Which Z170 board for winXP?

Hi,

I'm considering to get a Skylake for playing around and also some nice legacy 3DMark action... it seems s1151 is the last platform capable of running XP, so there is no point in further waiting. I did some research regarding XP and Z170 but I'm still not exactly sure what is needed.

First let's list some features I'd like to have:

1. locked CPU OC (must have)

2. win XP working for 3D benchmarks while running overclocked locked Skylake. (must have)

3. SLI 8+8 (would be nice)

4. support for future Kaby Lake unlock i5/7 (would be nice)

5. be able to upgrade/downgrade bios in some relatively painless way when switching Kaby/Skylake

Probably all Asus Maximus VIII should work (they have XP-compatible bios available) and most likely ASRock Z170 OCF / MOCF. The catch is all of these boards are a bit too much expensive for my taste and also overkill for air/water cooling.

On the other hand Z170 Extreme4 or Asus Z170-A are much more affordable and should be well suited for my needs from HW point of view. The only question is - will XP run on either of them?

As far as I know, XP needs SATA AHCI driver (should be no problem for any board) and ASMedia USB 3.x controller onboard, for which XP drivers do exist. Otherwise it would be impossible to connect anything different than USB mouse or keyboard. Asus Z170-A even has one classic PCI slot, so should be possible to put in some old USB 2.0 card, LAN...

So is there something special in Asus ROG boards bios that makes them "XP compatible" or simply any board (like Z170-A or extreme4) will run it?

I'd say number one for me is IDE mode in the bios, this is limited usally to the OC boards. My MOCF has it under Asmedia sata ports and SOC-Force has it on main sata ports the top two closest to 24 pin . Having PS2 connector/s (y adaptor) make XP life much easier as well as using USB 2.0 card like these by Syba with NEC controller. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026I4DZ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'd imagine all OC centric boards will have bios updates for Kaby as well as non k OC. Check Der8auers guide for non k compatability.

Socket 1151 Skylake Non-K OC Archives - Overclocking.Guide

As for bios flashing, I've had zero issues using Asus, ASRock and Gigabyte and with non k oc you WILL BE flashing mei or full bios often when pushing bclk or ram. I say pick a board listed on Overclocking.guide or Pony up for a well known OC board, I suggest if you need sli get a Gene or an MOCF if you want an enjoyable experience

Thank you for the tips.

According to several guides, there is working Z170 AHCI driver - so this should be good enough, no need for additional SATA controller. Probably I'll try my luck and go for Z170 Extreme4... Coz I don't feel like spending that much money for essentially cut-down boards (mATX, only 2 DDR4 slots), sure packed with overkill VRM and LN2 features, but these are of no use for me.

Thank you for the tips.

 

According to several guides, there is working Z170 AHCI driver - so this should be good enough, no need for additional SATA controller. Probably I'll try my luck and go for Z170 Extreme4... Coz I don't feel like spending that much money for essentially cut-down boards (mATX, only 2 DDR4 slots), sure packed with overkill VRM and LN2 features, but these are of no use for me.

ide mode helps because with ide mode you can install xp with optical drive which might be easier for some people. Without it you have to follow the guide to use ram disk and virtual floppy in asus thread to load ahci driver and xp iso. It's pretty easy

that usb 2.0 controller works really nice, been using it for a couple months now.

I got it for $6 used, it says there are 2 for $7, makes life easier. You can use it with a full size pcie slot or pcie express slot but not the older pci

I'd go MOCF/Impact, BDIES are what makes difference these days and you need 2DIMM board, and all you need for good efficiency is air.