Common knowledge for buying a MB in 2017?

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myaccountbroke

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I haven't built a PC in several years. What are some common issues one should be aware of when deciding on a new motherboard today?

From research some of the things I've seen from some z170/z270 reviews:
  • M2 ports sharing bandwith with SATA connections, limiting how many drives you can actually connect at once.
  • Intel I219-V driver issues [Who makes a reliable NIC this days?]
  • Poor placement of m2 connectors near GPU
What else should I be on the look out for?
 
It entirely depends on what you want to do with your system.
 
myaccountbroke said:
Intel I219-V driver issues [Who makes a reliable NIC this days?]
Click to expand...

Wait what? Intel is literally the goto for network chipsets, baked in to modern OS releases. Citation please, hopefully one that is not user error or something they released a proset update to fix which you don't need to install in the first place 99.9% of the time.
 
Wow, thats bull... i cant believe the setting to let you manually manage driver updates still doesnt work.

It should be asked during OS install and respect your decision.
 
I agree the inability to control updates in Win10 is absolutely unacceptable but we live with it.

A few tidbits to keep in mind for the OP:
- You can run an M.2 SSD off a PCIe adapter and connect it to the CPU lanes to avoid disabling SATA ports. But Z170/Z270 have expanded PCH lanes vs Z87/Z97(?) so you shouldn't see the SATA port disabling problem if buying new.
- If overclocking, get a board with at least 6 power phases (not a hard and fast rule, but a good balance of value and performance imo)
- If running onboard audio, ALC1150 is the best codec but it has recently been supplanted by ALC1220 (I haven't read up on the changes but just know those two are generally the best for onboard audio)
- Most veterans here will tell you to get an Intel NIC and avoid the Killer ones
- If you're going with a single GPU, realistically your PC is unlikely to draw more than 300W at max load for normal users and casual gamers, but get a solid 80PLUS Gold or better Seasonic or Seasonic OEM PSU (I'd recommend hybrid or active cooling so the smaller fanless ones are automatically out)
- Don't get AIC watercooling unless it's a dual radiator one because a high end twin-tower air cooler will outperform a AIC single rad.
- HGST NAS drives are generally the most reliable for data storage (I believe that's the consensus here)
 
rastaban said:
I agree the inability to control updates in Win10 is absolutely unacceptable but we live with it.

A few tidbits to keep in mind for the OP:
- You can run an M.2 SSD off a PCIe adapter and connect it to the CPU lanes to avoid disabling SATA ports. But Z170/Z270 have expanded PCH lanes vs Z87/Z97(?) so you shouldn't see the SATA port disabling problem if buying new.
- If overclocking, get a board with at least 6 power phases (not a hard and fast rule, but a good balance of value and performance imo)
- If running onboard audio, ALC1150 is the best codec but it has recently been supplanted by ALC1220 (I haven't read up on the changes but just know those two are generally the best for onboard audio)
- Most veterans here will tell you to get an Intel NIC and avoid the Killer ones
- If you're going with a single GPU, realistically your PC is unlikely to draw more than 300W at max load for normal users and casual gamers, but get a solid 80PLUS Gold or better Seasonic or Seasonic OEM PSU (I'd recommend hybrid or active cooling so the smaller fanless ones are automatically out)
- Don't get AIC watercooling unless it's a dual radiator one because a high end twin-tower air cooler will outperform a AIC single rad.
- HGST NAS drives are generally the most reliable for data storage (I believe that's the consensus here)
Click to expand...

Great stuff, thank you!
 
M.2 will still disable some ports (as far as I can tell from researching some Z270 boards)...you might have to do some manual reading before purchase to check and see what is disabled.

It's usually something like this (MSI Z270 Gaming 5 example):

  • The SATA1/ SATA5 port will be unavailable when an M.2 SATA SSD module has been installed in the M.2_1/ M.2_2 slot. The SATA5 and SATA 6 ports will be unavailable when M.2 PCIe SSD module has been installed in the M.2_2 slot. Please refer to page 33 for M.2 & SATA combination table.
 
z170 m/bs don't support intel 7xxx cpus out of the box, u might need to boot with a different cpu in order to update
i think z270 offers more pci-e (pch/dmi) lanes
afaik you ll find cheaper m/bs with two M.2 slots in z270

on a side note intel 7xxxs support 2400Mhz RAM without o/c which can affect cpu + m/b + RAM decisions for a few demanding users

edit: ive read that some drivers on the m/bs manufacturers sites like Intel RST drivers might not be up to date and thus luck features
 
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