Any opinions concerning these 2 boards...

[mikeny]

I'm going to start building my super gaming desktop shortly and I'm torn between these two motherboards:

Asus ROG M7 MB
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132927

MSI
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130968

I'm torn between these two. I was debating about a dedicated sound card; maybe leave it out and use the MB's sound. Has anyone heard anything concerning Nahimic (Gaming) and SupremeFX2015 (ROG)

I know ROG and GAMING are gimics but I was looking to doing a theme: Either ROG or GAMING.

*Don't need wi-fi since my system is plugged in directly into the Ethernet port into my Verizon Fios Quantum router) Not sure if this matters but i get 75mbps/75mbps (it pays to whine lol)

I thought the input of everyone here could possibly break my deadlock. Any opinions are appreciated. I haven't been on much before today or followed much except Kaby Lake, 1080ti's and Ryzen. I had 2 kids and a health scare (2 yrs removed from surgery)

Sketching what I was going to do:
Windows 10 Home
cpu: i7-7700k
Cooling: Corsair Hydro 115i
case: Corsair 760T full tower
storage: Samsung Pro 850 Sata III 1TB (Windows 10, drivers, Steam)
Video card: Either 1080ti founders x2 (SLI) or 1080ti x1 ROG or GAMING
Monitor: ROG 27" LED g-sync Monitor x2
RAM: 32GB Corsair or Gskill (not sure yet)
PSU: Either Corsair or EVGA G2 (heard great things about the G2s and I see many poor reviews concernng Corsair's PSUs)
Sound: Probably leaving it up to the MB, not sure if I would move my Asus Phoebus to the new system. I was reading reviews and it seems the SB "reds" aren't that good either.
Mouse and keyboard (already have razer gaming mouse and keyboard)
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 analog (I might consider going optical/digital but looking as well- don't need a massive sound system but something that won't make me go," ewwwww."
This is probably overkill but Im looking for this system to last me a long time. My present system is about 8-10 years old.


Thank you for looking.

 

[Shektron]

What refresh rate rate you wanna play at? Ryzen might be better.

As for the motherboard, honestly both look great. Asus has better BIOS and sometimes better overclocking, so if you want to play at 144 HZ, it might be the better choice, since it'll help in higher overclocks. The MSI also has some pretty good features. It really boils down to which board's features you prefer, which one looks better to you, and which brand you trust more. Most importantly, which manufacturer provides better customer service in your area.

I kinda prefer Asus boards because I've seen some people complain a lot about MSI products not being long-lasting, but I really can't confirm such a bias.

But if I was given the choice, I'd go with the Asus Maximus IX Hero, but there's not much reasoning behind it - Asus just seems like a more reliable company I guess.

 

[Chugalug_]

Neither.
Your system can also be greatly improved, a Ryzen 1700 performs identically to a 7700k at higher than 1080p resolutions, costs less and has twice the threads. Those boards are vastly overpriced.
Also stick to one high refresh monitor one 4k monitor, two high refresh options is overkill.
G-Sync also won't be needed with such a high end setup.

 

[mikeny]

This monitor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4ENDXR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I37QS10FDF5Z81&colid=1OU54CK85Q678

Was thinking of IPS version but was leaning towards this one instead. 27" WQHD (2560x1440p

Reason 2 was because I'm gaming but also like to have youtube open...I presently play Cities: Skylines with my Surface Pro 3 open on youtube looking at videos of other city creations. Thought that might help but I can always go with one monitor. Someone actually put that in my head lol.

I'm probably going to stick with Intel. About 99% sure

 

[mikeny]

What refresh rate rate you wanna play at? Ryzen might be better.

As for the motherboard, honestly both look great. Asus has better BIOS and sometimes better overclocking, so if you want to play at 144 HZ, it might be the better choice, since it'll help in higher overclocks. The MSI also has some pretty good features. It really boils down to which board's features you prefer, which one looks better to you, and which brand you trust more. Most importantly, which manufacturer provides better customer service in your area.

I kinda prefer Asus boards because I've seen some people complain a lot about MSI products not being long-lasting, but I really can't confirm such a bias.



But if I was given the choice, I'd go with the Asus Maximus IX Hero, but there's not much reasoning behind it - Asus just seems like a more reliable company I guess.

I had a Asus board but had a bad BIOS. The system I have now that's 8-10 years; I have a MSi mpower board.

 

[Shektron]

What refresh rate rate you wanna play at? Ryzen might be better.

As for the motherboard, honestly both look great. Asus has better BIOS and sometimes better overclocking, so if you want to play at 144 HZ, it might be the better choice, since it'll help in higher overclocks. The MSI also has some pretty good features. It really boils down to which board's features you prefer, which one looks better to you, and which brand you trust more. Most importantly, which manufacturer provides better customer service in your area.

I kinda prefer Asus boards because I've seen some people complain a lot about MSI products not being long-lasting, but I really can't confirm such a bias.



But if I was given the choice, I'd go with the Asus Maximus IX Hero, but there's not much reasoning behind it - Asus just seems like a more reliable company I guess.

I had a Asus board but had a bad BIOS. The system I have now that's 8-10 years; I have a MSi mpower board.

Exactly my point - it all just depends on your luck with a brand - sometimes you have a bad experience with a brand which is actually pretty good in general. Which is exactly why I said the bias is not confirmed/justified, just something I've seen.

 

[Chugalug_]

That monitor is way overpriced, and only TN. You want IPS for better colors.
Look at the MG279Q.

 

[Shektron]

This monitor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4ENDXR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I37QS10FDF5Z81&colid=1OU54CK85Q678

Was thinking of IPS version but was leaning towards this one instead. 27" WQHD (2560x1440p

Reason 2 was because I'm gaming but also like to have youtube open...I presently play Cities: Skylines with my Surface Pro 3 open on youtube looking at videos of other city creations. Thought that might help but I can always go with one monitor. Someone actually put that in my head lol.

I'm probably going to stick with Intel. About 99% sure

do keep in mind you're doing some multi-tasking there, so Ryzen will be of great help, though at 165 Hz it's really going to struggle to keep up with the GPU, at least today, maybe not in the future. Plus, Intel? seriously? xD

Nah I guess they're still good as well. But if you're going to do anything else while playing games, Ryzen will handle it far better than the 7700K.

 

[Chugalug_]

Ditto, Ryzen is a much better choice for sure.

 

[mikeny]

Thanks but I'm sticking with Intel. I can get the i7-7700k for $279 also

Interesting monitor. IPS with 1ms. To be honest, I only have youtube open if Im playing Cities: Skylines; I don't have anything open when playing other games. This is only my gaming desktop.


games:

Civilization VI
No Mans Sky
Cities: Skylines
AirportCEO
Planet Coaster/ Rollercoaster Tycoon World
American Truck Simulator/ EuroTruck Sim 2
Transport Fever
Hopefully someday: The Universim
Tropico 6 (when it's released although Urban Empire left a sour taste in my mouth)

Chug (sorry for the abbreviation); how's the Corsair PSU; HX850i? That's the one I was looking at although I see times have changed; many are having issues with Corsair PSUs.

 

[mikeny]

That monitor is way overpriced, and only TN. You want IPS for better colors.
Look at the MG279Q.

Do the IPS panels suffer with 4ms response time? Also I had a IPS panel and either there was something wrong with the refresh or burn in. I would be on youtube and when I closed it and went into No Mans Sky, while the game was loading, I could see youtube on the bottom right corner and top right corner. I close no mans sky and go to another game and it's still there. I shut the system down it's gone. I thought 1ms and tn panels would be the better bet.

 

[Chugalug_]

@mikeny, I suggest you listen to us here, we're only trying to get you the best performance possible, Intel is great and all, but it's kind of out of the question in the situation given the 1700 performs identically at higher resolutions, has twice the threads and comes in $10 cheaper with its own stock cooler that's quite beefy as a backup too.
The HX850i is overpriced.
Give me a budget and i'll show you what you can get.

 

[Shektron]

mikeny, we're pushing you to Ryzen for a reason - we're no AMD fanboys. The only thing we love is people getting value for their expenditure, and the 7700K is not winning there anytime soon(probably never now). You really should consider Ryzen as a very viable option, taking in account all the perks - more future-proofing, more multi-tasking and more cores. There's literally zero reason to go for anything Intel today. Not only have they been defeated in value, but they're also losing their minds with Skylake-X and calling AMD's CPU's 'glued together'. They're just beaten, and have become quite incompetent with the launch of Ryzen and Threadripper.

 

[Chugalug_]

Ditto, Intel's lost some face over the past few days, those slides were....cringe-worthy at best.
The fact is that AMD's come in after 5 years away from the scene and blown intel out of the water in the high end, their x299 platform is practically obsolete with the 1700 performing the same as Intel's offering for a mere fraction of the price.
If you want any justification that we're both unbiased, I've got a 6700k system myself.

 

[mikeny]

Chug and Shektron, I did sleep on it and yeah, I was thinking of Ryzen more. I did see your system in your signature and part of me believed hmmmm, a i7-6700 but talking more about Ryzen. So I was just looking up Ryzen and from reading you guys are right (didn't doubt either of you since I was so bent on Intel). FYI; no fanboy here as well, I will go were I believe I get the most bang for the buck or splurge

Ok, so if I go Ryzen, I think I will splurge for the 1800x since I won't overclock. Back to square one though; motherboard I have to check to see if the Hydro 115i supports Ryzen. By the way, I was reading about threadripper and saw in many reviews, if you are a gamer and looking at the 1700/1800....wait for threadripper. Thoughts?

I saw the i9s and the new motherboards. Out of nowhere I saw the announcement and was reading some articles looking baffled. Many where even saying; WTF (not in a positive way).

I think I have to tinker my wishlist now. budget about $1500 (could be flexible since I'm in the mood to splurge because it's been a long time since I upgraded my system I built).

Main components im set on:

Windows 10 Home
Case: Corsair 760T full tower
SSD: Samsing 850 Pro 1TB
Video card: 1080ti (either foundation card and get 2 for SLI or 1 MSI Gaming or Asus ROG 1080ti)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 (Corsair or GSKILL)
Sound: Probably MB provided

Deadlocked:
MB
Cooling (watercooled but need to see if the Corsair Hydro 115i is available for Ryzen)
Monitor (Asus 27" IPS or LED) <----Asus, Benq (heard a lot about), or Acer
PSU- 850w (Corsair or EVGA (had a bad expierence with EVGA's MB but I hear their PSUs are fantastic)
Corsair I've had for 10 years never with a problem. Thermaltke i had in the first system I built; never an issue)

 

[mikeny]

just checked and I only see NZXT Kraken for water cooling. Odd, thought COrsair's Hydro series supported Ryzen. Was on Corsair's website and no AM4.

 

[Chugalug_]

Chug and Shektron, I did sleep on it and yeah, I was thinking of Ryzen more. I did see your system in your signature and part of me believed hmmmm, a i7-6700 but talking more about Ryzen. So I was just looking up Ryzen and from reading you guys are right (didn't doubt either of you since I was so bent on Intel). FYI; no fanboy here as well, I will go were I believe I get the most bang for the buck or splurge

Ok, so if I go Ryzen, I think I will splurge for the 1800x since I won't overclock. Back to square one though; motherboard I have to check to see if the Hydro 115i supports Ryzen. By the way, I was reading about threadripper and saw in many reviews, if you are a gamer and looking at the 1700/1800....wait for threadripper. Thoughts?

I saw the i9s and the new motherboards. Out of nowhere I saw the announcement and was reading some articles looking baffled. Many where even saying; WTF (not in a positive way).

I think I have to tinker my wishlist now. budget about $1500 (could be flexible since I'm in the mood to splurge because it's been a long time since I upgraded my system I built).

Main components im set on:

Windows 10 Home
Case: Corsair 760T full tower
SSD: Samsing 850 Pro 1TB
Video card: 1080ti (either foundation card and get 2 for SLI or 1 MSI Gaming or Asus ROG 1080ti)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 (Corsair or GSKILL)
Sound: Probably MB provided

Deadlocked:
MB
Cooling (watercooled but need to see if the Corsair Hydro 115i is available for Ryzen)
Monitor (Asus 27" IPS or LED) <----Asus, Benq (heard a lot about), or Acer
PSU- 850w (Corsair or EVGA (had a bad expierence with EVGA's MB but I hear their PSUs are fantastic)
Corsair I've had for 10 years never with a problem. Thermaltke i had in the first system I built; never an issue)

The 1800X is identical to the 1700, just higher clock speeds.
Way overpriced, the 1700 can easily be OC'd to 1800X levels no problem, saves you a tonne.
Thermaltake are meh, not worth it. For the monitor, get the MG279Q.
I still need a budget to make you a list btw.

 

[mikeny]

Chug and Shektron, I did sleep on it and yeah, I was thinking of Ryzen more. I did see your system in your signature and part of me believed hmmmm, a i7-6700 but talking more about Ryzen. So I was just looking up Ryzen and from reading you guys are right (didn't doubt either of you since I was so bent on Intel). FYI; no fanboy here as well, I will go were I believe I get the most bang for the buck or splurge

Ok, so if I go Ryzen, I think I will splurge for the 1800x since I won't overclock. Back to square one though; motherboard I have to check to see if the Hydro 115i supports Ryzen. By the way, I was reading about threadripper and saw in many reviews, if you are a gamer and looking at the 1700/1800....wait for threadripper. Thoughts?

I saw the i9s and the new motherboards. Out of nowhere I saw the announcement and was reading some articles looking baffled. Many where even saying; WTF (not in a positive way).

I think I have to tinker my wishlist now. budget about $1500 (could be flexible since I'm in the mood to splurge because it's been a long time since I upgraded my system I built).

Main components im set on:

Windows 10 Home
Case: Corsair 760T full tower
SSD: Samsing 850 Pro 1TB
Video card: 1080ti (either foundation card and get 2 for SLI or 1 MSI Gaming or Asus ROG 1080ti)
RAM: 32GB DDR4 (Corsair or GSKILL)
Sound: Probably MB provided

Deadlocked:
MB
Cooling (watercooled but need to see if the Corsair Hydro 115i is available for Ryzen)
Monitor (Asus 27" IPS or LED) <----Asus, Benq (heard a lot about), or Acer
PSU- 850w (Corsair or EVGA (had a bad expierence with EVGA's MB but I hear their PSUs are fantastic)
Corsair I've had for 10 years never with a problem. Thermaltke i had in the first system I built; never an issue)

The 1800X is identical to the 1700, just higher clock speeds.
Way overpriced, the 1700 can easily be OC'd to 1800X levels no problem, saves you a tonne.
Thermaltake are meh, not worth it. For the monitor, get the MG279Q.
I still need a budget to make you a list btw.

I was probably going to stick with either Corsair or go with EVGA. Leaning to corsair. I posted my budget; where I placed where I was set and also deadlocked....Around $1500 but it's more like $1500-1700...flexible though

 

[Chugalug_]

...You realise your idea of those two monitors ALONE costs more than that right?
So what do you want included? PC and monitor without OS?
Just PC?

 

[urbancamper]

I am a big MSI fan. It's not that I don't like Asus. I had a Sabertooth that ran strong years ago. I just like MSI more. They look sexy sitting inside cases.

I would go with the MSI board if I could afford it. It has all the feature you would need, and looks o so cool to boot. AMD Version.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144016

 

[Chugalug_]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($269.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 (Black/Gray) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($41.89 @ Newegg)
Monitor: LG - 24UD58-B 23.8" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor ($297.00 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Other: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC Gaming Black Edition ($699.99)
Total: $1736.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-16 22:26 EDT-0400

 

[urbancamper]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($269.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 (Black/Gray) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($41.89 @ Newegg)
Monitor: LG - 24UD58-B 23.8" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor ($297.00 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Other: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC Gaming Black Edition ($699.99)
Total: $1736.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-16 22:26 EDT-0400

That motherboard will not work with SLI if he decides to go that way. And why would he put a micro atx mb in the full size case he picked.

 

[Chugalug_]

Why not?
Consider this:
There is ZERO performance loss with mATX vs ATX.
SLI is terrible value for money, and the PSU isn't equipped for it anyway. (Nor is it in the budget atm)
The case is on sale, and the motherboard does not look out of place in the case.
Hell, I won an mATX Z170MX Gaming 5 a year and a half back and i'm still running it in an ATX case, no problems at all.
If you can make a better list, by all means be my guest.

 

[urbancamper]

Why not?
Consider this:
There is ZERO performance loss with mATX vs ATX.
SLI is terrible value for money, and the PSU isn't equipped for it anyway. (Nor is it in the budget atm)
The case is on sale, and the motherboard does not look out of place in the case.
Hell, I won an mATX Z170MX Gaming 5 a year and a half back and i'm still running it in an ATX case, no problems at all.
If you can make a better list, by all means be my guest.

Because while the B350mb will work with crossfire, only the x370 mbs do sli. Honestly I would think you would know this.

Also while it may be true that sli at times creates problems, the OP did memtion that he may go SLI. The board you mentioned besides being cheap, does not support this.

You ever hear the saying don't put a lawnmower engine in a race car?

 

[Chugalug_]

I know that? My argument is why on earth would you get two GPUs, but moreover it doesn't fit in the budget.
It's a stupid investment, upgrades could be spent elsewhere, but if the BUDGET is there, it will be added AFTER a 27" 4k monitor. I can't magically add SLI capability without $$.
Again, unless you can put a better list on the table, i'm not going to keep up this silly discussion any longer.