I'm in the market for a Z370 board -to pair with an 8600K and the GSkill RipJaw V 2x8gb 3200 cl14 memory. 

I'm leaning towards a ROG board but Im concerned about a lengthy thread at the ROG forum regarding audio issues that appear to be related to PCi latency issues. Been there done that and don't want to go back ...to the Nvida vs Creative Labs PCI fight of 90's and early 2000's.

 

So my questions:

-how's your ROG board

-would you buy it again

-is there an inherent flaw with the 370 chipset

-bonus question (please accept my apologies on this one) ....have you installed win7? if so, hows the performance vs win10?

 

 ---I've already purchased the memory and am strongly leaning towards the 8600K but welcome any knowledgeable advise, suggestions or tips.

 

Thanks-

APEX , have Rampage VI Apex X299, Maximus IX Apex Z270 and Maximus X Apex Z370. 

have one Win10 SSD and one Win7  on all mobos,

yes have only Apex after the first Z270

Maximus X Code here.

No issues whatsoever. In fact I noticed that my on-board sound was noticeably better than my Z270 board.

Thanks guys! That's all I needed to hear and hear from. :-)

I'll flip a coin between the two boards .....

 

...Oh, actually there is one other thing I wanna direct at Westman: are the hardware and gaming benchmarks pretty close between win7 and win10?

19 hours ago, FunknNasty said:

Thanks guys! That's all I needed to hear and hear from. :-)

I'll flip a coin between the two boards .....

 

...Oh, actually there is one other thing I wanna direct at Westman: are the hardware and gaming benchmarks pretty close between win7 and win10?

Very close, in the sim i think win7 more stable no nasty updates that mess up the sim

Win10 , i run it in the sim today mostly for some new apps not work with win7

I've been stay away from ASUS since the X99 USB causing a boot hang fiasco. I've been using EVGA and Gigabyte since. Not a problem with either one!

@ Westman-

Ok, I got one more specific Apex question ....last one, really. :-)

 

Ok, other than the size of the board (funking huge!) I really appreciate the no b.s. qualities of the Apex; However, I do need WiFi.

Question: PCIe or USB for the WiFI adapter ....which one introduces the least contamination?

19 hours ago, FunknNasty said:

@ Westman-

Ok, I got one more specific Apex question ....last one, really. :-)

 

Ok, other than the size of the board (funking huge!) I really appreciate the no b.s. qualities of the Apex; However, I do need WiFi.

Question: PCIe or USB for the WiFI adapter ....which one introduces the least contamination?

i dont need wifi the answer is dont know.

Apex Mobo is the top Z370 Mobo it need a decent CPU, 

the 6 core chip seems to have a bigger span ( bad-lucky one) cpu then KabyLake 

it can have a difference of 500mhz at same vcore , 

Thanks again Westman for the time.

I'm going to pick up the Apex, the 8600K, and the Corsair Obsidian 450d Case at the local electronics store today. The little store, 4 miles from Intel, has always been golden to me over the years  ...keeping my fingers crossed on this cpu.  ..... A side note: I was just thinking to myself that this little store (Central Computers) is within 5 miles of Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Intel.

Anyway ....I looked at several boards, even considered the ROG Z370 -i mini, but settled on the Apex because of the PS2 ports. Really. :-)

 

Quote

and the Corsair Obsidian 450d Case

 

Check out the Phanteks cases. Very nice. I have the gorgeous Phantek Evolv ATX Tempered Glass. 

I did check out Phanteks, very nice. In fact it was their mini case that had me strongly consider the ROG z370-i board. But in the end it was all about not dealing with shipping and more about seeing and touching before buying (they only few Corsair and Antec E-ATX models in stock).

The kid down there talked me out of the Core 500 case and into the 300R. ....He also talked me into the Corsair H100 cooler .....it better fit in the case. :-)

BTW, I did walk out with the APEX.

Buying new puter stuff never gets old, right?

Which H100? 

That's the old model, don't get that. If you want a 240 AIO it's the Corsair H100i V2 you want. 

 

 

Quote

Buying new puter stuff never gets old, right?

So true. 

Hi Martin-

The cooler is the V2 edition ....which leads me into wanting to curse the kid that "helped" me out at the store. See, when I walked in I wanted the Corsair 500d because I was all but certain I could get most any water cooler THAT I WANTED into the case with the APEX board. As noted in a previous post, he talked me out of the 500d and into the Corsair 300r and assured me that everything would fit. Wrong!!! The V2 does not fit in the 300r -the fan butts up against the ram.

Anyway, I love the case! I love the board! And love the cooler ...my 1st h2o cooler, and I'm going to keep it (I made it fit).  ...And ...btw, I'm up and running with Win7 pro!

I used an old sandy bridge spin up drive with Win7 already on it as a test bed. Other than having to connect the dots (tracking down drivers) the installation was smooth and is running liked I hoped it would. The early non tuned benchmark and performance returns are really encouraging.

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by FunknNasty

Well ....we're golden.  This thing sleep walks through OCCT line pack and Real Bench @ 1.38v - 5ghz  memory at XMP. Max  temps: low to mid 60's.

As you know Westman, this board comes with wide variety of user overclock profiles. I've played with several of them and this board has handled everyone one of them. Not one blue screen! and there's some pretty crazy profiles.

This is the finest kit I've ever owned .....

edit: actually the 5.0 was with a vid 1.35 occ showed vid 1.35 with a max vcore of 1.38v

 

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by FunknNasty