago, babadoctor said:

Pros of Asus Motherboard

• 8 USB Ports
• Colored Audio Jacks
• SupremeFX audio (is this good? It also has a lot more audio caps than the MSI one)
• Reinforced PCIE lane

Cons

• Only lighting is the ASUS logo
• No RGB capabilities

 

Pros of MSI motherboard

• RGB Lighting
• Reinforced PCIE lanes and ram slots
• I can attach my RGB LED strip to it and make my computer look colorful, i guess...

Cons

• Only 7 USB ports I can use (i don't use usb c)
• No colored audio jacks (not really a big deal)

integrated audio is pretty much all the same..

reinforced PCIE slots is a gimmick that actually does nothing, it's pure marketing. same thing on ram.

 

so the main difference is a single USB port and RGB

 

honestly you should look int VRM more and i'm pretty sure the ASUS board wins hands down in that field. MSI got a bad rep on their titanium board cause it had average VRM on an expensive board. (all my boards are MSI tho because i don't like the ASUS bios)

[babadoctor]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

integrated audio is pretty much all the same..

reinforced PCIE slots is a gimmick that actually does nothing, it's pure marketing. same thing on ram.

 

so the main difference is a single USB port and RGB

 

honestly you should look int VRM more and i'm pretty sure the ASUS board wins hands down in that field. MSI got a bad rep on their titanium board cause it had average VRM on an expensive board. (all my boards are MSI tho because i don't like the ASUS bios)

I think the ASUS mobo has the exact same power configuration as the msi one

I am not sure

also I hear that msi has worse quality control than asus

[SquintyG33Rs]

1 hour ago, babadoctor said:

I think the ASUS mobo has the exact same power configuration as the msi one

I am not sure

also I hear that msi has worse quality control than asus

nah that was an issue particularly with AM4 i think they didn't take it seriously because they didn't think zen would be that popular.

 

and VRM isn't about 6 phases or what ever these boards have. there are different controllers and different mosfets that can be used, some have lower efficiency, or switching frequency, and the controller might have more or less control knobs you can tweak. all in all it's complicated, but i don't think either of these two boards are low end and for all intents and purposes it won't affect you.

 

i'm pretty sure Asus is more popular on the forums in general because it's Linus's preferred boards but i don't like the stuff they implement on their boards as "EZ" features. it does a botch job and the unknowing user is UNKNOWINGLY degrading his hardware. now everybody has added that stuff since then but they have more of it (the whole thing with locking coffee-lake CPU's at turbo on all cores by default is the most recent example) and it's taking an apple like approach to things that i really dislike. i'm an educated consumer and they do not know what I want or need and i hate that they act like they do. (this only applies to their motherboards i don't have an preference when it comes to GPU cause they're pretty much all the same locked down by nVidia... maybe Galax stands out a bit imo)