Which sub $400 x99 board?

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Neoash1

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Jun 22, 2015
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Hi everyone,
Finally going to be building a new system! Have outgrown my x58 i7 920 for a long while now.
Going with the 5820k - I game/stream maybe 2-3 times a month. I mostly do a lot of multitasking with my machine now including the occasional virtual machine or batch processing RAW photos. Starting to get into video editing as well, so that's what lead me to the six core.

I definitely want to OC to the 4ghz range. Nothing extreme; just enough to get the single core performance up a bit. Which of these motherboards should I go for? Would prefer to grab a board in the $250-300 range but should I consider something in the $360 range? If so, why?

Currently looking at: MSI X99A KRAIT Edition ($250) - MSI X99A MPOWER ($299) - Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ($265)

If you guys suggest spending more, I was looking at these: Gigabyte GA-X99-GAMING G1 Wifi ($369) - Asus X99-PRO ($340) - MSI Gaming X99S Gaming 9 ACK w/o USB 3.1 ($369)
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
Yes, I think the extra 20 bucks is worth it. The higher you get in clock speed, the more unstable the system is likely to be so having a high clock speed AND a low latency, becomes problematic. Most kits will trade latency for clock speed because it's likely to remain more stable plus higher clock speeds look better on package marketing than latency does. Also, DDR4 is relatively new at these speeds, so it will also take time for manufacturers to get latency down on higher speed modules. The QVL lists are useless. They are only representative of a few models that were actually tested by the OEM, not representative of what will actually run on the board or is compatible. Typically, there is little reason to suspect any other model with...
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For the best balance of budget, features and reliability, this would be my choice. The Krait, Mpower and A boards are all fairly middling models and if you're going to pay for this chipset you might as well get the performance and features it's intended to have, not something that's stripped down. Normally I'd recommend most all of the ASUS "A" models as good budget options, but in this case the reviews show this board to not offer great overclocking potential.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH X99 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($308.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $308.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 12:52 EST-0500
 
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I kind of skipped past this board due to the "Thermal Armor" - it looks obnoxious and I doubt it's functionality. It doesn't support the higher frequency RAM like the others, but I have yet to choose my RAM yet so this may not be an issue. I know the high OC ram suffers drawbacks from higher latencies anyways.
I will put it into consideration especially at $309! Ty!
 
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I can understand those concerns, most of these X99 boards were built before there were higher speed modules, but apparently bios revisions have improved that as the QVL list for this Sabertooth board shows support for modules up to 3333mhz.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/X99-A/X99_Series_DRAM_QVL_20160115.pdf


Also, the thermal armor can be removed. Still, I get it, you don't like that board. In that case, this would probably be my next choice as it has very good reviews, support for USB 3.1 and the type C connector, and very good overclocking potential.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7168/asrock-fatal1ty-x99x-killer-3-1-intel-x99-motherboard-review/index11.html


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer/3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($303.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $303.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 13:40 EST-0500
 
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I would actually prefer the Thermal Armor of the Asus to the excessive red color scheme on the ASRock. Plus, I'm weary of the quality of Support a "newish" manufacture like ASRock will provide 5+ years into the future for their older products.
After looking at the manual for the Asus; it states "Hyper DIMM" support is dependent on the CPU and to refer to the mentioned QVL list (which actually has a lot of options). So I'm less concerned with that constraint of the board. It appears to support many OC memory kits it's just not advertised like the others. The Sabertooth also has a 5yr warranty instead of 3yr (a nice perk in my mind). I will further consider the Sabertooth and read thru some reviews of it!

Any other suggestions? At most in 2-3yrs I may do a two card SLI setup (currently have a single 970); not sure if I should be concerned the Sabertooth only has 2x PCI 3.0 slots?
 
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Do you think it would be a poor choice to get a non USB 3.1 board? I realize the standard is in it's infancy and there really isn't devices yet. But I will likely keep this board for 4-5yrs from now.
 
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I haven't found a use for it on my Z170 board yet as there are few devices, but once they hit the mainstream, which will probably start happening soon enough, you'll probably wish you had that feature. On the other hand, there are a lot of devices that work perfectly fine to this day with USB 2.0. Unless you plan to use fast external storage it might not even be worth worrying about.
 
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Update!
I narrowed it down to the MSI MPower and Asus Sabertooth....until... I visited my local Micro Center and found a couple open box w/ full warranty Asus x99-PRO-USB 3.1 for about $290. I think that's what I'm going to go with unless you suggest against that board?

Also I'm going to pick out and order my RAM tonight... any suggestions on that?
 
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Actually, that's a pretty good board and the only reason I don't normally recommend it is because what it offers isn't always worth the additional cost. In this case, if there is nothing wrong with it and it has the full warranty, I'd say that's a good choice.

As for RAM, stick to G.Skill. If you REALLY want quality memory, stick to G.Skill Trident Z which uses much higher quality memory chips than it's Ripjaws series modules or just about any other comparable module in it's price range. I don't think I'd go with anything over 3000mhz as it's unlikely you'll be able to get it stable at higher speeds without a fairly serious overclocking procedure on the CPU anyhow. You'd also have to probably do a good deal of fiddling with the memory settings for a fairly small gain anyhow. Anything between DDR4 2133mhz and 3000mhz should be perfectly fine.
 
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Ahh I see. Good to hear. The x99-Pro is pretty aesthetically boring to me but it has great reviews and the price is right!

So you think it's worth an extra $20 for the Trident Z kit vs the Ripjawz? Also curious as to why very few CAS 14 kits are listed on the QVL... maybe they're just newer at this frequency?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232203
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232215
 
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Yes, I think the extra 20 bucks is worth it. The higher you get in clock speed, the more unstable the system is likely to be so having a high clock speed AND a low latency, becomes problematic. Most kits will trade latency for clock speed because it's likely to remain more stable plus higher clock speeds look better on package marketing than latency does. Also, DDR4 is relatively new at these speeds, so it will also take time for manufacturers to get latency down on higher speed modules. The QVL lists are useless. They are only representative of a few models that were actually tested by the OEM, not representative of what will actually run on the board or is compatible. Typically, there is little reason to suspect any other model with the same specs as one on the QVL list won't also run on any given board so long as the module is from a reputable manufacturer.
 
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Solution


I thought the QVL lists were "best effort" aka not kept current with available kits. Thnx for clarifying that. Never referenced them in the past; should have known xD
Considering my modest overclocking goals... do you think I should get 15cas RAM instead? I can always underclock that Trident Z set right (as opposed to OCing dimms)?
 
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Yes, underclocking is always permissible. A set of modules rated to run at a much higher speed, will almost always have zero issues running at lower speeds and will usually do it with very little effort since they are designed for a higher level of stress. Always better to buy higher than you actually need, or what you actually need, then to get something lighter and try to go big.

Also, you absolutely can get something like 3300mhz 15cas and then run them at 3000mhz or less with a much tighter timing set. The lower you configure the clock speed, the lower you can theoretically set the latency which will somewhat offset the loss of clock speed anyhow.
 
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Sounds good. Went with the Trident Z kit and ordered my h100i cooler from newegg! Will pickup the cpu/mobo later this week and build it this weekend hopefully. I will update ya once it POSTS 😀

Thanks Darkbreeze for all your help!
 
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