Z370 Motherboard for Gaming

[Wislan]

Hey,

I am in the process of upgrading my RAM, CPU, and motherboard. The intended final roster is

i5-8600K or i7-8700K (I haven't decided yet 😛)
At least 16GB DDR4 RAM, would like room to expand this
GTX 970 (4GB)
2 250gb ssd
500gb hdd
Displays are one 1920x1080 and one 1440x900 but I will be getting a 1440p display in the near future
I have a 650W PSU

The glaring omission is of course the motherboard. I cannot decide which to get. I have so far considered a few options:

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5, Gaming 7, or Ultra Gaming, Asus Prime Z370-A, STRIX Z370-E Gaming or F Gaming

but of course any Z370 motherboard is an option. I do plan to overclock so it needs to be Z370. I don't need on-board wifi. So far I am leaning towards the Aorus Ultra Gaming since it appears to only lack a few minor bells and whistles compared to the Gaming 7 while being considerably cheaper, but I might have underestimated the difference between them.

I appreciate any advice!

 

[jacobweaver800]

Hey,

I am in the process of upgrading my RAM, CPU, and motherboard. The intended final roster is

i5-8600K or i7-8700K (I haven't decided yet 😛)
At least 16GB DDR4 RAM, would like room to expand this
GTX 970 (4GB)
2 250gb ssd
500gb hdd
Displays are one 1920x1080 and one 1440x900 but I will be getting a 1440p display in the near future
I have a 650W PSU

The glaring omission is of course the motherboard. I cannot decide which to get. I have so far considered a few options:

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5, Gaming 7, or Ultra Gaming, Asus Prime Z370-A, STRIX Z370-E Gaming or F Gaming

but of course any Z370 motherboard is an option. I do plan to overclock so it needs to be Z370. I don't need on-board wifi. So far I am leaning towards the Aorus Ultra Gaming since it appears to only lack a few minor bells and whistles compared to the Gaming 7 while being considerably cheaper, but I might have underestimated the difference between them.

I appreciate any advice!

The Aorus Ultra Gaming isn't a bad idea, and since your overclocking what cooler are you using?

 

[Wislan]

The Aorus Ultra Gaming isn't a bad idea, and since your overclocking what cooler are you using?

Currently I have an Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2 which I don't expect is good enough for overclocking the proposed CPUs. As such I will probably have to change that as well (perhaps even to water cooling) but it's something I will need to research more before deciding exactly what to get, I've never tried overclocking before so for now I'm ignorant as to exactly how good of a cooler is required.

 

[jacobweaver800]

The Aorus Ultra Gaming isn't a bad idea, and since your overclocking what cooler are you using?

Currently I have an Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2 which I don't expect is good enough for overclocking the proposed CPUs. As such I will probably have to change that as well (perhaps even to water cooling) but it's something I will need to research more before deciding exactly what to get, I've never tried overclocking before so for now I'm ignorant as to exactly how good of a cooler is required.

The freezer 7 is a pretty great cooler from what I've heard, I've never used one but heard a lot about them. Also, if you've never watercooled try an AIO with a big double or triple rad. And if your going to overclock look up a guide on the CPU you pick for some guidance.

 

[geofelt]

If both a i5-8600K and a i7-8700k are both within your budget,
Buy the i7-8700K and don't look back.
As good as the 8600K is for gaming, you will forever be second guessing yourself if you do not buy the 8700K.

As to the motherboard, I have no advice; any Z370 based motherboard is going to do the job.
Pick your favorite brand if you have one.
ASrock should also be in the mix for value.
Higher end motherboards are more suitable for max overclocks and ln2 cooling.
They may also have slightly better integrated sound.

I might also suggest you plan on a single 500gb m.2 Samsung 960(PRO or EVO) .
Performance and endurance will be better than two different 250gb units.

500gb seems small for a hard drive. Why not omit one entirely until you actually need expansion room?

No problem attaching 3 monitors, just make certain that they have appropriate inputs.
Your GTX970 has two dvi outputs, but a future upgrade to a more modern GTX1080ti will have only one.
Just compare the outputs on your current card and a future card to make certain your monitors have a variety of input capabilities.
Seems to me that displayport is where you want to go.

 

[jacobweaver800]

If both a i5-8600K and a i7-8700k are both within your budget,
Buy the i7-8700K and don't look back.
As good as the 8600K is for gaming, you will forever be second guessing yourself if you do not buy the 8700K.

As to the motherboard, I have no advice; any Z370 based motherboard is going to do the job.
Pick your favorite brand if you have one.
ASrock should also be in the mix for value.
Higher end motherboards are more suitable for max overclocks and ln2 cooling.
They may also have slightly better integrated sound.

I might also suggest you plan on a single 500gb m.2 Samsung 960(PRO or EVO) .
Performance and endurance will be better than two different 250gb units.

500gb seems small for a hard drive. Why not omit one entirely until you actually need expansion room?

No problem attaching 3 monitors, just make certain that they have appropriate inputs.
Your GTX970 has two dvi outputs, but a future upgrade to a more modern GTX1080ti will have only one.
Just compare the outputs on your current card and a future card to make certain your monitors have a variety of input capabilities.
Seems to me that displayport is where you want to go.

ommiting the HDD isn't that bad of an idea but i would recommend springing for a HDD now like a 1tb WD Blue or a multiple terabyte drive from Seagate

 

[geofelt]

The question is.... what will the HDD be used for?
If it is to store large sequential files such as videos, then a hard drive is a very good idea.
But, I would go ahead and buy a larger drive like 2-3 tb for that.

If the drive will be for backing up the 500gb ssd, it is better to use external backup.

 

[jacobweaver800]

The question is.... what will the HDD be used for?
If it is to store large sequential files such as videos, then a hard drive is a very good idea.
But, I would go ahead and buy a larger drive like 2-3 tb for that.

If the drive will be for backing up the 500gb ssd, it is better to use external backup.

I'd still opt for a 1-6 tb drive from either Seagate or Western Digital, even if he isn't storing large files it can be nice to have if he ever wants to.

 

[Wislan]

Alright, thanks for the advice!

As for the storage, those are the drives I have already 😛 I mostly included them to show what the motherboard had to be able to support. I started ages ago with just the 500GB HDD, then when I decided to get a SSD I foolishly thought only 250GB would be enough, and ended up having to get a second SSD shortly after.

 

[Wislan]

I've been thinking about the Asrock z370 pro4 since as far as I can tell it does everything I need it to do: compatible with Coffee Lake CPU, PCIe 3.0 x16 for the GPU, plenty of USB ports (no 3.1 but I'm sure I'll manage somehow 😛 ), enough SATA for my storage drives, space for RAM, and overclock capability. I don't really see what else I would need from a motherboard. I am unsure about its overclock capability however; it is certainly able to overclock but is it able to overclock well?

 

[jacobweaver800]

I've been thinking about the Asrock z370 pro4 since as far as I can tell it does everything I need it to do: compatible with Coffee Lake CPU, PCIe 3.0 x16 for the GPU, plenty of USB ports (no 3.1 but I'm sure I'll manage somehow 😛 ), enough SATA for my storage drives, space for RAM, and overclock capability. I don't really see what else I would need from a motherboard. I am unsure about its overclock capability however; it is certainly able to overclock but is it able to overclock well?

I just looked at the Asrock board, it should be a decent overclocking board, maybe not a 5ghz beast, but a modist 4-4.5ghz overclock should be easy if you can keep the VRM's cool