Determining factors for a new skylake motherboard

[axlrose]

Hey guys. I'm looking to pick up a skylake i-7 when one pops up on newegg again and trying to find ram and a motherboard to match it. Hoping that with the holidays coming up I can manage it between deals and some gifts from family.

My system is so old I think my motherboard ram and cpu are pushing eight years now. I have upgraded little bits along the way, but my initial build was way back when the gtx 280 was first released. I haven't purchased a new motherboard in forever.

What are the determining factors now a days between a $120 board and a $300 board? Just looking for some place to start in filtering out boards that 'don't have what I need'.

Thanks.

 

[ajhockey3]

Some cheaper boards cannot:
Overclock
Have no PLX chip
Have no support for Sli/Crossfire
Have no M.2
Some boards of the higher end will have more USB 3.0/3.1
Some cheaper boards may have worse power phases and lower amounts of them
The Voltage Regulator modual is now on the motherboard. This means the more expensive the board (In theory) the better oc'ing

 

[axlrose]

That's a great place to start! Thanks.

I haven't overclocked before for fear of burning something up. Are there boards that will safely oc for you? I'm thinking of ram with xmp profiles. That does some ocing for you right?

I have not heard of a plx chip.

I would like to have sli, but just two cards. I don't intend to run more than two cards ever.

M.2 sounds like a necessity now as it's becoming the new storage connection yes?

Advantages of 3.0 and 3.1? Just speed? Are they being supported by devices at this point?

Thanks!

 

[ajhockey3]

3.1 has a max bandwith of 10gb/s over 5gb/s over usb 3.0. Yes I would agree m.2 is going to be the future soon.
PLX Chip in basic terms is kind of like PCI Express lane hyperthreading. Gives you virtual PCI Express lanes for SLI/Crossfire and M.2 SSD's if you need additional lanes.
Some motherboards can do overclocking for you I know a couple of Asus Boards do this along with other brands. To even have a chance at overclocking you need an LGA 1151 motherboard with the Z170 chipset.
XMP is not an overclocking tool really. XMP just makes sure your ram is running at the correct speed and cas latencys
In the old days occasionaly you would need to enter the timing manually.

 

[axlrose]

I had to enter my timings manually. 🙁

z170 for sure.

I'll have to look into this PLX chip. Sounds worth the money.

1. USB 3.1
2. PLX Chip
3. SLI
4. M.2
5. OCing

Does that look like a good place to start (no particular order)?

 

[johnnyb105]

That's a great place to start! Thanks.

I haven't overclocked before for fear of burning something up. Are there boards that will safely oc for you? I'm thinking of ram with xmp profiles. That does some ocing for you right?

I have not heard of a plx chip.

I would like to have sli, but just two cards. I don't intend to run more than two cards ever.

M.2 sounds like a necessity now as it's becoming the new storage connection yes?

Advantages of 3.0 and 3.1? Just speed? Are they being supported by devices at this point?

Thanks!

M.2 is great but remember this if you add one you give up 2 sata ports for other hardware as well I bought one for my last build and wasn't aware of this as it has 6 sata ports and I can only use 4 because the M.2 drive uses the other 2 it just shuts them off so make sure you get a big enough M.2 Drive to fit your needs...

 

[axlrose]

What goes on sata other than storage?