Motherboard advice for my system:

[nelsonwcf]

Hi,

I just closed a thread regarding MoBo and chipsets.
Now, I'd like to know which are the current best brands for motherboards?

By best brands, I consider three attributes (not in that order):
- Quality of Components;
- Software Drivers / Bios Update frequency;
- Customer Service;

Tomshardware recommends as the best z170, gigabyte's GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 but it's way to expensive and have many features that I don't think are necessary, so right now I'm looking for GA-Z170X-Gaming 7. Is it a good board? Are there other better options?

My goal is a 6700K processor and two GF 1080 in SLI.

Again, thank you for the help.

 

[Tradesman1]

I only use Asus, GB and the Rock mobos in my systems business for builds, all are good, solid made bobos with good BIOSs. For you I'd look at the Asus Z170- Pro Gaming or their Z170-A, have done multiple builds on both and they fit your needs as stated

 

[nelsonwcf]

If not Asus, which brand would you recommend? I don't know the current state of things as companies change strategy but Asus used to have one of the most abhorrent customer services in existence (in addition to lying about their now-extinct global warranty). Did it change?
I heard Asrock is just a low-cost branch of Asus so I'm assuming they have the same customer service quality.
I was looking at Gigabyte because it seems they use strong components quality in their hardware and their customer service is not that bad. You told the Gigabyte is also a good choice but how about the MoBo model I'm considering? Do you know if it's good?

 

[Tradesman1]

The Rock started as a part of Asus and broke away some years ago,around 2010 they were putting out out some really nice mobos and then with the release of Sandy Bridge they really started to shine, many considered them to have the best Sandy and Ivy bridge mobos. With Haswell Asus again moved to the forefront with GigaByte and the Rock mobos close behind. MSi started moving in the right direction with the 1150 Haswell mobos but their quality control still is very lacking and why they keep dropping further behind the Rock in mobo sales at number 4 while Asus, GB and the Rock have been 1-2-3 for about 5-6 years now.

The gaming G1 is a pretty good mobo, price wise it's in line with the Asus Z170 Hero (what I went with, great mobo, in sig), so at that price point I'd go the Asus Hero. Since you mentioned it was priced high (the G1) I made my recommendations at a lower price point (both run in the $150 range) 😉

 

[nelsonwcf]

The Rock started as a part of Asus and broke away some years ago,around 2010 they were putting out out some really nice mobos and then with the release of Sandy Bridge they really started to shine, many considered them to have the best Sandy and Ivy bridge mobos. With Haswell Asus again moved to the forefront with GigaByte and the Rock mobos close behind. MSi started moving in the right direction with the 1150 Haswell mobos but their quality control still is very lacking and why they keep dropping further behind the Rock in mobo sales at number 4 while Asus, GB and the Rock have been 1-2-3 for about 5-6 years now.

The gaming G1 is a pretty good mobo, price wise it's in line with the Asus Z170 Hero (what I went with, great mobo, in sig), so at that price point I'd go the Asus Hero. Since you mentioned it was priced high (the G1) I made my recommendations at a lower price point (both run in the $150 range) 😉

Thank you for the comprehensive answer! Just one more thing: how about customer service? Did you have to use Asus CS already? This is what is keeping me away from Asus.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'll quickly knock on wood here 😉 I do about 30+ builds on Asus mobos a year, Primarily use their GPUS (along with EVGA and GB primarily) on client builds, and have used numerous Asus routers, adapters and monitors and in the last about 5 years only had 1 failure that had to be RMAed, which went fine, took about 2 weeks (not really a big deal to me as I keep spare parts around and simply used one of those GPUs. I see complaints here and there, but considering the volume of their sales, I think I would expect to see a ton more complaints about them than we do, as I'm sure they go through their fair share of RMAs (though that too is usually less than many oif not most manufacturers 😉 )