Spend more on a Motherboard

May 23, 2018
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Hi,

So I want to buy a new CPU, the i7 8700. And I need a new motherboard for that.
My question: Should i spend more on the Motherboard or should I just keep it at entry level?
I had 2 boards in mind, which both use z370 chipset. The MSI gaming plus and the MSI gaming pro carbon.
Should I take a h370 chipset or keep the z370? If I should keep the z370, which of the above is the best choice?
And if I should take the h370, can you reccomend good Motherboard around the same price point as the MSi motherboards?

If you think I could get a better z370 motherboard for the price, please recommend a better one!
(I want to have 4 sata 3 ports and 16gb 2400 RAM)
Thanks in advance
 
Solution
I will tell you my opinion as a long term MSI and Asus board user.

DON'T TAKE MSI MOTHERBOARDS, IF YOU CAN!

I want to start with this: I don't think, that MSI boards are really bad, but they are not good either. The bios is ok, but it tend to bug in a lot of cases.

My ohnest opinion, they are not that great as everybody says. They make a lot of problems with ram, when you overclock ram or even sometimes try to achieve 3200mhz, which is for example guaranteed by a manufacturer that you bought the ram from, they tend to bug and lower the processor speeds (in this case it's not 8700k, so it's probabbly not going to happen), but still I could achieve a lot more on Asrock or Asus boards with the same processor or ram. Both with intel and...

jakubek160

Respectable
May 22, 2017
634
0
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I will tell you my opinion as a long term MSI and Asus board user.

DON'T TAKE MSI MOTHERBOARDS, IF YOU CAN!

I want to start with this: I don't think, that MSI boards are really bad, but they are not good either. The bios is ok, but it tend to bug in a lot of cases.

My ohnest opinion, they are not that great as everybody says. They make a lot of problems with ram, when you overclock ram or even sometimes try to achieve 3200mhz, which is for example guaranteed by a manufacturer that you bought the ram from, they tend to bug and lower the processor speeds (in this case it's not 8700k, so it's probabbly not going to happen), but still I could achieve a lot more on Asrock or Asus boards with the same processor or ram. Both with intel and amd, if it comes to overclocking the processor. For example: on my last msi board (b350 gaming plus and the same on z270 gaming m3), on amd I had problems with the ram speeds (I had the corsair 2x4gb vengeance 3000mhz), when I oc'd them, they bugged the bios and the cpu was constantly on 3.4 ghz no metter what I did. Only after updating the bios and clearing cmos I could get them to work at 3066mhz. Keep that in mind, that when I tested them on my buddies intel rig, they went up to 3200mhz no problem. When I oc'd the processor on the other hand, it wouldn't go higher then 3.8ghz (I had ryzen 1600), on my buddies mobo (Asus strix b350), it went on 3.9ghz on 1.38v, when on the same voltage I could achieve the 3.8ghz, the 3.9ghz on my MSI motherboard wasn't reachable even if I set the voltage to 1.45v.

If it comes to my 7700k build, I couldn't get the ram to work at 3066mhz on MSI motherboard, when I changed the mobo to Asus Prime z270, it worked notmaly at 3200mhz, when on MSI motherboard I couldn't go above 2666mhz.

I think, that all of it speaks for itself. Just aim for a better manufacturer. If there are boards from Asus or Asrock, that cost the same just take those, I wouldn't recommend all Aorus boards though, because in a lot of their boards the vrm section is getting really hot and all depends on a model.

Try to take a Asus or Asrock board. These have the best vrm sections.
Try to aim for 10+2 phase power design, if you will take the z370 and 8700k, if you change your mind. Also if it comes to the chipset:

The h370 doesn't support higher memory speed than 2666mhz. It's not that important on intel cpu's, but for productivity it does metter.

If I were you, I would invest more money and buy a good z370 and 8700k, but if you don't need to overclock the cpu, because the 8700 run's also pretty fast on it's own and you don't need fast memory above 2666mhz, then take a good h370 board. Keep in mind, just don't take MSI motherboards. They are not the worse, but they are far from the best or sometimes even good.

One more thing, 2400mhz ram is like the minimum, at least overclock it to 2666mhz, if you take h370 board.

These are the boards, that I recommend. I will give you the links to amazon.com, you can just look at the models on your shop's website and buy from there.

All of these boards have 6 or more sata ports.

Ps. I don't know what is your budget, so I am giving you links to recommended motherboards by me.

h370:

https://www.amazon.com/Strix-H370-F-Gaming-LGA1151-Motherboard/dp/B07CDMQ7YP/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1527102713&sr=8-3&keywords=h370

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Prime-H370-Plus-LGA1151-Motherboard/dp/B07BTXJDTK/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1527102713&sr=8-8&keywords=h370

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-H370M-PRO4-CrossFireX-Motherboard/dp/B07BMVTZDW/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1527102713&sr=8-13&keywords=h370

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-H370-PERFORMANCE-CrossFireX-Motherboards/dp/B07BMV3X79/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1527102713&sr=8-15&keywords=h370

z370:

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Motherboard-Motherboards-Z370-EXTREME4/dp/B0763BS899/ref=sr_1_26?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102800&sr=1-26&keywords=z370

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Intel-Z370-motherboard-TAICHI/dp/B07638ZKSD/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102792&sr=1-12&keywords=z370

https://www.amazon.com/ROG-Crosshair-VI-Hero-Motherboard/dp/B072LX7WLN/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102792&sr=1-11&keywords=z370

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Z370-Killer-SLI-Motherboard/dp/B0767KFYJ5/ref=sr_1_27?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102800&sr=1-27&keywords=z370

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-motherboard-Motherboards-Z370-GAMING/dp/B07638HG43/ref=sr_1_28?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102800&sr=1-28&keywords=z370

https://www.amazon.com/PRIME-LGA1151-Motherboard-Generation-Processors/dp/B075RJHN2D/ref=sr_1_29?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527102800&sr=1-29&keywords=z370

Have a great day! :)
 
Solution