I like motherboards with PCI 32-Bit,
and purchased msi z270 pc mate,
wanted to buy a msi z170 gaming 3 that also has more pci slots, but was not in store....
purchased a g4400 cpu because i was thinking of upgrading the bios of the z170 g3 to work with 7700K,
but... ended up purchasing a z270 pc mate that bios is already ready for 7700K,
updated the Bios from 100 to 130, and something strange happened...
the manual says that msi command center fan and voltaje settings, should reset every time power is off, and settings stored in the bios are loaded again...
but with Bios 100, in legacy mode, the settings were permanently stored in the bios from the msi software!,
with Bios 130, settings & changes made in msi command center are now temporal, like the manual says..
.
im goin crazy?
.
also sometimes i get 3 long beeps at start sometimes,
had to clear cmos with power cord disconected,
it seems fan settings if too low, will trigger the warning,. set all bios settings exactly the same, no beep, except fan settings..
msi support advisor does not know what the 3 long beeps mean,
old msi boards, 3 long beeps were a problem with ram, but now beep codes are different with msi BIOS 5.
purchased msi, because all the asus boards i had in the past, p5w dh deluxe, rampage 3 extreme, had small problems in the bios...
older msi bios were more compatible with add-on cards...
100% MPS 1.4 compatible/compliant.
asus r3e MPS tables are "modern", 1.1 not 1.4.
the g4400 is 2-core, non overclockable cpu, No HyperThreading CPU but does 140 points in Cinebench R15 1-core test,
needed if you buy a new z170 board with old Bios, and want to use the 7700K cpu, must upgrade Bios first.
msi z270 pc mate has better power design for the pcie slots, military level 5 components, "hi quality long lasting high temperatura tolerant capacitors, titanium chokes, etc.."
but the motherboard leds look like old cinema bulbs on the floor, like 1970´s Disco something, LOL.
heatsink look small but new boards have lower temps, than older boards.
Z270 chip / 115x socket is limited to 4-core CPU, if want 10-Core CPU you need X99 2011-3 socket.
it depends on your software / applications.
some like faster CPU, some like more cores...
usually applications that are not in realtime like more cores and virtual machines. "loading different OS/machines in the same machine simultaneously."
z270 pc mate, so far so good.