ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF/Intel RTS2011LC compatibility

branny712

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Oct 17, 2009
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Hopefully someone can help me with this. I purchased an ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF motherboard, an Intel i7-3930K CPU, and the Intel RTS2011LC Thermal Cooling Solution. The motherboard and CPU are installed and I was getting ready to install the RTS2011LC which is one of two cooling options recommended by Intel. The other is just an Intel CPU fan. When I downloaded and read the manual, it says that the cooler requires a Unified Back Plate (UBP). The motherboard's back plate is marked as BP, not UBP. Intel said not to install the cooler if the motherboard did not have the UBP but to contact the motherboard manufacturer. ASUS support was not very helpful. I chatted with ASUS and they tell me that the Sabertooth X79 does not have a UBP and they do not support third party components. I would think they would be able to provide a UBP, but apparently that is not an option as far as they are concerned. The ASUS support rep also told me that I do not need liquid cooling because the TUF motherboard includes as a special feature:
Ultimate COOL! Thermal Solution :
- TUF Thermal Armor
- TUF Thermal Radar
He also said that I could install additional fans in the case. I was told that if I installed the Intel cooler, if there was a problem with the motherboard, it would be considered customer damage. I really would like a self-contained liquid cooling system since I read complaints that the fan does not cool the CPU, but Intel says using another brand could possibly damage the CPU and possibly void the CPU warranty. The lady from Intel that I talked to yesterday said to try the included back plate but I did not want to open the box where it can't be returned if it doesn't fit. After looking at the manual, Intel's included back plate is for the LGA 1155/56, LGA 1366 sockets not the LGA 2011 socket. Is anyone familiar with this motherboard and have any idea if I would have adequate cooling with the fan rather than a self-contained cooler? Apparently this is the only ASUS motherboard compatible with the Intel i7-3930K CPU. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 

ODuron

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Jan 31, 2013
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I've been using the ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF motherboard, an Intel i7-3930K CPU with 32GB of DDR3 for about 9 months now. The CPU was running at 4170MHz with idle temps around 40C. That's using a Corsair H80i system, loaded temps around 50 to 52C. I think the H80i is great hardware, the H100i would probably be even better depending on how far you were planing on overclocking. There are other liquid cooling systems that are probably just as good if not better. My H80i just had the pump go bad, it was only 9 months old. I had other issues with the Corsair Link software, the software had conflicts with the RSTe driver and the Sabertooth BIOS monitor software, thus thinking of a different brand for liquid cooling. But in the mean time I ordered a Hyper 212 EVO air system to get by with. As to your question, the liquid cooler came with all the needed mounting hardware, back plate was not required. Never heard of a UBP being required, 'malarkey' I say to the UBP.
 

mc962

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Jul 18, 2013
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Thermal radar is a program that comes with ai suite, it's basically a fan monitor/adjust and temperature monitoring program with a fancy ui that you can use in windows. They also give you 3 thermistor cables that you can plug into the board and put in any places you want to check temperatures (so like an hdd temperature, a specific area on the board, etc.).

Thermal armor is a bit of a gimmick, I don't really feel like it raises temps instead of lowering them like many say (doesnt really seem to be raising anything on my z87 sabertooth), but I don't really think it helps cooling like they say by "channeling the air to where it needs to go". I liked it because it was my first build and I was nervous about my clumsy hands knocking something out or dropping a screwdriver. But if that isnt something you like then i wouldnt recommend the armor if it's optional as it can actually make it a bit annoying to get the motherboard screws in. I don't know what they are talking about when they say they don't support 3rd party coolers; like was mentioned above the hyper 212 evo works perfectly fine.

I don't see how those features the rep mentions mean that liquid cooling is un-needed as they don't really do so much for cooling compared to a better cooler, but you could always just get a good aftermarket air cooler that is supposed to be compatible with that socket. I also think intel has some sort of "Tuning Plan" which is sort of like an accidental damage plan for the cpus from what i understood; might be something to check out if you want to spend the money