H270 mATX board choice

[notb]

I'm finalizing the list of parts for new PC in hope to get everything this week and set it up on weekend. I delayed this thing for weeks because of Ryzen release, but finally decided to get an i5.

I still can't decide on the motherboard. I've been so long on ASUS I kind of lost track on how other vendors are doing. Sadly, ASUS mATX offer got fairly weak lately...

Could you give a hint? These are the specs I need:
- Intel 200-series,
- RAID (so H270/Z270),
- stable, robust design and build (I intend to use it for 5+ years )
- USB-C
- PS/2
- DVI
- ideally an audio chip better than the low-end Realtek 3-digit models
- 6+ SATA ports

To be honest, initially I'll put it into an ATX case (so I could get pretty much anything), but I like the flexibility of mATX boards.

There will be no OC going on, but in case no decent H270 is found, I might accept a cheap Z270.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Why do you need a 200 series. What does the 200 series offer that the 100 series dies not? You'll have many more choices with the 100 series.

 

[Shou Miko]

Why do you need a 200 series. What does the 200 series offer that the 100 series dies not? You'll have many more choices with the 100 series.

Intel Optane Technology there is only one 100 series chipset offering that and I think it's the Q version I don't remember, but if this if a board using H270 is a great deal I would even go for it.

I am myself looking at a H270 for my Skylake cpu but I am not sure bcs the board I really want only have the H270 not Z option and if I want Z270 I need a ATX which can lead to trouble in the case I want with 3 fans in the button ups this is off course sry @notb

 

[notb]

Why do you need a 200 series. What does the 200 series offer that the 100 series dies not? You'll have many more choices with the 100 series.

You're right - there are some nice mATX H170 options.
However, 200-series chips seem more future-proof with Optane support and maybe some "surprises" down the road - e.g. 100-series will not support the future LGA1151 CPUs and I might want (or be forced) to replace the i5 for whatever reason.

As far as Optane goes - I know it's currently just entering the enterprise segment, but Intel decided to support it even in low-end chips, so they must have planned to make this tech affordable in the future. And as I'm really into fast storage (especially random read - which Optane claims to be optimized for) I don't want to miss this opportunity.

Also, I've just checked that MSI and Gigabyte mATX H270 boards have only one M.2 slot (unlike ASUS mATX H270, which has two). :/

 

[Tom.699]

Why do you need DVI? Do you have old monitor and planning to use GPU in CPU?

MSI Z270M MORTAR looks nice. I'm using MSI motherboards for few years now, no issues so far.
Newegg has it for $120, not bad I think.

 

[notb]

Why do you need DVI? Do you have old monitor and planning to use GPU in CPU?

2x YES
I'll get a GTX1050ti for now, but in the future this rig will most likely do other tasks and dGPU will be removed.

MSI Z270M MORTAR looks nice. I'm using MSI motherboards for few years now, no issues so far.
Newegg has it for $120, not bad I think.

Fine board, but still $25 over the mentioned ASUS H270M-PLUS. With MSI I get a (possibly - has to be researched) better audio output, but lose the second M.2.
Z270 is a fairly expensive chipset and I don't get anything in return... other than the fact vendors decided not to make feature-rich boards on the cheaper variants.

 

[wurschti]

I'd go with Z270. It has faster RAM support and overclocking. Maybe there's a price extra, but this way you are more futureproof. Optane is not so easily achieveable, so don't worry about it. I would also go Z170 if I were you. It has all you need and more.

 

[Shou Miko]

Remember everyone to get Intel Optane working u need a Kaby Lake cpu it's not supported on Skylake I hope no one forgets this.

 

[notb]

I'd go with Z270. It has faster RAM support and overclocking. Maybe there's a price extra, but this way you are more futureproof. Optane is not so easily achieveable, so don't worry about it. I would also go Z170 if I were you. It has all you need and more.

As mentioned above: I will not overclock.
Exactly as you've said: it has all I need and more.

 

[wurschti]

As mentioned above: I will not overclock.
Exactly as you've said: it has all I need and more.

Who knows what the future holds!
Well, you do seem to know your way around and afaik B250 supports RAID. So IMO, if you won't use OC, and RAM that is faster than 2400MHz, B250, else Z270/Z270.

Depending on where you live, you can take a look at these

 

[notb]

Who knows what the future holds!

As far as I'm concerned, overclocking is the past, not the future. It just doesn't have the appeal it used to.
And actually my job is forecasting the future, so I should know best.

Well, you do seem to know your way around and afaik B250 supports RAID. So IMO, if you won't use OC, and RAM that is faster than 2400MHz, B250, else Z270/Z270.

Sadly, it doesn't. RAID is available in H/Q/Z270. And B250 only has 12 PCIe lines - way too few for my needs.

 

[wurschti]

As far as I'm concerned, overclocking is the past, not the future. It just doesn't have the appeal it used to.
And actually my job is forecasting the future, so I should know best.

Teach me master

Sadly, it doesn't. RAID is available in H/Q/Z270. And B250 only has 12 PCIe lines - way too few for my needs.

The RAID option is provided from the manufacturer. There seem to be a lot of mobos that offer it. Regarding the PCIe lanes, you are right, I got misinformed from the german wikipedia article where it said 12 Lanes PCIe 4.0. I thought it was a silent lauch and did not look further lol. btw I just took a look at the wiki now, and they corrected it. I feel betrayed