Motherboard Asus Z270I Strix or Gigabyte Z270N-Gaming 5?

[champ222]

Hi all

I'm downsizing a bit to a smaller case and and want to change to an ITX motherboard.

my current board is a gigabyte z-270 ultra gaming. my current CPU is a Pentium G4560, and the plan originally was to buy an i5/i7 and overclock once the used prices had dropped a bit. I'd still like to do that, but i may consider a "non Z" motherboard if there are good reasons to.

Any recommendations? or ones to avoid?

Thanks

 

[Windfall]

Have a h270n-wifi. works great. All major brands (gigabyte asus asrock) will generally be good. There is also a z270n wifi and a z370n wifi with respective h-series chipsets aswell.

 

[annasoh323]

I have learned through toil and pain that the major things you'll need to consider are features and layout. Many of the basic properties of the various boards will be the same or similar enough to not warrant much attention. With consideration to cooling and chip limitations, I want to say that most Z270 boards will overclock similarly, or at least you'll run into other limitations before you hit motherboard limitations (I'm sure there are those that will disagree). Peripherals and connectivity will make a difference. Recommend that you list what sort of devices you want to use and prioritize. Then you can see which board matches your connectivity priority list the best. This would be things like Thunderbolt 3, USB C, Wi-Fi (and how well it works), number/type USB ports/headers, display connectivity, SATA, etc. Finally, layout is a much bigger deal than I initially thought. Give thought to what sort of cooler you want to end up with and make sure that the layout of the board supports it (e.g. no USB headers interfering with your 120mm fan). Also, board layout will affect your cable management in your preferred case, so if possible, it may be a good idea to observe other builds in your intended case and try to see how they routed cables.

Sorry for the rant. I had a number of unforced errors related to the above that I want to help those that go after me take into consideration/

 

[champ222]

Thanks guys.

i already have a big cooler that i will try and use (can replace it if it just wont fit) so i am already looking into CPU position on the board. further from the I/O the better in my case.

i'm a casual overclocker, so as long as the board is reasonable in that regard, then fine.

i dont really have any particular features that i need to be honest. M.2 ports are nice, ive seen a few ITX mobos with two, so thats cool. i guess usb type c might be handy one day, but who knows, since it will be on the back.

if they are all much of a muchness, then i'll concentrate mainly on layout then.

Cheers

 

[champ222]

So having done further reading, i've narrowed it down to Asus z270i Strix, and Gigabyte z270n-gaming 5.

The gigabyte is a little cheaper, and ive had a few gigabytes over the years and never had a single issue. all 3 fan headers are PWM (i already have pwm fans). Not so many USB ports on the back, but enough for me, a PS2 port though

The Asus has 2 M.2 ports, though oddly, if you want a fast pcie based one and a cheaper sata based one, you can only use the Sata one on the top, which has the heat sink on it. strange decision. i cant see me using two M.2, but i guess you never know.

Anyone know if there is a site that actually makes measurements of the layout of motherboards? would be nice to know where the CPU is in relation to the RAM and I/O, and also how high and how far out the heat sinks are, it would help to know if my cooler will fit.

Any thoughts?

Thanks