Uncertain about choosing between the B150 and Z170 models from MSI.
Uncertain about choosing between the B150 and Z170 models from MSI.
I'm going to upgrade from Fx6300 to i5 6500. My local seller has 2 refurbished motherboard for an amazing price. It's MSI B150 Mortar and a little bit more expensive Z170A PC MATE. I can't decide between them. One has more features and it's cheaper. The other one can overclock, although I don't find too much people recomending this motherboard for such purpose, and has less features and a tad more expensive. Honestly I'm not the guy that likes to overclock, but after seeing this results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_Fuz54U0Y
looks like the i5 6500 really holds back until you overclock it and have better ram.
What would you guys do?
(last 2 notes: it's either one of them don't need other recommendations; its a refurbish product with 30days of sending it back and 1 year warranty, really don't want to start the whole "refurbished" discussion)
Foxaran :
I really need the OC since the videos indicate a boost of 10-40fps, which is the kind of performance difference I can live with with any chip. Z170 Mortar has a lot of features packed in, but my main concern is losing audio ports, audio quality (Z170 uses an older AC887), and SATA ports. Plus, some users say the Z170A Mate isn't a true ATX motherboard, though that's fine because I'm facing the same problem with mine and it still runs strong.
What about your setup? What RAM speed are you using? Have you tried overclocking? Do you have a cooler?
Thanks for the help!
Happy to assist!
I’m currently running 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4-3000 at 3000MHz, and it seems to handle the OC very well.
Foxaran :
I'm going to upgrade from Fx6300 to i5 6500. My local seller has 2 refurbished motherboard for an amazing price. It's MSI B150 Mortar and a little bit more expensive Z170A PC MATE. I can't decide between them. One has more features and it's cheaper. The other one can overclock, although I don't find too much people recomending this motherboard for such purpose, and has less features and a tad more expensive. Honestly I'm not the guy that likes to overclock, but after seeing this results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_Fuz54U0Y
looks like the i5 6500 really holds back until you overclock it and have better ram.
What would you guys do?
(last 2 notes: it's either one of them don't need other recommendations; its a refurbish product with 30days of sending it back and 1 year warranty, really don't want to start the whole "refurbished" discussion)
Firstly, I want to say I have neither of those but have the Z170 Mortar for Non K OC on i3 6100. It performance great with a 4.7GHz OC, single core is as fast as i7 6700k at stock. Perfect for gaming.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/1177978
The B150 Mortar is essentially the same board without OC features. Do you want the potential to OC later? If so, go Z170.
If no desire to OC, then deciding factor comes down to whether you'd want option for micro ATX build. The B150 Mortar being m-ATX will give you that build option.
Hope this helps!
I really need the OC since the videos demonstrate a boost of 10-40fps, which is the performance difference I can live with with any chip. My only concern is losing audio ports, audio quality (Z170 uses an "old" AC887) and Sata ports, plus some users say the Z170A Mate isn't a true ATX motherboard but that's fine because I'm facing the same problem and it's still running well.
What RAM speed are you using? Have you overclocked? What cooler do you have?
Thanks for the help!
Foxaran :
I really need the OC because as the videos demonstrate, it increases the frame rate by 10-40fps. That’s the kind of performance improvement I’m willing to accept with any other chip. My main concern is losing audio ports, audio quality (the Z170 uses an older AC887), and SATA ports. Plus, some users say the Z170A Mate isn’t a true ATX motherboard, but that’s fine since I’m experiencing the same problem and it still runs well.
One thing to ask: what RAM speed are you using? Have you overclocked? Do you have a cooler?
Thanks for the help!
Happy to assist!
I’m running 2x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4-3000 at 3000MHz. This setup seems to handle the OC nicely:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7411/sk...index.html
For cooling, I opted for a model that fits my case and the Hyper 212 Evo was a good, affordable choice. I also replaced the fan on it with a quieter one to lower noise. Temperatures are around 29°C at idle and about 65°C when loaded for my i3.