Z270 Motherboard, CPU and RAM Upgrade

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Lowie1771

Lowie1771

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Dec 8, 2013
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Hello,

I feel that it's about time to upgrade from my i7-4770k, and as a result I need a new CPU and motherboard. Furthermore I think upgrading to DDR4 RAM would be a good bet as well. I figure that the obvious step up would be a i7-7700k, but I'm at a loss as for which motherboard to get. What would be the best successor to my current motherboard, the ASUS Maximus VI Formula? I have looked at the Asus Maximus IX Formula but it seems overly expensive, and with many flashing lights and other unnecessary features. It is difficult to narrow down which of the more reasonable motherboards would best handle a 4770k and a 1080 Ti, which I intend to purchase once it becomes available. I've looked for reviews and articles online, but because these new motherboards are only a month old, there isn't much content about them available. Any advice on which motherboards to look at would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ideally, the motherboard should:
Have built-in wifi
Support SLI
Support front-case USB3 headers
M.2 Slot (PCIE or SATA? Which is best?)


My current best find is the ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E

Here's the list of parts from my current build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($348.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Corsair)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Formula ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($145.89 @ Jet)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($134.89 @ OutletPC)
 
Solution
Mikel_4
I missed that "current" word, so 4K display gonna be the point reference right?

  • ■ Graphic card, since it's 4K you can go for expensive Titan X Pascal or two custom GTX 1080, series such as EVGA FTW2, Zotac AMP Extreme, Gigabyte Aorus etc etc. Those cards draw more power than nVidia ~ 190 watt reference, before you choose, check its power connector, a card with two 8 pin may draw up to 300 watt (2X150 watt 8 pin PEG), why custom GTX 1080? some custom GTX 1070 with higher boost clock recently reviewed faster than reference 180 watt GTX 1080 ( not happen in previous GTX 9 series).
    Dependencies:
    - PSU
    - SLI mboard
    ■ CPU + Z270 mboard, game mostly favor high speed CPU than multi cores CPU, so reasonable choice would be i5 7600K + SLI...
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Mikel_4

Mikel_4

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Oct 15, 2016
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you need 7th gen intel CPU http://ark.intel.com/products/family/95544/7th-Generation-Intel-Core-i7-Processors (desktop) if you look for top CPU, for gaming you can opt for i5 7600K where most flagship GPU can still take advantage of high MHz than cores count.
I lost count but all Z270 boards I've found have at least a M.2 socket, cheap single M.2 PCIe base is faster than SATA based M.2 stick, make sure you buy PCIe M.2 stick.

GTX 780Ti may have been discontinued by vendors, for similar price/performance you can opt for GTX 1070 or RX 480. Not good idea to buy used/refurbished from online retailers.

1000 watt may be overkill even for water cooled OCed i7 7700K + water cooled OCed GTX 1080, I suggest you look for Titanium 80+ PSU such as Seasonic SSR 650TD, Titanium PSUs usually waste ~ 10% ( if your total build consume 300 watt D/C, the titanium rated PSUs draw ~ 330 watt from your wall socket A/C) your G2 (Gold rated 8P0+ PSU) probably waste ~ 17%

  • ■ CPU
    any i7 or i5 7600K if you doing CPU intensive task such as multimedia transcoding or CPU rendering.
    ■ RAM
    Motherboard dependent, I'll explain later.
    ■ Motherboard
    Z270 if you feeling OCing 'K' CPU, Newegg Z270 motherboard list, before ordering you can googling your chosen one first, most culprit would be storage and RAM QVL, for example some Z270 motherboard may require BIOS update in order to make certain PCIE based M.2 storage to become boot drive, or if you end up buying high speed RAM ( faster than DDR4 3200) your motherboard may require BIOS update to fully run XMP profile on that speed.
    ■ Graphic card
    Monitor dependent, if you currently use old tube monitor with 1280x768 60Hz, buying top graphic card is wasteful, so what's your monitor?
    ■ PCIE base M.2 drive
    Most aftermarket M.2 is 2280 (22mm width 80mm long) and again all Z270 boards I've found support that size, M.2 stick is blazing fast, most useful if you work on gigabytes files editing (has ~1GB/s write speed and ~2GB/s read speed), pricey but worthwhile.
    ■ SLI
    Gigabyte Z270P D3 not SLI?? yes NVIDIA charges vendors to use SLI tech, for +US$40 you have Asus Z270 TUF Mark 2 no nonsense OC buttons. Seems all SLI Z270 boards start at ~ US$ 150.
    ■ SLI + WiFi
    Buying seperate WiFi module could be cheaper, probably won't make much different between antenna and non antenna USB WiFi, so try order form single online retailer to get shipping free (amazon prime or newegg premiere membership), my experience with WiFi is turn out rear antenna module may be slower than front I/O USB type WiFi dongle.
OFF TOPIC
Your Maximus XI Formula consider to be HEDT board, can still accept GTX 1070 with i7 4770K still consider fast CPU, my opinion is look for these

  • ■ Decent power supply, www.jonnyguru.com has more than enough PSU reviews so you can opt for whatever fit your budget.
    ■ Matching CPU heatsink fan, if you use CPU air cooler now, it doesn't need part replacement, you can also buy top performer TIM such as arctic MX5.
    ■ There're half height half length M.2 storage such as Intel SSD 750 or HyperX Predator, in term of performance, HHHL M.2 on PCIeX8 2.0 slot roughly equal to PCIEX4 3.0 slot.
    ■ Graphic card and monitor par, so the pricier your graphic card = wider screen resolution, i.e GTX 1070 can play on highest image quality setting on AAA games @ 1080p full HD monitor, GTX 1080 on 1440p QHD and Titan X Pascal on 4K monitor. As for SLI I don't think electric bill paid will give you double performance in modern game titles.
    ■ Case, year 2017 is the year of tempered glass case and RGB fans/strips, you can brag your creative design on components choice on online build logs and imgrum.
 
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Lowie1771

Lowie1771

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Dec 8, 2013
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Thanks for the reply. I think that you may have misunderstood, that PCPartpicker list is my *current* build, not the one I'm aiming for. But your advice is good. I have a 4k display, so I'll be able to take full advantage of the processor and card.
 
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Mikel_4

Mikel_4

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Oct 15, 2016
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I missed that "current" word, so 4K display gonna be the point reference right?

  • ■ Graphic card, since it's 4K you can go for expensive Titan X Pascal or two custom GTX 1080, series such as EVGA FTW2, Zotac AMP Extreme, Gigabyte Aorus etc etc. Those cards draw more power than nVidia ~ 190 watt reference, before you choose, check its power connector, a card with two 8 pin may draw up to 300 watt (2X150 watt 8 pin PEG), why custom GTX 1080? some custom GTX 1070 with higher boost clock recently reviewed faster than reference 180 watt GTX 1080 ( not happen in previous GTX 9 series).
    Dependencies:
    - PSU
    - SLI mboard
    ■ CPU + Z270 mboard, game mostly favor high speed CPU than multi cores CPU, so reasonable choice would be i5 7600K + SLI capable mboard:
    Dependencies:
    - Game title
    - Storage interconnection
    ■ M.2 PCIE base storage, although not directly related to game play, having fast storage will load scenes faster + faster saving + less watt consumption.
    ■ Game title, some game may require massive RAM capacity (GTA V) up to 8GB, difference between two 4GB stick and two 8GB sticks is narrow, so get two 8GB sticks.
    ■ Estimated peak watt usage
    ■ two GTX 1080 = 600 w■ i5 7600K = 150 w■ Motherboard = 60 to 100 w■ Fans + LED strip = you can read the rated watt yourself.
Your G2 may still power your new build, now above is peak and rarely GPU and CPU at their peak consumption in the same time unless you doing CPU+GPU rendering.
 
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