New 8700k build, need a bit of motherboard advice

J

JCD3ntonX

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Mar 2, 2017
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My current build (3930k + Rampage IV extreme) has been so trouble-free and reliable that I've honestly forgotten a lot of what I know because all I've had to do is replace graphics cards for many years. It's still great but I want a bit of extra speed to feed my 1080 TI sli. Any answers to these questions are appreciated:

1. Who has the most reliable motherboards in the game right now? Reliability is my #1 consideration because I don't have time to troubleshoot. My gut tells me to just get the Maximus Hero (which seems overpriced compared to the deals on the Aorus 7 and Taichi right now), but if Asus is still king I'll spend extra.

2. Is there any reason other than saving a few bucks to get the Aorus or Taichi? This is going to be a pure gaming system.
 
I was a MSI guy for years but rolled the dice on a Taichi for my 8700k. I never would have considered ASRock, but they seem to get consistent praise here and now I see why. I just love the look and build quality! Can't go wrong for the price IMO, unless the ASUS has something specific you need the ASRock seems a much better value. General consensus on these forums seems to be ASUS is good quality but overpriced. Also, I stay away from them due to the sheer number of RMA horror stories.

Good luck with whatever route you decide to take!
 
NukeDukem said:
I was a MSI guy for years but rolled the dice on a Taichi for my 8700k. I never would have considered ASRock, but they seem to get consistent praise here and now I see why. I just love the look and build quality! Can't go wrong for the price IMO, unless the ASUS has something specific you need the ASRock seems a much better value. General consensus on these forums seems to be ASUS is good quality but overpriced. Also, I stay away from them due to the sheer number of RMA horror stories.

Good luck with whatever route you decide to take!
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Thanks for the response bro. I see you went with 32GB of memory, which is the other key thing I'm thinking about. What caused you to take 32 over 16? I thought for sure that I was getting 32 but the prices are ridiculous. Did you get 16x2 or 8x4? I'm so out of the loop that I don't even know if it's better to fill all the slots anymore. I saw the Tridentz recommended elsewhere and they were on my radar. Have you been happy with them and do you think they'd be OK in terms of clearance with some type of massive air cooler?
 
I would have gotten ASUS, but went with an ASRock Killer-AC this time partially due to the bad reviews the ASUS boards were showing on Newegg when I ordered, and because getting the capability to run 8x/8x PCIe is apparently an expensive niche feature these days (who knew?).

So far it's just been function tested to the UEFI, but tonight is the full build, we'll see how it goes!
 
JCD3ntonX said:
I see you went with 32GB of memory, which is the other key thing I'm thinking about. What caused you to take 32 over 16? I thought for sure that I was getting 32 but the prices are ridiculous. Did you get 16x2 or 8x4? I'm so out of the loop that I don't even know if it's better to fill all the slots anymore. I saw the Tridentz recommended elsewhere and they were on my radar. Have you been happy with them and do you think they'd be OK in terms of clearance with some type of massive air cooler?
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I actually purchased the 32GB (8x4) in January with a Kaby Lake build and moved it over to this board. At the time it was a $209 kit, now the same kit is $412 at Newegg. If I were buying today I most likely would go with a 16GB kit, which is plenty for a gaming build. Also, filling all 4 DIMM slots can be problematic with large coolers. On my Z270 MSI board, the Kraken x62 would NOT fit properly with all 4 slots filled, I had to mount it upside down. With my Taichi, the cooler touches and BARELY clears the first RAM module. So it is very much hit-or-miss depending on the specific modules and mobo layouts.

2x8 in DIMM slots 2 and 4 might be a good place to start and then decide in the future if you need more.
 
So I ended up coming out pretty decently. Got the 16GB TridentZ 3200 CL14 memory on sale for $179 (went up to $189 overnight after I bought). And the tachi board for $180 after sale/rebate/review incentive. Then beyond that, I was able to use the $25 off $200 newegg masterpass promo, AND I bought $220 in Newegg gift cards from Groupon for $200. So all-in with some legwork, the memory and motherboard came out to $315 which isn't bad at all for this caliber of stuff.
 
JCD3ntonX said:
So I ended up coming out pretty decently. Got the 16GB TridentZ 3200 CL14 memory on sale for $179 (went up to $189 overnight after I bought). And the tachi board for $180 after sale/rebate/review incentive. Then beyond that, I was able to use the $25 off $200 newegg masterpass promo, AND I bought $220 in Newegg gift cards from Groupon for $200. So all-in with some legwork, the memory and motherboard came out to $315 which isn't bad at all for this caliber of stuff.
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you did good
 
I've been really happy with MSI for the last 5-6 years. I ended up doing the Microcenter Black Friday deal for an 8700K and an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC. The mobo's $30 off if you buy a processor, which took it down to $170'ish. OC'ing it is as simple as changing the multiplier. I stopped at 4.8GHz, but 5 is probably very doable if you want to go for it. The BIOS is simple to navigate and I like the fan control section. Plus, this board includes a neat (optional) Wifi/Bluetooth add-on card.
For RAM, I went with some Dominator 4000 I found on sale. It's still pricey, but it was at least $50 off. XMP makes my temps skyrocket, but setting the same values the RAM is tested at has been bulletproof even at 4000.
 
I went with the Aorus Gaming 7 after reading the reviews on a handful of motherboards. It was either the one I bought or the Taichi, but the Arous was 199 at the time making it like 20 or so cheaper.
 
NukeDukem said:
Is a MSI guy for years but rolled the dice on a Taichi for my 8700k. I never would have considered ASRock, but they seem to get consistent praise here and now I see why. I just love the look and build quality! Can't go wrong for the price IMO, unless the ASUS has something specific you need the ASRock seems a much better value. General consensus on these forums seems to be ASUS is good quality but overpriced. Also, I stay away from them due to the sheer number of RMA horror stories.

Good luck with whatever route you decide to take!
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I think I'm going for the Asrock Taichi I looked the previous versions seem to fair pretty well well above Asus boards for Multicores. Either that or I'll pick p a Asus TUF but the Taichi looks just as solid if you don't get a used one.
 
Comixbooks said:
I think I'm going for the Asrock Taichi I looked the previous versions seem to fair pretty well well above Asus boards for Multicores. Either that or I'll pick p a Asus TUF but the Taichi looks just as solid if you don't get a used one.
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I'm very happy with mine, BIOS is nice and easy to work with and the board is beautiful. I love the industrial look! For the price and feature set I don't think you can go wrong.
 
Comixbooks said:
I think I'm going for the Asrock Taichi I looked the previous versions seem to fair pretty well well above Asus boards for Multicores. Either that or I'll pick p a Asus TUF but the Taichi looks just as solid if you don't get a used one.
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You wouldnt be dissapointed. Taichi is the same as Fatal1ty minus the 5Gb port and different look ;)
 
Yeah they just banned all Walmart associates from the Intel Retail Edge program yesterday so this is going to be my last upgrade for a few years.
 
JCD3ntonX said:
My current build (3930k + Rampage IV extreme) has been so trouble-free and reliable that I've honestly forgotten a lot of what I know because all I've had to do is replace graphics cards for many years. It's still great but I want a bit of extra speed to feed my 1080 TI sli. Any answers to these questions are appreciated:

1. Who has the most reliable motherboards in the game right now? Reliability is my #1 consideration because I don't have time to troubleshoot. My gut tells me to just get the Maximus Hero (which seems overpriced compared to the deals on the Aorus 7 and Taichi right now), but if Asus is still king I'll spend extra.

2. Is there any reason other than saving a few bucks to get the Aorus or Taichi? This is going to be a pure gaming system.
Click to expand...
I'm not aware of any scientific studies on this, but my gut tells me to go with Asus if what you're mainly after is reliability. My recent experience is that everyone's hardware is pretty solid, with Gigabyte frequently having some flaky bios issues. I have no experience with Asrock, but everyone seems to like them.

Regarding #2, look at the different feature sets, and ask yourself if you'd actually use the extra features the high end boards offer. Features are the real big difference here - stuff like wifi, dual NICs and so forth.
 
Fedex just dropped off the Taichi if it boots up problem free for a years anyway i'll be happy waiting on the cpu.
I see they are being made in Vietnam curious about the onboard sound plan to use headphones with it purity sound.
 
Good choice! I have the X370 Taichi and its one of the best boards Ive had...
 
I have the Taichi hooked up it's my first RGB motherboard I changed the light of the gear in the back to lime green makes the case look alive whatever that is. There is a bright red led light that shows power to the motherboard which is pretty damn annoying at first but I got used to it. NukemDuke said to put tape over it for a ghetto method of fixing it I suppose I could do that but the tape would bother me.
 
newls1 said:
why no MSI Pro Carbon love here?
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That's what I'm running and it's been great thus far. Overclocking has been as simple as changing the multiplier and leaving most everything else (except the RAM speed) as "auto." The additional wireless/bluetooth module is a neat addition as well. I hate the LED's, but at least they're easily disabled via software...although oddly not in the BIOS for some reason.
 
I love my Asrock Fatality K6 Z270(also had the Z170 version too). Great boards IMO.

Hating my Gigabyte Z270 Gaming 5 board. Forget exact model but the memory oc'ing is proving totally elusive to me. No matter what I change I can oc either of my Gskill mem kits much at all, compared to my Asrock boards.
 
JNavy89GT said:
I love my Asrock Fatality K6 Z270(also had the Z170 version too). Great boards IMO.

Hating my Gigabyte Z270 Gaming 5 board. Forget exact model but the memory oc'ing is proving totally elusive to me. No matter what I change I can oc either of my Gskill mem kits much at all, compared to my Asrock boards.
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Hmm my gigabyte z270 itx gaming 5 has a crappy bios and I can OC my memory past 3000mhz
 
On my MSI board enabling XMP doesn't work worth a damn. Temps go through the roof and AIDA's stress test crashes in minutes.
Yet if I just set it to PC4000, it pulls all of the same values (I'm using these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071L1CX4S/) and is solid as a rock for hours via AIDA's stress test. I can only assume the voltage is off.
 
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The Gigabyte Mobos are actually pretty solid, and would highly recommend, not one issue. I don't know had problems with a Strix board and it's still something wrong with it and won't pick up the ram still.
 
So far I've been liking the Taichi. Took me to 5ghz with no problem other than the scorching heat. Were I going to place this PC under intense loads, I'd be doing a de-lid no question, but it's perfectly fine for gaming.

Make sure you have the latest bios, updating it made a difference for overclocking.
 
NukeDukem said:
I was a MSI guy for years but rolled the dice on a Taichi for my 8700k. I never would have considered ASRock, but they seem to get consistent praise here and now I see why. I just love the look and build quality! Can't go wrong for the price IMO, unless the ASUS has something specific you need the ASRock seems a much better value. General consensus on these forums seems to be ASUS is good quality but overpriced. Also, I stay away from them due to the sheer number of RMA horror stories.

Good luck with whatever route you decide to take!
Click to expand...

Looks like my story.. But my first Asrock mobo was a OC Formula, what a great motherboard.
 
MadOver said:
Looks like my story.. But my first Asrock mobo was a OC Formula, what a great motherboard.
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True I trust Asrock and Gigabyte...I don't know about Asus anymore, the Strix is fed up and idk Asus didn't fix it and sent it back still fed up Lol, Jung Hoe needs to fix it for me Lol
 
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