New motherboard recommendations

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berlin88

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Oct 23, 2009
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I am in the market for an Asus Z170 motherboard, which I will be pairing with a core i5-6600k or i7-6700k.

Newegg has some sales and rebate offers, so I hope to take advantage of that.


Which of the following is the best choice for my new motherboard?

Asus Z170-A ($135 after rebate)
Asus ROG Maximums VIII Ranger ($144.99 after $35 rebate)
Asus Z170S Tuf Sabertooth ($179.99)
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming ($149.99)
Asus Z170I Pro Gaming ($164.99)
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming / Aura ($129.99 after rebate)
Asus Z170-P ($99.99 after rebate)
Asus Z170-Pro ($194.99 Newegg) ($160 Micro center)
Asus ROG Maximums VIII HERO ($219.99)
Asus ROG Maximums VIII Hero / Whetstone ($198.99 after rebate)

The Maximus Ranger looks very tempting with that $35 rebate, making it only $145, but is it a good board?

If there is another Asus Z170 board you like, feel free to suggest, but I would like to keep the price under $200, preferably lower.


Newegg has bundle / configuration packages, so I will be getting some DDR4 Gskill Ripjaws ram with my motherboard.
 
Solution
King Dranzer
To be honest the only reason I went for Ranger over Z170-A is the Sound card and OC features available with it. The ROG bios is easier to tweak than normal ASUS one.

To be honest Hero is completely worth $200 mark. It comes with very high quality components which are lot durable under stress. And has many great features. There is no other motherboard which can match its quality and features.

Z170-A is a great one. Ranger comes with bit extra features and great software support when compared to ASUS Z170-A.

In January i7-7700K is going to launch.

Are you building new build now or upgrading old one?
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King Dranzer

King Dranzer

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MAXIMUS VIII RANGER is not bad and comes with great features if you wanna save some money get it. My first preference would be MAXIMUS VIII HERO. But at $150 range RANGER is best suited.

Try getting HERO/Whetstone if budget allows but if makes you compromise with other components then get RANGER.
 
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berlin88

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The Hero gets plenty of praise, but its nearly $200, and that's after the rebate. That's why I am considering some of the cheaper options like Ranger or Z170-A. I am not sure if the difference between the Hero and Z170-A or Ranger is enough to justify the price difference.

Compared to the Z-170A, would you pick the Ranger over this board?

The Ranger doesn't come with a ram bundle option like the Z170-A or Hero, so I would have to buy the memory separately. The Ranger has a bundle option for adding an Intel SSD, but I already have a Samsung SSD.

With the Z170-A, I could get both the board and some Ripjaws DDR4 memory fro $232 with a $20 mail in rebate on top of that, courtesy of a bundle discount deal.

I guess I am debating between the Z170-A, Z170-Pro and Ranger, with the Hero as a possible alternative option.
 
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King Dranzer

King Dranzer

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Aug 16, 2016
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To be honest the only reason I went for Ranger over Z170-A is the Sound card and OC features available with it. The ROG bios is easier to tweak than normal ASUS one.

To be honest Hero is completely worth $200 mark. It comes with very high quality components which are lot durable under stress. And has many great features. There is no other motherboard which can match its quality and features.

Z170-A is a great one. Ranger comes with bit extra features and great software support when compared to ASUS Z170-A.

In January i7-7700K is going to launch.

Are you building new build now or upgrading old one?
 
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berlin88

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I currently have an AMD FX-8320 / Asrock 990FX Extreme 4, which I have had for 3 years. I am upgrading to either an Intel i5-6600k or i7-6700k.
 
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King Dranzer

King Dranzer

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Aug 16, 2016
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You have been using it for 3years now wait for 2-3 more months to get better upgrade options.

In the mean time you can add some more money to your budget.

Get i7-7700K ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO and DDR4 16GB combo it will be great for very long time.
 
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berlin88

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I wound up buying from Microcenter, and got the following items:

Asus Z170-Maximums Hero (Microcenter doesn't have whetstone version)
Intel I7-6700k
Cooler Master 212 LED CPU heatsink
EVGA 16GB (2x 8GB) 2400 memory

I purchased from Microcenter, because they will test the parts out, and verify my stuff works. I had a negative experience once buying my CPU / motherboard online, so I now tend to buy those at Microcenter. It costs a little more overall, but it guarantees I leave the store with working parts.

I also got a $20 2 year replacement plan on my board, but declined to get one on my CPU.

The memory is only 2400 as opposed to 3000 or 3200, but the sales person felt there was little difference between 2400 and 3000, so I just went with the cheaper option. It only saved $10-15, but I just went with what the sales person recommended.
 
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