# Which motherboard for 8700K ?



## vonKoga (Oct 25, 2018)

Which motherboard would you recommend for *Intel i7 - 8700k*, i can stretch up to *250 $* ?


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

That's a *Million dollar question*.

I Would say Rog Maximus x Hero but considering many users in here arent that happy with Asus Motherboards let's wait to see what they have to say


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## pigulici (Oct 25, 2018)

I use Asus Prime Z370-p with my non-K i7 8700, and work well.


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## Black Haru (Oct 25, 2018)

A z370 board, or z390 if you really wanted. With that high of a budget, there are at least a dozen boards that would work. 

What features matter to you? 
Since you are getting a "k" cpu, we can assume overclocking is at least on the table.
What about I/O? Do you care about USB 3.1 Gen2? 
What about audio? Do you care about things like S/PDIF Out?

Looks are also a factor that we can't neccesarrily pick for you. If you post a few links to boards you like(purely based on looks) we can narrow selection down.


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## OutThereSomewhere (Oct 25, 2018)

My now sold Asus Prime Z370-A and i7-8700k never skipped a beat.


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

Black Haru said:


> With that high of a budget,



Is that a high budget for you?


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## Black Haru (Oct 25, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Is that a high budget for you?



It's on the high end for mainstream boards, as the OP gave no indication of needing specialized features like 10 gigabit LAN or extreme overclocking support, extra PCIe, etc.

Again, it just leaves the question pretty wide open (where a lower budget of say 150 would narrow the field quite a lot)


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

I respect your opinion, i just have another point of view of what a High/low budget is.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Oct 25, 2018)

Seems as tho most 8700k's OC about the same regardless of what board they are on.
You should be able to get a decent board for $200


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

jmcslob said:


> You should be able to get a decent board for $200



That's true.



jmcslob said:


> Seems as tho most 8700k's OC about the same regardless of what board they are on.



That information is completely wrong.


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## Black Haru (Oct 25, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> That's true.
> 
> 
> 
> That information is completely wrong.



I would say it's technically wrong, but functionally correct. The kind of overclocking that is most common (ex. Set the Vcore, then raise the multiplier until it becomes unstable) will produce nearly identical results 99% of the time on most any board at the $200 price point. Some boards do have better designed VRM, or better BIOS, but it's not enough to make much difference until you start digging into much more involved overclocking.


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## dj-electric (Oct 25, 2018)

There are some good Z390 boards that will gladly accept an 8700K with its highest possible OC abilities.
They dont even need to be fancy. Gigabyte's Z390 150-170$ line-up is solid


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## Black Haru (Oct 25, 2018)

dj-electric said:


> There are some good Z390 boards that will gladly accept an 8700K with its highest possible OC abilities.


Yeah, browsing newegg it seems that Z370 and Z390 are mixed together pretty evenly price wise.

A Z390 board would have native USB 3.1 Gen2 and integrated wifi, but there are plenty of Z370 boards with those features added in.


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## dj-electric (Oct 25, 2018)

At this point, i'd take GB's Z390 125$ entry over their Z370 175$ one, with all honesty. Mistakes were maid back then, and are nicely sorta fixed.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 25, 2018)

Maximus Hero gets my vote


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

dj-electric said:


> There are some good Z390 boards that will gladly accept an 8700K with its highest possible OC abilities.



Indeed, i have ordered this for my 8086K/8700K


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## dj-electric (Oct 25, 2018)

For 1/3 of that price.
Gigabyte's Z390 Gaming X is a solid choice for around 150 USD. For 190$ The Aorus Z390 Pro is also great for some extra connectivity.


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## AnomalouS (Oct 25, 2018)

I just picked up an 8700k and an Asus Maximus Hero XI Z390,  I have no complaints so far.   All comes down to $$$ to spend.


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

dj-electric said:


> For 1/3 of that price.
> Gigabyte's Z390 Gaming X



You're right but i just buy Asus Motherboards.


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## dj-electric (Oct 25, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> You're right but i just buy Asus Motherboards.


But this discussion is not about you, its about OP trying to buy a good motherboard within a 250$ budget, and not you about buying the absolute best and most expensive motherboard for LGA1151 that was designed for extreme sub-zero overclocking


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## FireFox (Oct 25, 2018)

When you said:


dj-electric said:


> For 1/3 of that price.


I have thought you were talking about me.


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## jboydgolfer (Oct 25, 2018)

Save some $ & go with the asrock Extreme4 , its beastly, & has all the functions that matter. Theyre $160 now, but go on sale occasionally. The only better would be the taichi, but id be surprised if it actually out performs the extreme4, as ive gotten stable 5.2Ghz on it with minimal exp or testing


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## Vayra86 (Oct 25, 2018)

Budget choice + good OC capability: AsRock Extreme4
Somewhat better / more feature rich: AsRock Fatality Gaming K6 / Asus Prime A
Enthusiast level / top end OC capability: AsRock Taichi ($250 or less)

The most of a difference in OC capability between these boards is 100-200mhz at the very best, if even that, for ambient OC. They can all push more than enough for this CPU and have decent VRM. More important concerns should be price difference, feature set/IO, and aesthetics and probably also in that order.

AsRock has announced to update all boards for 9th gen CPUs as well, should you want to upgrade to 8 core CPUs at some point. Their whole line from the Extreme4 and up is a clear winner on Z370 IMO.

Some great info here

__
		https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/85rttb
and overview here
https://www.overclock.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=99753



Knoxx29 said:


> That information is completely wrong.



No its not. Sources pls

Here's an AsRock ITX board doing 5.1
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12683/asrock-z370-gaming-itx-ac-review/8

Here's an Asus Apex doing 5.1
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12506/the-asus-rog-maximus-x-apex-review/9

Same CPU, near identical performance. The biggest difference is in LLC levels/strength. In this example, 100mhz at best due to temperature/voltage differences - but neither board gets 5.2 out of it


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## jboydgolfer (Oct 25, 2018)

The only place I would disagree is the fatality being a "better" board then the extreme4, as they are nearly identical in specifications, or identical except for colors scheme.

the differences are "gimmicks" and stuff not of real importance. the important stuff is power phases (both have 12) ...PCIE (they both have 3 or 4 i forget), USB options, (they are the same or pretty close)....they both support optane (gimmick) ..... and they both have those dingus RGB's (gimmicks) .... the extreme has dual UEFI, im guessing the fatality  does too (possibly needed) ... the main difference when i bought mine, was the extreme was cheaper than it is now, but ive been buying the extreme series since Sandy bridge, they never let me down. Asrock is always the best choice in MoBo tech, either are great boards, basically the same.
https://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?Models=Z370 Extreme4,Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming K6

honestly, id argue that the taichi isnt "better" than the Extreme4.....they OC the same, and are both tough as hell. All the rest is bells & whistles, which is important to some, but im not the kind of guy to pay $100 more for a 4th PCIE slot, or more RGB lights, etc. 

Best buy IMO/IME for the $$ is extreme4, as ive beaten many guys running taichi boards in OC, and bench tests. but $160 is a bit high imo.....maybe they'll go on sale.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 25, 2018)

jboydgolfer said:


> The only place I would disagree is the fatality being a "better" board then the extreme4, as they are nearly identical in specifications, or identical except for colors scheme.
> 
> the differences are "gimmicks" and stuff not of real importance.
> https://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?Models=Z370 Extreme4,Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming K6



There's a BLCK engine on the K6, it is closer to the Taichi than it is to the Extreme4 for overclocking. That and some other details. But yes, I agree, minor details.


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## dj-electric (Oct 25, 2018)

I dont get the recommendations for Z370 boards,
Z390 boards are better engineered by design per segment.  It would be sorta silly to me to do this


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## Vayra86 (Oct 26, 2018)

dj-electric said:


> I dont get the recommendations for Z370 boards,
> Z390 boards are better engineered by design per segment.  It would be sorta silly to me to do this



Better engineered what?? Its a refresh and a very minor one at that. There is literally no new feature to be found, mostly its just a third party providing it on z370. As for VRM, with an 8700K its a complete non issue (and often even identical to z370 too)

Then there is availability and price as well. Z390 isnt cheaper atm... at equal price, ofc its a nobrainer.


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## dj-electric (Oct 26, 2018)

VRM systems are upgraded, that's what i meant. Z390 boards can be had for cheap. Its a nobrainer.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 26, 2018)

dj-electric said:


> VRM systems are upgraded, that's what i meant. Z390 boards can be had for cheap. Its a nobrainer.



Looking at the Taichi and Im seeing an identical VRM.... 8+4


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## dj-electric (Oct 26, 2018)

I aint talking about the fancier Taichi (which also have more of an 4+2 phase, but that's for another topic)
Maxing out an 8700K can be now done on 125$ boards, as opposed to much more expensive boards that were available when it came out.
If i was in OP's situation i would go for a 150-175$ range Z390 board. He does not need to spent an extra penny for anything else.


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## OutThereSomewhere (Oct 26, 2018)

Yah. My long lost i7-8700k overclocked to 5.1GHz on an Asus Prime Z370-A with no issues.
I can't see any Z390 board however cheap having any overclocking issues. Most are within the OP's budget. 
Not sure about the difference in features among them as I've not looked recently.


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## rtwjunkie (Oct 26, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> Enthusiast level / top end OC capability: AsRock Taichi ($250 or less)


That is what I was coming in to recommend!


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Oct 27, 2018)

Buy the Asrock Extreme 4. It has excellent VRM ( dual stack mosfests, 60 amps inductors and 12k capacitors )

Clean neutral audio 

Runs on Intel specified peramets for stable out of the box performance ( no funky auto OC going in behind the scenes at " stock" settings like Asus boards

Has all the connectivity you'd need

AL of that for a budget price


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## Vlada011 (Oct 27, 2018)

Maximus XI Gene, Queen of the Night.
High end mATX Motherboard, same class as Formula only smaller mobo.
Ideal option for mainstream processors with Internal GPU.


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## vonKoga (Oct 28, 2018)

Thank you for your answers, you've been helpful, as always.
I was going for AsRock Taichi Z390, but i got really good price for Maximus X Hero (around 60% of the Taichi price), so we'll see how it'll go.


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## HUSKIE (Oct 28, 2018)

Z370/90 chipset.


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## vonKoga (Nov 1, 2018)

I bought Maximus X Hero WiFi. Can anyone tell me if I should remove sticky material from M.2 cover? There is some sort of sticker above it, but i can't find anything regarding this in the manual.


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## cucker tarlson (Nov 1, 2018)

vonKoga said:


> I bought Maximus X Hero WiFi. Can anyone tell me if I should remove sticky material from M.2 cover? There is some sort of sticker above it, but i can't find anything regarding this in the manual.


thermal pads for dissipating heat. remove the sticker, the pad should stick to the ssd drive.


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## vonKoga (Nov 1, 2018)

Thanks!


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