[Z270] GB Aorus Gaming K5 vs Asus Strix H/F vs MSI Pro Carbon vs GB Ultra Gaming vs Asus TUF Mak 2 vs AsRock Gaming K6

flep

Prominent
Jul 31, 2017
11
0
510
Hello everyone.

I'm really struggling to decide which one of those motherboards are better and I help you guys can give me some Pro/Cons for the models you know and your general opinion.

They all are around the same price tag where I live, maximum 30 dollars differential.

Some infos about my choices:

  • ■ Must have SLI support as I plan to pair another GTX 980 TI in the future.
    ■ I will use WC and try some very extreme OC on a i5 6600K, so components quality is a must.
    ■ I do like led/rgb but will put quality above that if needed.

So, with that in mind what's your thoughts guys? And please if you have another model to suggest let me know and why.
 

flep

Prominent
Jul 31, 2017
11
0
510
So, as this topic didn't got traction I started to do a deep research about all the models, and found out some very interest things that I'll share here.

Basically the models are similar (of course everyone knows that), but there is a very important differences considering overclock. First, disregard my initial post where I say i5 6600K, I meant a 7600k.

So, here is my list, bottom to top - considering that where I live they are all around the same price, maybe this would be useful to other people:

7. Asus Rog Strix Z270H Gaming
- the weaker of all, only 6 phases, which is way too low to strong OC on a gen7 CPU. It will really depend on having a amazing chip to get to 5Ghz. But not just that, even if possible I don't feel secure to run a strong OC 24/7 with a SLI on this board, no way.

6. Asus TUF Z270 Mark 2
- So weak with 4+2 phases that is basically a tie with Strix H. Only wins because is TUF. This explains why is cheaper than it's big brother Mark 1.

5. Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming
- Some reviews say 7 phase, some 8. No mater what, it's just "OK".

4. Gigabyte Z270X Gaming K5
- Only 8 power phases, which is just "OK" to get 5Ghz
- Everyone says GB has very good capacitors but either way, the K series are know to be the cheapest ones.

3. Asus Rog Strix Z270F Gaming
- Seems a good option with a 10 phase power design, hence it's being more expensive than the Strix H (and the most expensive on this list)

2. ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6
- A strong board with 12 phase design, but here is the catch: during OC reviews was discovered that this particular board have a very strong non-configurable AVX offset (all z270 have, but mostly allow some configuration). The result? On a normal 5Ghz OC the clock will actually get lowered to maximum of 4.6Ghz during heavy AVX workload - when other top boards allow a lower offset resulting on a possible 4.8Gz. Very sad.

1. MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon
- Some say 10, some say 11 phases. Either way, an amazing board that got very good reviews with very strong OC capabilities and tweaks. It's the clear winner on this list and it's not even the most expensive (for me).

Well with that said, I still don't know if I'm going to buy it.
Nothing to do with it but today was confirmed that the z270 chipset will not support the new Coffee Lake CPU's, which was my initial plan - get a good z270 board with a cheap 7600K to maybe get the i7 8700K in the future. What a bummer.

I guess my 3570K will be rocking for a little more time.