Motherboard

[reiters]

I am a huge fan of Gigabyte motherboards. I plan on building a new machine. There are so many motherboard listed I don't know which is the best for my purposes. I want the most rock solid but feature rich as possible. I don't care at all about pretty lights and stuff that has no effect on quality. Can anyone suggest a particular model and why you feel it's the best choice? I will not be overclocking anything, again for stability reasons. Boxed CPU with stock fan. My current machine runs for months without reboot. It only reboots when the power goes out. I want that kind of stability even if I have to give up a few percent performance.

 

[Adrian B]

It is actually easy to run macOS with a CPU overclock and RAM overclock with great stability. I have no idea of your preference for a particular board size. The Buyers guide has some good example builds that you should look at and compare the features/price/availability to suit your preferences.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersguide/march/2017

 

[reiters]

The list does have many good examples (maybe too many for me). What I am looking for is the best performance and stability. I do not overclock even if it's perfectly fine to do so. I used to be into tweaking out every ounce but too old for that now. I just want to assemble a PC and have it rock solid. I want the best performance I can get and as many features as possible but not into spending hours looking for the best kext to make it work. OOB is golden. Price is not so much an issue. I only buy a new computer every 4-5 years so I don't mind spending a little more for quality. Footprint doesn't matter. If full tower is what gets me the best air flow and stability then fine. If a micro PC does everything I need then sure. It's 100% about compatibility and stability. I am hoping to not spend hours looking and charting out the specs of every Gigabyte (many) motherboards and reading reviews of the best 5 etc etc. I'm hoping to lean on the expertise of someone who has already done the legwork and has 2-3 suggestions and why and then I'll do the research on the short list. I hope this all makes sense. I'm not just being lazy (maybe a little). I've been out of this game for a while and the catchup is massive. I retired my last hackintosh a couple of years ago (Dell T5400) when it refused to be upgraded to newer OS and replaced it with a MBP. I use my computer for programming 8+ hours a day and don't have time to deal with stability issues.

 

[Adrian B]

look at the Golden builds as your starting point. These builds also have plenty of detail and the information is kept up to date. there are a few mods trying out Asus boards - that would be were I would start first and check availability quickly as Z170 stock is drying up fast.

Z270 is not ready for prime time and its not yet supported by Apple - so you want to avoid this for now.

 

[reiters]

I will take a look at the "Golden builds." I wasn't aware of that forum. I don't browse all the firums for light reading

 

[JCMunsonII]

There is a thread with a 270 STRIX board that was successful in the Golden Builds. Also, trs96 in the "Help building Hackintosh please" thread recommended a 270 series board.

Given that, I think certain 270 series boards would likely be fine...