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Upgrade for LGA 2011 in September. Which Motherboard...

3K views 41 replies 9 participants last post by  dpoverlord 
#1 ·
My conundrum...

I want to go tri SLI or for the potential for 4 titans. My Lian Li PC-70 USB however, fits the motherboards on the bottom and SLi / Tri SLi / Quad SLi was not really a "Big thing in '00. Which gives me a problem with my current Gigabyte X58-ud5 see photo:


So that means I need a PCI x16 setup which sits as high up as possible.

Upgrade path, I am thinking of ditching Haswell and going for the LGA 2011 chip either 4930K or 4960X (most likely 4930 as 1k is steep for minimal improvement).

Motherboard wise, I'd like the ability for tri / quad SLI ( I currently have 3 1600p monitors and sli titans):

Chipset wise, I am confused which is the best mobo for me...

1. Want more than 5 SATA 6GB ports (I would like to run my Raid 0 Samsung Pro 840 SSD's in SATA 6GB/S then it would be nice to run my 3 WD Red 3TB drives on the new SATA 6GB/s ports. My Blu Ray & Seagate 1.5tb wouldn't really matter.)

2. more than 4 USB 3.0 ports... Really why in the world are they making usb2.0 update it to 3.0 and be done.

3. I would like to have 16+GB of Ram... Ram disk? Makes sense when my GPu memory is 12GB with 2 titans.

4. PCIE 3.0 and 3-4 PCI x16 slots. if we are upgrading shouldn't they have it?

Motherboard wise where does this leave me? Seems there are only 3 x79 choices.
Mobo 1. Asus Rampage IV Extremeike the idea of the rampage but it does not run more than 2 cards at x16. What does it mean 4USB 3.0 in the mid? SATA wise, is the other eSATA 6GB ports able to use my other WD Red drives??
Mobo 2. AsRock Motherboard. Seems there are a bunch of X79 series and I have no idea what the difference is between them.
Mobo3 Asus Sabertooth seems like a cheaper version of the rampage but no3 3 x16 PCIE 3.0 ports.
 
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#2 ·
ASRock Extreme 11?

Not sure why you care about the RIVE only doing 16x. you're limited to 40 lanes regardless. Whether you have PLX chips or not, it's not going to add more lanes on the CPU. 16,8,8,8 is plenty for any GPU setup, lol.
 
#3 ·
Meant the ASRock X79 series. The Extreme9 and Extreme11 looked good but their website is very confusing.

I like the idea of knowing it's on the fastest ports, but I guess you are right, it's not critical. What's critical for me is that the board fits in my case and I can maximise everything. I do not plan on watercooling. Since frankly I am not sure where I would put the radiator. I have a large server tower case but it would be tricky. I like the ASRock series since it looks like they come with the Creative Soundcard (could be wrong).

Maximum PC used the rampage though.
 
#4 ·
Do you have more shots of the case?
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by deafboy View Post

Do you have more shots of the case?
Sure
DaRig_1274.jpg









Some of the photos are pre pre build, but it shows the case. It's much nicer looking now :cool: Not sure where I would fit a radiator though
 
#6 ·
There is certainly plenty of room for some but with some modding...
 
#7 ·
Yeah I don't have a dremel but maybe I could use the H100
 
#9 ·
Asus RIVE or ASRock are good choices; the new EVGA X79 Dark might be worth considering once the reviews come out.

It has a brand new bios so ideally it might not have any bugs compared to their current offerings.

Why raid 0 the SSDs? It might be a waste; but your money, your decisions.

I'm pretty sure the EVGA has everything your looking for but I'm not too sure on what to make of the pci-e lanes. But then again it comes down to the bugs the bios has.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Noob View Post

Asus RIVE or ASRock are good choices; the new EVGA X79 Dark might be worth considering once the reviews come out.

It has a brand new bios so ideally it might not have any bugs compared to their current offerings.

Why raid 0 the SSDs? It might be a waste; but your money, your decisions.

I'm pretty sure the EVGA has everything your looking for but I'm not too sure on what to make of the pci-e lanes. But then again it comes down to the bugs the bios has.
Hey Sir, whats wrong with Raid 0 on SSD? Won't that be faster performance?

- BTW Whats pegatron?
 
#11 ·
You can take a look at the ASRock X79 Champion. Same PCIe layout as the RIVE, so you should be set in that area (up to quadsli or quadfire). I don't know if you'll be using more drives in the future, but this board should have you set (6 SATA III, 4 SATA II), and you have more than enough usb ports on it (up to 12 3.0 and 6 2.0). You get the little XFast suite that comes with it, too, which is a nice little bonus (speeds up usb 2.0/3.0 speeds, configurable ram drive).

I've had this board since late November, and I've been really satisfied with it. Once you update the BIOS, and you take off the GUI boot, the POST text only shows for around a second before it attempts to boot the OS. Bios is idiot-proof, overclocks pretty well, has plenty of expansion options, and it's at a good price, imo. One thing, though. When you plug in any external drives and you boot the system, it'll take a few seconds longer for it to POST, which could be a good thing if you're trying to get in the BIOS or time that F8 button...

When I was researching motherboards last year, I was stuck between the Champion, the Extreme 9, the X79S-UP5-WIFI, the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, and the RIVE. The UP5-Wifi had some Vdroop problems, last time I researched it (overclocking wasn't as good as other X79 motherboards, too), but the gargantuan amount of SATA ports and the included BT/Wifi card was tempting. I just bought the card after I got the Champion (GC-WB300D). The X79 Fatal1ty Pro wouldn't accept my Phanteks CPU cooler because it would cover the first PCIe slot (may be the same to other coolers the same size, like the NH-D14). Deciding between the RIVE, Extreme 9, and the Champion was a pretty tough choice, though. The Champion was the better choice over the RIVE for me because of the features that it offered. In other words, the feature set that the Champion had were more useful to me than the feature set on the RIVE, and it's cheaper. So, it was a win-win for me. For the Extreme 9, you lose a PCIe slot because of the LAN/Audio card, so you have 2 less total slots than the RIVE/Champion, but you're still able to trisli/trifire it at the cost of covering all of the Internal I/O connectors. The Extreme 9 was pretty tempting because of the 2x8 pin CPU power connectors and the Sata ports, but you really don't need more than a standard 8-pin to get a ~5GHz overclock.

In the end, the Champion's awesome feature set won me over the other boards, and I don't regret my purchase in any way. Hope this helps you out.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpoverlord View Post

Hey Sir, whats wrong with Raid 0 on SSD? Won't that be faster performance?

- BTW Whats pegatron?
Raid 0 SSDs do equate to faster sequential speeds. But in my opinion for gaming there is no point. The results you get in benchmarks might be impressive but in real world usage you might not see a difference.
 
#18 ·
Sir noob so you don't think getting the new mobo with SATA 6GB would make sense? I was checking out the EVGA Dark and the new i7.
 
#19 ·
EDIT
I am going away it seems for a bit, so need to upgrade now, so I can tinker and have fun. With that being said, for $1000-$1800 what would be the most worthwhile upgrade for ram / cpu / mobo?

I want the same as below, 16-32gb of ram in win 7 ultrautilizing my raid 0 samsung pro 840 so I can do a ram drive to (sounded cool)

CPU I can O/C high on Air + a good cooler. If I can use my thermalright extreme Ultra 120 even better. If not look at my case photos, not sure the Corsair or NZXT would work in my case, since where would the radiator go?

Mobo, same as below, 3+ SATA6 spots for my SSD's & WD RED 3TB drives, lots of usb 3.0 tri/quad/five SLI with all PCIE16x lanes. Ports need to be as high up in the mobo as possible due to case config, good overclockability like my gigabyte X58 and stable.

Ok so thoughts
smile.gif
I know it sucks and I should wait for the 4930/EVGA Dark(not sure if the mobo was good anyways).... But maybe I can trade for it after SEPTEMBER
 
#21 ·
I was going to get the Rampage IV what would have been a better choice
 
#22 ·
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by driftingforlife View Post

RIVE is the best one out, but i would have waited to see what new refreshes comes out.

yes you can use 1366 coolers, just fit the X-socket that comes with the board.
Thanks +1

What do I do with the X-socket? Are the instructions inside the board? I called Asus but they weren't able to give me any update :-( I figure if it has not happened in the last year it won't be any time soon. Would have been nice though. It's nice that my old cooler will work (it's a beast).
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by driftingforlife View Post

Asus would not tell you, its under NDA, new boards if they are coming will be same time as IB-E.

yea, in the manual. its really easy.
Ah... so it may have made sense to wait until the end of September....... Well, I don't think Newegg allows you to return it so guess I am SOL
 
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