Mobo for 4x GTX 1080

[tclancey]

Hi folks.

I'm trying to spec a high end design and render workstation.

The major need is for 4x GTX 1080 GPU.
64Gb 3200 Ram.
Chip will be an i7 7700k.
(I'd prefer Broadwell 6950x but I can't find a board with the needed 4x GPS slots.)

I've looked at the Maximus IX Apex, but it only supports 32Gb ram, which is a real pain.

I'm not usually a builder and find all the numbers quite confusing! If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Many thanks.

 

[Hamperking68]

If you're going to be heavily into the rendering side of things you would be better looking at a Quadro card.

If you're really serious you could go for the Quadro M6000 which has a whopping 24 Gb of Video Memory.

For the motherboard you would want something designed for workstations. I've personally found the X99E_WS by ASUS is the best motherboard for rendering and design machines. It also has 4 PCI-Express Slots so you could use that 6950x.

 

[Zerk2012]

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99%20WS-E10G/
Your not going to find a Z270 board for 4 way SLI. You need to go to the X99 chipset and processor with at least 32 PCI-E lanes.
Then their this so not sure.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3071332/hardware/its-true-nvidias-geforce-gtx-1080-officially-supports-only-2-way-sli-setups.html
I like the way people see workstation and think you need a workstation card.

 

[Hamperking68]

I like the way people see workstation and think you need a workstation card.

Workstation boards are designed for workstation equipment e.g. Quadro's and ECC memory (Normally).

Engineering programs and CAD programs tend to play much nicer with workstation motherboards which have been designed with the usage of complex 3D designs in mind, not how far they can push crysis.

They are also designed in mind of reducing the chance of errors occuring by using things such as solid caps which ensure the power on the board side of things remains stable. The last thing you would want is to lose you're assembly of 400 parts which you spent the last 20 Hours piecing together.

I like the way people see think all motherboards are the same and don't realise the differences between the way they are manufactured.

Not having a go, just saying as many people in the community are beginning to fall into this mind set of one size fits all.

 

[Zerk2012]

That is the board I listed and said nothing about the board just the old thinking about a workstation video card.
And I listed the wrong board for the CPU.