Here are the personal downsides for the current Z170 and I am going to assume Z270 motherboards. The majority of them only really support 2 way SLI and only a handful support 3 way and 4 way. Now many will chime in and say "Well the the 100 series only supports 2 way SLI" True enough, but I don't have a 100 series card and I don't plan on buying one (or two, or three) any time soon. So I need a motherboard that will support up to 4 way SLI. Had I jumped on this bus a year ago, this wouldn't have been an issue as the Classified 4 way would've still been readily available.
And a minor gripe, the vast majority of the "performance/overclock" boards are either ATX or smaller. I prefer EATX. Weird, but I like big boards. (Cue
Sir Mix-A-Lot music)
Now that the EVGA X99 Classified is available again, it's a choice between that and the MSI Xpower Titanium. That I think is a tough choice. The EVGA is less money and their customer service is second to none. But I've yet to have a bad experience with MSI motherboards. And to be fair, I have yet to have a bad experience with EVGA motherboards.
So, Im going to kick this over to the X99 forum now.