Asus z170 Hero vs Pro Gaming

[hitrun]

I'm looking to purchase a z170 motheboard and have been looking at the Asus Hero and Pro Gaming. I'm having a difficult time choosing between the two. I was looking at reviews for both in which the audio, for example, seems relatively close. Here are the links for both boards.
http://www.eteknix.com/asus-z170-pro-gaming-lga-1151-motherboard-review/11/
http://www.eteknix.com/asus-z170-maximus-viii-hero-lga-1151-motherboard-review/10/

I will be primarily gaming with this setup and will be overclocking in the future. I will be going with an I5-6600k and 8gb of DDR4. I have some parts that will be carrying over to my new build which are listed below. Any advice is appreciated.

Cpu cooler: Zalman CNPS10x
PSU: CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX
GPU: Gigabyte G1 Gaming gtx 970
SSDs: Corsair Force GT, Samsung 840 Pro
HDD: WD 2TB Green
Optical Drive
Network: PCIe wireless card
Case: Thermaltake Armor

 

[Tradesman1]

Looked long and hard at both of these and went with the Hero (had great luck with both the Z87 and Z97 Heros) but think you can't really go wrong with either one.

 

[hitrun]

Looked long and hard at both of these and went with the Hero (had great luck with both the Z87 and Z97 Heros) but think you can't really go wrong with either one.

Tradesman1, have you had ran into any problems with your Hero board?

 

[Tradesman1]

Not yet, and don't really expect to at this point, have run 3 sets of DRAM in it (from 16GB 2400 to 32GB 3200, tried some different coolers with it (H&, 212EVO, 240 Aquachanger, 120 Seidon, GTS V8 and currently an EXllusion, and a variety of GPUs, 2 290Xs, 780s, a 970 and a pair of 980s and no problems yet 😉

 

[hitrun]

Thanks for the responses and that's great news to hear that the board has been stable. What memory speed should I be looking to get for my gaming rig?

 

[Tradesman1]

2133 is the entry level, I'd look for 2666-2800 or maybe even a little higher, I could see a difference in jumping from the 2400 set up to 3000 and especially 3200 though the 3200 was more getting to 32GB over 16GB - 16 is plenty for most

 

[hitrun]

Thanks for all of your help Tradesman1. I'm going to go with the Hero board.

 

[Tradesman1]

Let us know how you like, I've been very happy so far 😉

 

[hitrun]

Let us know how you like, I've been very happy so far 😉

I've set everything up and it's running great. Are there any bios settings that I should change from their default settings, keeping in mind that I will be running at stock speeds for now?

 

[Tradesman1]

Should be fine, ensure DRAM running at correct data rate - if it's higher than 2133 (base spec) may want to enable XMP)

 

[hitrun]

Should be fine, ensure DRAM running at correct data rate - if it's higher than 2133 (base spec) may want to enable XMP)

Great, thanks for your help.

 

[Tradesman1]

No worries 😉

 

[vinny1001]

No worries 😉

Hey Tradesman1, can you tell me more about the Asus board you got? I tried doing a build with the mATX of it, the Gene, and had issues with audio on 5.1 speakers that work 100% fine in my prevous build. Static pops occured the first second audio played, as well as anytime I opened a program off the HD. Also I got a static pop noise off the MOBO (confirmed) on start up right before windows, as well as on shut down.

I troubleshooted everything, but no luck. I am upgrading to a regular ATX, and am in-between the Gigabyte 7, MSI M7, and the Asus Hero VIII. Which do you think would be best? I'm more between the MSI and Asus, but the Asus reviews scared me, MSI has little but good, then the Gigabyte has crazy good reviews.

The MSI seems to hit good on preventing EMI between components, which would be great. Asus seems to hit on that in a tiny manner. They both seem to reduce latency and prioritize gaming on the boards when needed.

Can you give me more insight between these boards? I'm a gamer, running a 980 ti G1, currently on a i7 3770k with an Asus board. I don't usually OC but will be looking to OC ram and possibly a minor OC on the GPU and CPU, so maybe a 850w psu would do it. 2 HD's and 1 SSD, and am looking for those new M.2 slots and Sata E, since I am interested in using those eventually. I'm tied between a regular heatsink or liquid cooling for the CPU. Fan headers are a must.

I hope you have time to give me some insight. Thanks!

 

[Tradesman1]

I went the Hero and love it, no problems thus far and I've had a lot on it, different DRAM, GPUs, CPU coolers, still playing with it

 

[vinny1001]

I went the Hero and love it, no problems thus far and I've had a lot on it, different DRAM, GPUs, CPU coolers, still playing with it

Do you usually run RAM that is on the compatibility list for the board? Or have you ran RAM that isn't listed and has worked fine? I've ran RAM not listed on lists before without issues, but when I tried the Gene, there seemed to be some issues.

MSI's quality scares me, but they seem to have good EMI protection between components over the Asus. Everything runs smooth on the Asus? Do you get a static pop off the mobo on start up / shut down? What's the biggest tip you'd give someone with this board in terms of installation, software, hardware, or anything you think is important to note? I plan to run windows 7, and possibly upgrade to 10.

What OS are you running?

Thank you for responding, I've been looking for some insight on this board. Hopefully you're not a secret Asus Agent trying to convince people lol

 

[Tradesman1]

The compatibility list from mobo manufacturers is generally very limited, they test with what is on hand in their facilities and it often includes models that are out of date, current and is often missing the latest greatest. They often keep the list on the smaller side (IMO to give themselves an out, when people are having problems with DRAM as their 'techs' seldom know DRAM well, this allows them to say "if it's not on our list we can't guarantee it" 😉 Seen this all to many times and it doesn't really matter because if you call on a set that IS on their list and say something basic like enabling XMP doesn't work they say it's a bad stick or to just RMA the mobo, when all to often it's something simple like a CPU that just can't handle the data rate

 

[vinny1001]

The compatibility list from mobo manufacturers is generally very limited, they test with what is on hand in their facilities and it often includes models that are out of date, current and is often missing the latest greatest. They often keep the list on the smaller side (IMO to give themselves an out, when people are having problems with DRAM as their 'techs' seldom know DRAM well, this allows them to say "if it's not on our list we can't guarantee it" 😉 Seen this all to many times and it doesn't really matter because if you call on a set that IS on their list and say something basic like enabling XMP doesn't work they say it's a bad stick or to just RMA the mobo, when all to often it's something simple like a CPU that just can't handle the data rate

Yea, I figured that's what they do for their RAM list. The mATX Gene of the Asus board gave me an error when I enabled XMP, restarted, then XMP seemed to be enabled.. my RAM passed memtest and seemed normal, but wasn't on their list, so would that mean it'd been a mobo issue? What about a CPU issue? My CPU seemed fine, never got any BSODs or anything. Games ran great.

If I had issues with XMP, it could be the RAM, the mobo, or could it ever be the CPU? I'm obviously getting the Skylake, and it'll be the 6700k at 4GHz. I really don't want to have to go through Returns and exchanges, or RMA's. Does Asus RMA fast?

For the Hero, what ram would you suggest? I'm looking at wanting 2x 8GB sticks (eventually 2 more 8gb sticks), OC abilities, XMP, and reliable and fast, low profile too. I usually have gone with Crucial Ballistix. What works well with this board?

Also, this board can do 5.1 surround sound? (directional too, so bullets behind me will sound from the speakers behind me)