Help Choose a Good X99 Motherboard

[Justinbaileyman]

What the heck do you need that many USB ports for??

 

[rchunter]

What the heck do you need that many USB ports for??

lol. Maybe running a buttload of external hard drives. I don't know.. I've never used more than about 4. My fathers running 6 usb devices on his computer and I thought that was a lot. But I couldn't ever imagine needing 12.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

lol. Maybe running a buttload of external hard drives. I don't know.. I've never used more than about 4. My fathers running 6 usb devices on his computer and I thought that was a lot. But I couldn't ever imagine needing 12.

I know right!! I would be afraid of burning something out powering that many devices through USB.I have 2 massive hard drives and a xbox360 controller plugged in and powered through the USB 3.0 ports at all times on my main rig right now and I am so paranoid I am going to kill my mobo or the USB ports due to the power draw.

 

[YBS1]

What the heck do you need that many USB ports for??

I would gladly sacrifice a couple of them for an eSATA port. It didn't even occur to me it didn't have eSATA until I went to plug up an external hdd the other day and I couldn't find one with the finger test, so I had to pull the case out from the wall to give it a look and was dumbfounded.

 

[biostud]

I would gladly sacrifice a couple of them for an eSATA port.

Another reason to choose an Asrock board.

 

[escrow4]

X99 Extreme 4. I have one, last BIOS update was only a few months back (Asrock still cares!) stable at MCE settings. Good board, nothing flash. Recommended.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Hey guys I decided to just go ahead and upgrade to x99 and say screw waiting around for skylake.I have all my ducks in a row now so I am ready to do this today.I have given up the idea of MSI Xpower for now and have been eye balling the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer. the only problem is I know nothing about ASrock. Are they a good brand? I dont want to buy this motherboard and it turns out to be another Ecs style brand.I have bought ASUS,Gigabyte,And Msi in the past and they all seem to be good brands but seems like Asus and gigabyte are lowering there standards lately with all kinds of problems with there motherboards being reported as being DOA or failing shortly after install.so I dont want to go that route this time around. What do you guys think? Should I go ahead and pull the trigger and get this board or no way?for ram I was thinking of getting the G.skill ddr4 2400 4x4gb=16gb Ripjaws red color kit to match the color theme of the board.Oh and maybe a 5820k..

 

[happy medium]

This board won best of Computex award, in fact 2 MSI boards won.
MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK , don't get it confused with the x99S board.
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/msi-x99a-gaming-9-ack-motherboard-wins-computex-award.html

Its now selling at newegg, I'd wait for reviews on this board, in fact I am.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=MSI_X99A_Gaming_9_ACK-_-13-130-838-_-Product

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Ouch.... $450.00 shipped seems a bit to rich for my blood.. Only $224.00 After rebate for the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Ouch.... $450.00 shipped seems a bit to rich for my blood.. Only $224.00 After rebate for the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer.

This is always the question. I'm casually looking for THE ONE AND ONLY X99 board myself. Last few days, I was eyeballing the Sabertooth X99 versus the Asus X99 Deluxe.

Every so often, a board-maker will introduce a product line and "sub-lines" wherein you can find a sweet spot that has the overclocking abilities of the more expensive board, and only lacks specific features.

At this point, I can't make up my mind on this matter of an outlay for a top-end, $450 board, versus something in the $200 to $300 range.

Also, occasionally with this or that chipset, you might find a very methodical lab-test review that shows a board to have uncommon potential. I haven't found any such review for the X99 yet.

 

[biostud]

Ouch.... $450.00 shipped seems a bit to rich for my blood.. Only $224.00 After rebate for the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer.

I've had the Asrock board from day one and never experienced any problems. Stable and clean UEFI. The only downside to this board is that it won't run tri-SLI with 5820K, but if you don't plan on doing that it isn't really a problem. Instead it has good spacing between the two top x16/x8 slots making it good for SLI/CF setups.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've had the Asrock board from day one and never experienced any problems. Stable and clean UEFI. The only downside to this board is that it won't run tri-SLI with 5820K, but if you don't plan on doing that it isn't really a problem. Instead it has good spacing between the two top x16/x8 slots making it good for SLI/CF setups.

You must be talking about your Killer. I'll have to take a closer look at all of those boards -- Killer, WS, Extreme6 and Extreme4.

The last time around -- maybe I already said it -- I was impressed to find these Z68 boards with great overclocking potential, and without spending a bundle on a Maximus.

 

[biostud]

Killer, Extreme4/6 are essentially the same boards with slightly different features. (number of connecters, brand of 2nd network chip, colors, boot LEDs, etc.). The WS board differ most because of the different PCIe slot layout. The underlying UEFI and power circuitry us the same though. So I would choose the cheapest that has all the features you want.

 

[cbn]

X99 Extreme 4. I have one, last BIOS update was only a few months back (Asrock still cares!) stable at MCE settings. Good board, nothing flash. Recommended.

+1 (Very nice and highly rated buidget board).

It handles all E5 Xeons, overclocks i7-5960x to 4.5 Ghz (assuming chip is capable), will take 128 GB RAM including ECC UDIMM and even the Samsung ECC RDIMMs.

 

[happy medium]

Microcenter has the Asrock extreme 4 and the 5820 cpu for 487$(after tax) plus a 30$ rebate. 457$ is a hell of a deal. 180$ for 16gb of Crucial sport ddr4 ram and you have a system for about 630$.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

edit: no microcenter in Wisconsin ,sorry.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Yeah that figures!! I always gotta pay top dollar..

 

[guskline]

Very pleased with my Asus Rampage Extreme V mb. Bought it as a combo with my cpu and ram.

 

[escrow4]

I should add that Asrock boards I've had including X99 have less copper layers than Gigabyte/Asus. The Z87 Gigabyte I have is heavier than the X99. Doesn't really matter though. Both tick along just fine.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Does anyone have an opinion about the Sabertooth X99 boards? I think there are sub-models . . .

Ehh . . . no . . . . if that's true, it's only for the Sabertooth Z97 boards.

I'm only guessing the Sabertooth X99 has a 10-phase power design. Respectable, but 2 short of the best.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

I personally hate all Sabertooth motherboards,as I had a hugely bad experience with them as stated up above.I even hate the color theme, ugliest damn colors ever!! All though, alot of people here on the forums swear by those boards, so its really your choice if you want to get one or not. newegg has a 3/10 of bad reviews for that board so I would be a tad bit iffy If I were you.You really have to do your home work for this x99 socket as there are a ton of faulty craptastic boards out there right now that are reported DOA or otherwise. I personally just bought the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X mobo and will be piecing together the other components over the next couple months due to being a poor man LOL.Mean while I also purchased a x79 setup to hold me over till my x99 rig is all bought and put together.Then I plan to give my x79 rig to my daughter to replace her aging AMD PC.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

. . . I personally just bought the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X mobo and will be piecing together the other components over the next couple months due to being a poor man LOL.Mean while I also purchased a x79 setup to hold me over till my x99 rig is all bought and put together.Then I plan to give my x79 rig to my daughter to replace her aging AMD PC.

Ah feel yur pain! It would be nice to acquire parts that way, but it's also a good idea to test them before losing an option for a reseller refund. Otherwise, if troubles surface, you're going to fill out an RMA ticket with the manufacturer.

Such a generous father you are!

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Ah feel yur pain! It would be nice to acquire parts that way, but it's also a good idea to test them before losing an option for a reseller refund. Otherwise, if troubles surface, you're going to fill out an RMA ticket with the manufacturer.

Such a generous father you are!

Aw thanks.. thats very kind of you to say!! Really though I am just a cheapskate at heart and rarely buy special high ticket items,but things you do for your kids huh.. Anyways my X79 mobo showed up today. Totally unexpected too.I paid ground and it arrived next day.Oh Happy day for me I will post some pics when I get back home in a couple hours. Now I have to wait till wed for my ram and friday for my x99 mobo.I hate waiting LOL!!

 

[YBS1]

Aw thanks.. thats very kind of you to say!! Really though I am just a cheapskate at heart and rarely buy special high ticket items,but things you do for your kids huh..

Haha, that was in a round about way part of my reason to get the 5960X. Now my 5GHz capable 3930K pulls Call of Duty and Lego Whatever-game duty for my seven year old. As soon as I decide what cards to upgrade to the Classifieds will probably shift down to him as well. I just have to shake my head in bewilderment when I see it sitting there and him playing Minecraft pocket on his Nabi....all that power wasted. :|

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Haha, that was in a round about way part of my reason to get the 5960X. Now my 5GHz capable 3930K pulls Call of Duty and Lego Whatever-game duty for my seven year old. As soon as I decide what cards to upgrade to the Classifieds will probably shift down to him as well. I just have to shake my head in bewilderment when I see it sitting there and him playing Minecraft pocket on his Nabi....all that power wasted. :|

Yep same here my friend, my daughter sits there and plays crap games like lego's whatever,Minecraft,RoBlox and web based games on Disney and NickKids. She has some really good A+ PC games too but do you think she will play them? Hell no!!Just like the damn Wii-U she just had to have but oh no it just sits there and collects dust.I would play it more my self if they would ever release some more darn games for the thing.Anyways personally I just found out about steam not to long ago and we are starting to build up a pretty good library of games,so thats one of the main reasons for my upgrade.Right now I am using a AMD A10-7850K and its ok for simple things but I was needing more Ummph in my rig.As for my daughter, I am upgrading her rig as she will need it for the rest of high school and hopefully it will last through college god willing she goes. :whiste: