My current Gigabyte board is due a replacement and have been put off after two failures but this isn't in the Buyer's Guide but the Z97-A is. I posted and apparently they should theoretically be compatible due to NIC and audio being the same.

Which Gigabyte board did you go for? I'm put off with the recent issues and thinking of using the MSI Gaming 5 as it's in there.

Skylake has higher core performance though. Usually better for gaming.

I've picked yours out of the pro X99 platform comments as it's so sure of itself. I'm not picking on you though :smiley:
edit: and I DO note you've actually mentioned a point in closing which points in the direction of "the truth" (can't think of a better way of putting that, ignore words used, read the meaning).

X99 has 2 possible improvements over skylake.
1) 2 more cores. Hex core is useful if you are doing something more than gaming as those cores will likely get used. If you are gaming, they restrict the overall processor package as it's 2 cores of extra heat you don't need when overclocking and few/almost no games will use the 6 cores. "Per core" performance is generally MUCH more important or we'd all be using AMD chips.

2) More PCIe lanes. The X99 (and previous "pro" type chipsets) have more PCIe lanes. If you want to go with more than a pair of high end cards or want a pair of cards + high end NVMe/PCIe SSD's, the extra lanes are hugely important and will help performance a lot.

So in summary, if you are onlygaming and can't afford/don't want a tri-sli or dual-sli + high end SSD, the skylake platform is both slightly cheaper AND will likely net you slightly more performance overall (more per core performance available).

If you CAN afford tri-sli/dual+PCIe SSD OR are using the PC for "serious" work as well as gaming, the X99 based setup is better.

Deal wise, I'd agree with one of the earlier comments, skylake is generally as cheap as this. Haswell, if you can find it cheap is excellent, Ivybridge or sandybridge if you can find it (even) cheap(er) is also excellent. This as a full price offering isn't all that amazing. A 120GB ssd is worth about £30, that board is a better haswell one but it's not so amazing that a cheaper skylake setup wouldn't be worth getting instead.

For a free SSD with a half-decent z97 ASUS motherboard that was £112 around 2 months ago, I'd say it's worth it.

Where did you get that from? Broadwell CPU's have 1151 sockets, Z97 have 1150

If I'm honest I think they'll be on par with each other. Skylake would probably gain you a little boost due to being newer though. Both support H.265 so there's no issue there with using the iGPU.

Skylake. Better iGPU if you're using that.

Actually this could be easy, they perform about the same but what it really comes down to is what you've bought so far, if the answer is nothing and you plan on rebuying the whole lot then I'd go z170, with ddr4, but if you have ddr3 lying around I'd save the cost of ddr4 and stick with z97, also worth note is the m.2 slot z97 boards only operate at 10gbps (people report 800mbps ish) but z170 will do 40gbps and the fastest current m.2 stick is the 950 pro 512gb followed by the sm951 512/256gb (2200mbps read) then the 950 pro 256gb.

basically if you want m.2 go z170 if you want 512gb get the 950 pro if you want just 256gb then the sm951 nvme, which is fully supported on z170, ddr4 is faster, chipset is better but a z170 board at least a good one is pricey, if you stay away from the z series of the 170 then your ddr4 is limited to 2133mhz, which is not cool any z series will allow up 4000mhz Oc ddr4.
I have a z97 asus pro cost £145 and its very good very highly rated and for gd reason, done a lot of homework before buying that, price new is much higher the last I checked, used isn't that much better as I say highly rated board.
I've also got an mitx asus z170 pro gaming which is amazing it's the perfect board for me and it has everything I need including a full size 2280 m.2 slot, cost £135, but to fair it's most likely the best board I've ever owned and that's saying something, amazing for my htpc, fast very fast, gd uefi, wireless/Bluetooth, pcie 3.0, z series chipset, usb 3.1, great audio although I just pass through raw to my 1000 watt receiver over hdmi.

I'm not sure Socket 1151 will even see more than a quad core chip, not exactly future proof. X99 will see ten core chips with Broadwell-E.

Wow that is a great spec for the money. I am running an ancient AMD phenom x2 550 and ASus mobo..really need to upgrade.

Could you advise whereabouts you bought your Intel cpu and motherboard from,?

also do I need re-format when switching or can I migrate across?

the irony of a guy not interested in such minute technicalities yet coming into this post and commenting on others lives isn't lost on me...

You could say the same of any hobby. Or, you know, mind your own business and not be judgemental...

No, that requires LGA1155 and this is LGA1150.