Quote from: dacaldera on May 22, 2017, 06:59:08 AM

Hi,

I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of motherboards available from any given brand. I need help understanding some things.

1. In general, is a Z170X board made by Gigabyte roughly the same as a Z170X board made by MSI? and I don't mean those two specific boards, but rather the number "170" referring to a specific component on the board that has a common function and performance?

2. Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI LGA 1151 ATX in this scenario of a model number, what do all of the other acronyms really mean (XP-SLI LGA ATX...etc), especially in regards to mining performance. There seems to be variations of the same board with large price differences, and honestly it is confusing the F out of me.

3. Is it considered risky to just flat out buy a cheap motherboard that has 6 slots and expect it to work with 6 cards? for example, I'm looking at this mobo, with is generally not talked about in the mining forums, but is well priced and appears to have the slots needed for my 6 GPU rig. ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ ATX AMD Motherboard. What are the chances of this thing not working with 6 cards (besides losing the $80) because I read about people saying that as along as it has the slots avaialbe for the number of cards, it should work. But then others writing that it will only work on certain operating systems with full set of cards, and also read that if it has a certain cpu config it will not support more than 4 cards despite having 6 slots. It is all very confusing.

I'd like to compile a good set of answers so I can possibly help put together a more difinitive guide to selecting a proper motherboard. I don't like that I have to put in so much reading just to find a suitable board for a rig, and I would like to prevent having others that come along from having to deal with this as well. The forums are full of very contradictory information between people and their rigs.

Thanks,

dc

Please google a lot of terms... put some effort into learning it yourself. Its not so hard you will figure it out.

#3 yes don't buy blindly 6 slots motherboards they will not work. read some topics and see what other users are using it will save you hours of frustration etc.

there are plenty of motherboards available just buy the ones you know have been working for other members.

good luck