motherboard for an Intel LGA1151 CPU ?

[stix]

Anybody around here know of a good solid motherboard they can recommend for use with an Intel LGA1151 CPU, maybe a Core i5-6500 ?

I don't do any overclocking or gaming, just productivity software and internet. I do use a number of usb ports, 2.0 and 3.0, and I use multiple HDD and optical drives.

[Ian]

Which chipset? Z170 or Z270? Biggest differences are that the Z270 supports Optane and has a few more PCIe lanes.

Most motherboards have plenty of USB and SATA ports. What you'll need to consider is whether or not you want newer technologies like USB-C, USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt as well as the various video and audio output options. Most also have M.2 slots for SSDs so you'll need to figure out how many of those you want.

When I was looking for a motherboard about a year ago, I wanted one with USB-C, USB 3.1 and two M.2 slots. I ended up getting the GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD3. It had all the features I was looking for and wasn't real expensive.

Everyone has their favorite brand and I've had good experiences with GIGABYTE. I'm sure you could find something similar from other companies too.

[stix]

Not sure which chipset; I just started reading about the differences between various ones. Been quite a while since a bought a motherboard and a lot has changed. As always, thanks for your thoughts Ian. So far I don't have any USB-C or USB 3.1 devices, and would like to continue to be able to use the devices I do have. Hadn't even thought about M.2; just now read a bit of an overview but prior to that I was only aware that it provides faster i/o with an SSD than SATA does. The journey continues.

[Ian]

If it were me, I'd get a Z270. I'm actually thinking about upgrading mine so that I can use Optane.

[Dartman]

I just added a USB 3 card to my OLD 1366 board with the I7 980 in it. Board was too old and specialized to have them and so last time my buddy and I were cleaning out, donating, and dumpstering OLD boxes after stripping hard drives and memory he found a 2 port PCI express (the tiny one) and gave it to me. Didn't realize it needed external power so had to plug in the SATA power adapter on the back of it. Unfortunately it doesn't have the header port I need to hookup the two USB 3 ports on the front of my new to me Corsair Obsidian 700 full tower case so might have to find another card cheap that has one on it.
I have one large external drive that supports 3 if I have it so was hoping to use it for that at least and after plugging the extra power cable it seems happy again. Doubt this board has M2 slots or any of that either. Buddy will probably find me a newer board and CPU soon anyways but this old dog is still very fast and has 4 extra memory slots after we added 2 8 gig DDR 3 sticks.
My old hex core AMD board has USB 3 ports and all that but it was probably a bit newer then my new one.
Buddy just built a AMD 1900 Thread Ripper and he reports it is insanely fast and very stable and even out does the 14? core Intel chip he found cheap and threw into a board he had because it is a special chip and was very expensive and rare a few years ago.