Jim Roseberry
As someone who builds a lot of DAWs, why "cheap" on what amounts to one of the most critical components in a DAW (motherboard)? Especially if you're going to be running multiple UAD-2 cards (more complex build)???
Get a proper Z370 motherboard and be done with it.
The difference in cost (over the life of the machine) is minute.
I know you have a point, and certainly know you're extremely knowledgeable, but I've personally never ever bought a Z board and have always been fine; my buddy has modest needs, specifically does NOT want to overclock, and needs to save dough so belief it or not, even $50 makes a difference. Also, he has two monitors with VGA only, so he needs 2 D-SUBs and the Z boards don't have one. He doesn't need a discrete GPU, so with a Gigabyte B360 board I found, he has 1 D-SUB onboard, plus a $10 active Displayport to VGA adaptor he's good to go. He's not gonna get another UAD, no onboard WiFi or exotic LAN that needs special drivers. When you add it all up, it makes the difference between a 250GB SATA SSD and a 500GB PCIe, know what I'm saying? Or a better power supply and case (=cooling & decibels).
Let me ask you one thing: do you find Z boards are made better, as in longer lasting?
I realize they probably have better power delivery, but I've built MANY computers over the years, repaired hundreds, and to me it never seemed like expensive boards, or higher level chipset boards last longer. There were times when ECS ones did crap out a lot more than "better" brands, but I've seen more crapped out Asus than Dell, and certainly virtually all B's or H's I've installed (around 30 I would say) have been flawless. Actually one Gigabyte B85 died; bought exact replacement on Ebay for $60 used and it booted right back up.
May be stupid, but in a world of overpriced Macs it's kind of a badge of honor to use the cheapest equipment money can buy! Thanks for all help on this board over the years BTW!
R