Picking a mobo, trying to do it right this time.

[TrickyBD]

Hello most serene republic of gamers.

About three years ago I build my current PC, after not having done so for about a decade. Started out as a great nostalgic experience. I kept up with hardware news and engaged with communities for about a year until I eventually came up with a pretty heavy-duty setup. Ended up selecting a mobo primary for one, key feature (also forcing me to buy into several features I had no interest in or use of).
Sadly nothing worked out the way I planned and I resorted to scaling the machine back to a configuration wouldn't crash too much. The last few years have been painful, but I have been saving money. It's time to do things right. Step one: admitting I don't know a god damned thing anymore and need help from the beginning to figure out what sort of mobo I actually need. Please, please help me sort this out right!

Important: Money isn't an issue. I'm good with overspending on a mobo and other parts provided they do exactly what I want and no more.

Must haves:

• Ability to connect large SSD RAID setups and configure them however I see fit (assume an extra fan connecter or two). 10 to 15 internal SSD's. This will be the primary feature of the rig.
  
• Excellent sound quality. High quality audio and no to inaudible static. Build-in DAC or quivalent would be swell, but I can perfectly manage without so long as the audio is just great and there's no static. Possibly interested in buying a mobo without an internal sound card also, if such a thing still exists nowadays (I might have to compare prices first).
  
• Intel socket. Room to upgrade after two to three years.
  
• I really made use of the reset button, power button, feedback display and a few other tweaksy things directly on my motherboard. I thought they were a really novel idea, they saved me so much time and energy trying to sort out hardware issues.
  

Not sure abouts:

• Additional PCIe slots. I'm not sure if SLI is worth the trouble. GPUs get stronger all the time and so many games have trouble with this anyway. Feel free to convince me otherwise, but I probably don't need to go 4x slots. Just 1 slot is fine, possibly 2 in case I need it for something else such as the optional sound card. 3x will be pushing it. 4x, probably never going to happen.
  
• Fairly indifferent about RAM support. I think all boards cover my basic needs regarding the total amount and possible timings. I do a lot of picture and video editing, so I will likely end up with 32/64 GB. I also heavily mod most of the games I play.
  
• I'm sort of interested in any additional mobo software pertaining to system-wide watercooling, if Asus provides anything for watercooled setups or if it's already included in the 3/5-way optimization thing, colour me interested. No clue about this, but I thought I might as well ask.
  
• I liked having the USB slot with a button dedicated BIOS flashing. Would appreciate seeing that again on a mobo, but so long as there is *some* functionality for flashing from a cold state, I'm probably going to be fine with it.
  
• 3/5-way optimization functionality. I do like this feature, but I am ready to part with it if the ideal board for me doesn't have it. I'll manage either way.
  

Definitely don't want:

• Serious overcloaking boards. I do appreciate Asus's standard 3/5-way optimization functionality, but I really don't feel the need to push beyond that manually. I spend the last three years with an unstable system, so I'm not interested in messing too much with system stability again.
  
• On board Wifi. If I *have* to get it to get a mobo to get access to certain other features, I'm okay with this. But otherwise no, mobo can't have it. Ethernet is enough.
  
• Same for Bluetooth and any other tertriary features. Not interested, not going to use it. It's a dedicated PC, not a swiss army knife.
  

That's more or less it. Might edit later if something else occurs to me. I would *really* appreciate help picking my next Asus mobo, I really don't want waste money on another broken and over-featured machine again.

Thoughts?

Edit to insert the list mentioned in the sticky:

Budget: High.
Main uses of intended build: Video editing, high res scanning, heavy modded gaming
Parts required: See the above
Previous build information (list details of parts): -----
Monitor resolution: 1920x1080 / may change
Storage requirements: High, see the above
Will you be overclocking: no** MAYBE just 3/5-way optimization
Any motherboard requirements: No to few unwanted features. It's a computer Jim, not a beverage coaster.
Extra information about desired system: Primarily SSD Raid, all configuration of it including Raid 0. The rest, see the above.

[kkn]

are you in enny hurry on this?
as you know the standard yearly intel/mobo's drops around summer time'ish.
the X99 (LGA-2011) mobos are coming whit new socket ( LGA-2066 ) and rumours say they should be in the same price range as of current.
the msi is comming whit a dual m.2 slot board on Z270 this summer, so the current Z170 will be changed out, as this line do each year.

if current settup is more for you hence time maby.
then you have the boards whitch you can run up to 4 HDD/SSD drives in raid 0 or 1 on a U.2 port ( depends on board if its disables the M.2 slot )
if you pick a board that have a m.2 slot on it, i advice to get samsungs new 960 pro drive, it have 3000+MB reads and 1800-2100MB write speeds.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/ssd960.html

what sort og games do you play? FPS? MMORPH? strategy?+++

GPU get the tom one that is out the time you buy the pc ( do not have to be the titan card ), the 1080TI is coming out after new years at some point, dont know release date as of now tbh, or the price range.
its specs should not be far from the current titan card since its just a reduced titan spec card.

ram i would go for 32-64gb range, and not abow hence CPU if they play well together or not, and do remember always buy 1 kit of the amount you need and dont mix .

this socket will be changed out for the LGA-2066 next summer at some time, dono what time tbh.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-V-EDITION-10/

this is current socket witch will be changed out this summer, it have 2x U.2 slots and one M.2 slot.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-VIII-HERO-ALPHA/

the U.2 slots can be raided ( the drives on one U.2 slot only, not 2 U.2 slots together ), it can do up to 4 ssd/hdd's in a raid setup ( always look at the raid option in specs on the cards ) this for a cluster to get large space for exaple.
or else you may end up whit a raid/expansion card if you want to connect more then what sata outputs there are on a board.