Easy-to-install skylake mobo with good audio outputs?

[Red Chief]

Hi guys,

I'm not good at hacking and I don't want to pull the little hair I have left with troubleshooting for days or even weeks, so I'd like a trouble-free motherboard. I'll stick with Gigabyte Ultra Durable series, as I've had quite a few since 2008, without any of them breaking down. I only have one computer, so reliability's crucial.

So, I'm a music lover and I'd want a future-proof Skylake rig with fine audio features, such as:
• ALC1150
• SPDIF/out for my receiver (I only listen to ALAC files)
• "Amped-Up audio" for my headphone (an AKG K712Pro).
Note that all Z170X-UD sth are marketed as such, but the latter implementation differs. The Z170X-UD5 TH features a Muses op-amp, for instance, and that may be the reason why it stands out, according to Tweaktown's Rightmark review. Distortion and noise are much lower than the UD3 and well worth the price premium, IMO.

Sadly, I've read the 22-page thread (!) about the Z170X-UD5 TH, and though Tonymacx86 himself owns one, a lot of regular folks have troubles with it. Plus, the USB Type C ports are not only useless for now, but since they're Thunderbolt 3 ports they may never be supported by Apple. Always expecting to be disappointed with Apple's hardware is a good policy, in my experience, and the reason why I went into the hackintosh scene, in the first place.

Note that the Z170X-UD5 (non-TH model) isn't available in Europe—I'm French. It's whether UD3, whether UD5 Th.

As for the rest, my expectations are very ordinary : I just want it to sleep, wake up (with audio and display) and shutdown properly. And be able to use my current GTX670. I'm not using an NVMe SSD, just two standard SSDs, one for OSX, one for Windows 8.1.

PS : If you wonder why I'm not just buying a good USB sound card, well I considered an Audio-GD amp-DAC for a while, but it costs about 400€, and I can't afford that kind of money right now.

All inputs are welcome. Thanks for reading me.

 

[trs96]

Hi guys,

I'm not good at hacking and I don't want to pull the little hair I have left with troubleshooting for days or even weeks, so I'd like a trouble-free motherboard. I'll stick with Gigabyte Ultra Durable series, as I've had quite a few since 2008, without any of them breaking down. I only have one computer, so reliability's crucial.

So, I'm a music lover and I'd want a future-proof Skylake rig with fine audio features, such as:
• ALC1150
• SPDIF/out for my receiver (I only listen to ALAC files)
• "Amped-Up audio" for my headphone (an AKG K712Pro).
Note that all Z170X-UD sth are marketed as such, but the latter implementation differs. The Z170X-UD5 TH features a Muses op-amp, for instance, and that may be the reason why it stands out, according to Tweaktown's Rightmark review. Distortion and noise are much lower than the UD3 and well worth the price premium, IMO.

Sadly, I've read the 22-page thread (!) about the Z170X-UD5 TH, and though Tonymacx86 himself owns one, a lot of regular folks have troubles with it. Plus, the USB Type C ports are not only useless for now, but since they're Thunderbolt 3 ports they may never be supported by Apple. Always expecting to be disappointed with Apple's hardware is a good policy, in my experience, and the reason why I went into the hackintosh scene, in the first place.

Note that the Z170X-UD5 (non-TH model) isn't available in Europe—I'm French. It's whether UD3, whether UD5 Th.

As for the rest, my expectations are very ordinary : I just want it to sleep, wake up (with audio and display) and shutdown properly. And be able to use my current GTX670. I'm not using an NVMe SSD, just two standard SSDs, one for OSX, one for Windows 8.1.

PS : If you wonder why I'm not just buying a good USB sound card, well I considered an Audio-GD amp-DAC for a while, but it costs about 400€, and I can't afford that kind of money right now.

All inputs are welcome. Thanks for reading me.

I've read recently that new laptops and the MP refresh will all have Th. Bolt 3. Apple is also moving to all USB C ports as well so that solves that problem. I think the support will only get better for the UD5-TH it's not going to be extremely difficult to get it working. If you can't then they've always got resale value if you want to go with a different motherboard. I would go for that if the onboard audio meets your needs.

 

[Red Chief]

Thanks for the advice. In France, you can send a product back for up to two weeks, if you're not satisfied, so resale value's not an issue. I'm more worried about wasting my time.
I did that a lot, back when I start with hackintosh distributions. Then Insanelymac moderators went crazy about external links and I found a safe heaven here.

 

[Shiitaki]

I use a USB DAC from Meridian. It was expensive but it is silent transparent. I use it to feed an AudioEngine A5s and Bowers and Wilkinson sub. I can easily hear static or errors in the mastering. High bit rate audio sounds phenomenal. No drivers, and usually no settings. You just plug it in and that is it. It defaults to 192K/24 asynchronous. Worked great on my hackintosh, though it is now on my iMac. I use HDMI audio on my hackintosh now, could run that in to a receiver, though that does take adding a patch to Clover. Pretty easy to do, at least for my ATI and Nvidia machines. Even the cheap USB audio devices can do a good job for only 10 bucks. USB audio is definitely the easiest way to go on a hackintosh.

 

[Red Chief]

Easiest, sure, but for 10$ you can only buy cheap Chinese crap, and I don't want a USB sound card, since it's stereo only, and can't support a cable long enough to reach my receiver.
Apple made a huge improvement on audio, though. I stuck with ML till late 2015, because there's no fix for my current motherboard which would go mute after wake up. When I finally updated to Yosemite, thanks to the LoadHDA thing, it was so much better on the HDAudio minijack that I stopped using a 8m cable from my receiver.

 

[Red Chief]

Well, I've just ordered a UD5TH. Good thing is I'll be able to test it off case, thanks to the power button. I've got this on my current mobo as well. Very useful, once in a 3 years.

 

[Quickshooter]

Well, I've just ordered a UD5TH. Good thing is I'll be able to test it off case, thanks to the power button. I've got this on my current mobo as well. Very useful, once in a 3 years.

Hey, just wanted to ask - how do you like the sound quality of UD5TH? Did you end up with an external DAC?

 

[zipb]

My Metric Halo ULN-8 sounds superior(not surprisingly for a 3k converter), but the times I used the onboard audio(in Windows) it sounded surprisingly good. We've come a long way since the 8-bit soundblaster...
In my living room, I now use HDMI feeding my Denon amp, one can skip the onboard DAC this way.

 

[Red Chief]

Hey, just wanted to ask - how do you like the sound quality of UD5TH? Did you end up with an external DAC?

Well, it's the best onboard-audio I've heard, by far, in 9 years of hackintoshes. Better than the Kaby Lake gen by Gigabyte, as well, from Rightmark audio measurements I've seen.
I use an AKG K712Pro headphone and I no longer need to power it through my receiver with a 20' cable. I think it'd show its limits with a 150 ohm can, though. The audio performance is the main reason for me to use this high-end motherboard. I don't need its other features, but it's a much better bang for the buck than high-end DACs.

 

[Quickshooter]

Well, it's the best onboard-audio I've heard, by far, in 9 years of hackintoshes. Better than the Kaby Lake gen by Gigabyte, as well, from Rightmark audio measurements I've seen.
I use an AKG K712Pro headphone and I no longer need to power it through my receiver with a 20' cable. I think it'd show its limits with a 150 ohm can, though. The audio performance is the main reason for me to use this high-end motherboard. I don't need its other features, but it's a much better bang for the buck than high-end DACs.

Thanks! I have Sennheiser HD 598, they sound very nice as well.