Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Anyone Contemplating building or has already built a new Z170 rig? I'm looking at an Asus Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 1151, along with the Skylake I7-6700K. Big departure for me, as I've been an AMD fan for just about ever.
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The New Z170 Motherboards
- Thread starter Agent Orange
- Start date
Was considering building a similar system with an i5-6600K, but don't really need it (currently using an i7-3770K on a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H for a video surveillance box, and have plenty of unused cycles).
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
I certainly "don't need it", but the bug bit me. I plan on piecing out my AMD PC and that should defray about half the cost of this prospective build. I've been researching mobo's all day and the only thing I know for sure, and according to the reviews, is you want to stay away from top end MSI. After further thought, I may consider the Asus Z170 Deluxe for a few more dollars, as it has built in Bluetooth and WiFi features. Also, the DDR4 is kind of expensive, especially the faster 3200-3400 stuff, but there's no getting around it on this kind of a build.
Scali
Veteran Member
I think a lot of people here have been around long before AMD even became a competitor back in 1991 with its Am386DX clone.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Excuse me, but what's your point?
Scali
Veteran Member
I just thought the 'for just about ever' was a bit funny on this forum, considering AMD has 'only' been in this game since 1991 (at least, I doubt people were 'fan' of AMD, Siemens, Harris or any other second-source Intel before that time).
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
That was an idiom commonly used in the US. Most folks that I know understand where I coming from. If you though it was "funny", then laugh at will.
Scali
Veteran Member
Well, I have actually seen comments from people saying "I've never used anything but AMD, this will be my first Intel system".
Makes me feel old. Which is why I like this place much better than 'regular' tech forums.
Over here you don't have to explain that there once was a time where AMD wasn't an option... In fact, it wasn't even obvious to choose an x86-based system.
But 'out there' on the 'regular' forums, most people have no idea about these things. They think that Intel and AMD have both been around forever, and that they leapfrogged for the 'performance crown' every few years... *sigh*
Makes me feel old. Which is why I like this place much better than 'regular' tech forums.
Over here you don't have to explain that there once was a time where AMD wasn't an option... In fact, it wasn't even obvious to choose an x86-based system.
But 'out there' on the 'regular' forums, most people have no idea about these things. They think that Intel and AMD have both been around forever, and that they leapfrogged for the 'performance crown' every few years... *sigh*
SpidersWeb
Veteran Member
If I was building a system right now, I'd be going with Z170 / Skylake as well and did look around a few months ago considering it. Only reason I haven't, is because my old overclocked i7 X58 setup is actually still pretty snappy, and refuses to die. I just can't really justify the upgrade yet.
Usually with Asus I get the model with the similar features that sits just under the fancy named boards - as often I find they don't offer very much beyond a higher price and looking pretty - but it's a perfectly good board choice as far as I'm aware.
Usually with Asus I get the model with the similar features that sits just under the fancy named boards - as often I find they don't offer very much beyond a higher price and looking pretty - but it's a perfectly good board choice as far as I'm aware.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
I ordered the Asus Z170 Deluxe this afternoon. I liked the idea of built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. I also ordered the I7-6700K Skylake and 32 GB of G.Skill RipJaws Series 4 16GB (4x16) (PC4 2400). I haven't figured out how I'm going to cool this thing yet, but most likely it'll be liquid, as it works pretty well on the AMD rig - never had an overheating problem. This mobo gets outstanding reviews but has already had 6 BIOS upgrades. Also, EMP (Extreme Memory Profile) and Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) are all new (at least to me), so that's going to take some research on my part. On the forums, you see mostly negative comments on how the memory is implemented. A lot of the problems are due to mismatched modules and not adhering to the manufacturer's QVL.
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SpidersWeb
Veteran Member
Awesome. My old X58 build was a Deluxe series too.
I wouldn't worry about XMP - when you get it, just play around in the BIOS. The profile options will either work or not, and if you're used to doing them manually on the AMD rigs, then you still can here. Matched kit of 4, XMP should work a treat. If you decide to overclock the processor, being a K part, you can just crank the multiplier/voltage independently - so there shouldn't be any RAM drama.
I'm assuming you've got a nice SSD to go with it
I wouldn't worry about XMP - when you get it, just play around in the BIOS. The profile options will either work or not, and if you're used to doing them manually on the AMD rigs, then you still can here. Matched kit of 4, XMP should work a treat. If you decide to overclock the processor, being a K part, you can just crank the multiplier/voltage independently - so there shouldn't be any RAM drama.
I'm assuming you've got a nice SSD to go with it
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Awesome. My old X58 build was a Deluxe series too.
I wouldn't worry about XMP - when you get it, just play around in the BIOS. The profile options will either work or not, and if you're used to doing them manually on the AMD rigs, then you still can here. Matched kit of 4, XMP should work a treat. If you decide to overclock the processor, being a K part, you can just crank the multiplier/voltage independently - so there shouldn't be any RAM drama.
I'm assuming you've got a nice SSD to go with it
The SSD is an EVO 500 GB to be salvaged from the AMD rig. From what I've read, OC'ing the 6700K up to and including 4.7 GHz, is a slam-dunk, anything after that requires a little planning and some luck. I rather be lucky than good any day.
Late edit: I'm going to try to install the Asus Z170 Deluxe chipset and drivers using the present AMD W10 install. It may or may not work with W10, although I have done it a few times with XP and W7. If not, I'll just have to go the PITA route and reinstall from scratch.
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Scali
Veteran Member
That's not the point. Some people wrongly assume I take it literally. I just said it sounds a bit funny if you were to take it literally (it would appear that most activity on this forum involves systems way older than 1991)... and in some cases you could. There's entire generations out there who haven't had computers before 1991, and they may well have only used AMD.
Mind you, it's still funny in another way... AMD hasn't really made any competitive CPUs since Core2 Duo hit the market, which was way back in 2006.
So you could say you're 10 years late if you're only switching to Intel now
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
AMD hasn't really made any competitive CPUs since Core2 Duo hit the market, which was way back in 2006.
So you could say you're 10 years late if you're only switching to Intel now
Not necessarily so. AMD is very much in the main stream, and it is their upward and downward compatibility that's kept them in the game. A young middle school or even high school enthusiast would have a hard time (even with the parents help) putting together the type of Intel rig that I building right now. AMD systems are generally very affordable and will run just about any of the games or software out there.
Trixter
Veteran Member
You will find Intel parts much more tolerant to high temperatures. I've only ever cooled my Intel rigs using air coolers (sometimes the stock cooler!) and never had problems. Then again, I overclock only modestly (my current rig is an I7-920 overclocked from 2.6 GHz to 3.2 GHz -- although this has been going strong for 7 years).
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Thanks for the input. The motherboard, CPU, memory, case, and cooler are supposed to be here late tomorrow afternoon via FedEx. The I7-6700K does not come with a cooler. I went ahead and bought the Corsair 1000i liquid system. I had real good luck with liquid cooling on my AMD setup, so I decided to hang with it. The main thing that I didn't like about the Nocuta NH-L12 fan is that it takes up so much real estate. The new case is a Corsair also, and it has provisions for 1000i liquid cooler built in.
Scali
Veteran Member
I had a Corsair liquid cooler for a few years, on an i7-860, I think it was the H60. It worked okay for a few years, but eventually the pump wore out. I just put the stock cooler on after that. Works fine really
Intel CPUs don't need a lot of cooling, unless you go for extreme overclocking.
AMD stuff is 'factory overclocked' these days. Especially those FX9xxx series. They are ridiculous, and I can't imagine any sane person buying such a joke of a CPU. 220W TDP, and still the performance is worse than a decent stock Core i7 at 90W TDP or so
Intel CPUs don't need a lot of cooling, unless you go for extreme overclocking.
AMD stuff is 'factory overclocked' these days. Especially those FX9xxx series. They are ridiculous, and I can't imagine any sane person buying such a joke of a CPU. 220W TDP, and still the performance is worse than a decent stock Core i7 at 90W TDP or so
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I really hope AMD knock it out of the park with Zen, which is now due in October this year, both for their own sake and for the sake of the industry as a whole. Intel having the entire x86 processor market to themselves is a nightmare scenario.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Amen on that! If it looks good, I may try that road too. I've never had a problem with an AMD processor.