[SOLVED] Which board do you think is a better buy?

[QwerkyPengwen]

I have two boards I'm looking at.

MSI Z170A Gaming M5
$40, about 60mi round trip to pick it up.

Asus Z170-E
$50, about 30mi round trip.

Both are second hand, and my car gets about 11mpg.
Gas is about $4 a gallon for me.

You can see all my PC hardware in my signature.

The MSI looks to be more robust in features and design, but is gonna cost me a bit in gas for sure.

Otherwise the Asus is more cut down in comparison you the board I was using, but would cost less overall to buy.

I plan on overclocking to the same OC I was getting with my previous board the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming/AURA which is 4.6GHz

I'm thinking the MSI will be able to let me get that OC better than with the Asus board, but not entirely sure, also I like that the MSI has the extra I/O support that is almost nearly what my previous board offered, but if I can pretty much achieve what I'm looking to achieve using the Asus board, then it would definitely cost me less to get that one.

Also, the RAM in my build isn't the same anymore, I now have 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance LPX C16 memory.
Model # CMK16GX4M4A2666C16 v4.23

These RAM were on the QVL of my previous board which was nice, but aren't on the QVL of the MSI, the MSI QVL only lists v3.21

But they are on the QVL for the Asus Z170-E.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Taking a further look at the built in features of the Asus Z170-E, while it has less rear I/O, it looks to have some nice features for overcurrent protection and such.

So any feedback on these two boards is greatly appreciated to help me decide if it's worth paying more in gas to get the MSI or not.

 

[R_1]

as shipping was not discussed I am guessing you cannot wait for shipping - it would be cheaper than gas.
back of the napkin calculation shows they are 2 dollars difference in price when gas is factored (assuming 4 a gallon for ease of math). value your time accordingly.
I would get the closest and the cheapest the asus
40 dollars and 24 dollars for gas is 64 bucks and your time to get it.
50 bucks and 12 for gas is 62 bucks, and less time to get it.
they are both z170 boards, does the MSI do something you NEED that the ASUS does not?

it comes down to this, your time, outside temperature and is your AC working? its 111 here and no AC in my car means I stay at home.
price will be a wash either way.

 

[Barty1884]

At it's launch pricepoint, the M5 would've been the better buy. The VRM was the best of the options at it's price.

However, ~4 years removed, in the used market, they're going to be very, very similar performance-wise.

Shorter pickup time, very similar money after gas is factored in (not time), RAM on the QVL (while not a big concern on Intel, should just be 'easier'), I'd just opt for the ASUS.

Might even be worth trying to score the ASUS for $40, but even at $50, it's the way I would go.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

as shipping was not discussed I am guessing you cannot wait for shipping - it would be cheaper than gas.
back of the napkin calculation shows they are 2 dollars difference in price when gas is factored (assuming 4 a gallon for ease of math). value your time accordingly.
I would get the closest and the cheapest the asus
40 dollars and 24 dollars for gas is 64 bucks and your time to get it.
50 bucks and 12 for gas is 62 bucks, and less time to get it.
they are both z170 boards, does the MSI do something you NEED that the ASUS does not?

it comes down to this, your time, outside temperature and is your AC working? its 111 here and no AC in my car means I stay at home.
price will be a wash either way.

Oops. I thought I had put in the post that I am buying them second hand on the used market LOL. Guess not. So shipping isn't a thing.

I was also curious if the VRM setup on either board was better than the other for overclocking, or at least one of them was on par with my previous board so that I can get that 4.6GHz OC at 1.34v that I had.

I don't have too much plugged into the rear I/O so the lack of a couple USB ports shouldn't be an issue with the ASUS.

Ambient temps aren't a big issue for me.
I don't run AC, but I live next to the beach, and while it's a bit warm outside, a majority of my apartment doesn't get direct sunlight into all of it, and we have a very nice open floor plan with windows and balcony doors that creates a good breeze and keeps things cool pretty much all day long, then at night it gets cooler.

And as you can already see I am in good shape with airflow for my PC LOL, so VRM cooling and internal case temps from the GPU shouldn't be an issue at all.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

So you guys don't think that the Asus board is lacking in any major departments when it comes to running an OC at 4.6GHz 1.34v and my other hardware?

If so, then yeah, I might just go with the Z170-E then. I am not that big a fan of black/red color scheme but would sacrifice that sort of aesthetic thing if it meant getting a proper board.
I am definitely more partial to neutral colors so that I can do my own thing with RGB.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

also, I can't try to get the Asus any cheaper LOL.
The guy was originally asking for $75 and I counter offered with $50 to get it cheaper but not try to low ball him or make him end up standing firm on his $75 price.

So $50 is the cost for it which is fine since it's within the $60 budget I set for myself to get another board.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

and at aprox. $62 spent for the board and gas, that fits within my finances for getting a replacement board.

I think I might just go with the Asus since I trust them and they haven't steered me wrong yet, plus the neutral color scheme is a bonus for my system.

And also I am a bit more recently familiar with their BIOS UEFI setup for overclocking.

I just hope that it's not a cut down BIOS that only offers offsets for voltages and stuff instead of manual.
That'll put a bit of a damper on time spent redoing my OC on my CPU.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I'm hoping that with it being a mid tier Z170 from Asus, that all my main OC settings can be set to what they were on my previous board with 46 multiplyer, 1.34v, and LLC Level 5.

That'll make things super easy for me

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

another question I guess.
See my previous board was having an issue with 4 sticks of RAM, is there a special way I should implement the 4 sticks so that they work properly when booting up and not getting a DRAM error?

Me having these issues on the previous board is what forced me to check just to make sure I didn't have any bent pins, and it turns out I didn't, but while checking I dropped my little mini LED light onto the socket and pent some.

I tried my best to put them back like how Linus did in his video, but to no avail. Couldn't get a boot from a single stick after that so that's why I'm now looking for a replacement board.

And no, there was nothing wrong with the RAM. All sticks work fine on their own, and worked fine together in the system the guy had that I bought them from. (he was selling them cuz he was upgrading to 32GB and faster speeds) They just weren't working on my board for some reason. In fact, it was a 50/50 of me getting just two sticks to work for dual boot.

And while I said Asus has never steered me wrong, I don't count this as that since I originally bought the board second hand to begin with and it originally worked just fine with two sticks until one of the sticks died and I think that started a chain reaction that messed up some other things.

So I just want to make sure that when it comes to 4 sticks I can just plug all four in and boot the system.

Probably best of course to do a CMOS reset by pulling the battery for about 5 minutes before I plug everything in and boot for the first time with the new board in my system.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Update for all.

I went with the MSI because the guy I was talking to hasn't responded in forever since we last talked and I couldn't afford to wait another day to be able to use my system since I have some projects I was in the middle of that need to be finished ASAP.

And I am reporting that everything seems to be working great.

The board when I got it was in immaculate condition as well.

All system is booted and running on all 4 sticks.

Now to just do my overclocks.

 

[R_1]

glad to hear that all's well