PC Build (Motherboard)

Hello all! I do apologize for the wait, I have been working and researching, and due to this, my studies have been slightly impacted, and I have tried my best to resolve the issue. I have a lot to say and a few links for y'all to watch, so without further ado, let's get started!

Motherboards do not impact performance, they are simply a sort of road that all the parts travel on. Because of this, you could literally go out and buy the cheapest possible compatible motherboard, and your gaming experience would not be impacted. However, you do sacrifice a few important features the lower you go in price.

The first feature is overclocking. For Skylake CPUs such as the i5 6400 (which I chose as my go to CPU in the last thread), overclocking motherboards are labeled as Z170, and non overclocking boards are labeled as H170. Because the vast majority of users will not be experienced enough to overclock (and the 6400 cannot be overclocked without de-updating the BIOS of the motherboard anyway), I have chosen an H170 board (link below).

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gah170nwifi

Reasoning: Gigabyte is one of the best, most highly rated motherboard manufacturers (next to MSI and ASUS). Also, gigabyte offers DDR4 RAM support on this board, while many other boards in the H170 type only support DDR3 RAM. DDR4 is generally faster, will last longer, and is newer than DDR3 RAM, and will offer a few extra frames per second in some games. However, as far as I know, the speed of the RAM is limited to 2133 MHz, but does support up to 2 sticks of 16GB RAM.

As some of you may have noticed, the board is indeed Mini ITX, which is intended for small form factor computers. While many are not a fan of this type, and prefer the larger ATX style, I consider onboard wifi a very nice option, something that is not usually offered in larger motherboards. Other features such as RAID, M.2 storage, and bluetooth are also included. For any of you wondering, no ITX boards that I am aware of support SLI (more than one graphics card). In conclusion, it's a great board for the price, and has a ton of great features.

Other options:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h170mitxac
For overclocking:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170nwifi

Previous post: http://meepcraft.com/threads/pc-build-cpu.58296/#post-588587
Original thread (with all links): http://meepcraft.com/threads/pc-build-intro.58243/

 

I need a PS3 motherboard to fix my YLOD