Insights on X79 LGA-2011 motherboards

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm planning to build a new machine this year, and it won't be a Haswell. Nor do I want to wait for Haswell-E. And I know for the latter there will be a "new" socket-2011 that won't work with an IB-E processor. [but that should be obvious now . . . ]

I've got spare components in my parts locker that will help me "slow the flow" of my dollar-outlays and allow me to take my time constructing and testing the system.

So I'm looking at the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard. I had shelled out for a top-end motherboard in the past, but if it was a mixed-bag of features, it was my own fault that I picked it.

I'd also been very lucky picking my SB-K LGA_1155 motherboard. It was a great board for being in the ASUS midrange for around $220.

I'd be interested in comments about "best X79 motherboard" and any serious tech-lab reviews. I'm partial to ASUS after my last build, but interested in other options. For instance, there's the EVGA "Classified." There's an ASRock "Extreme."

I always check the Egg's customer reviews and those elsewhere when I can find them, but this has always been an exercise I take "with a grain of salt." Often, I find high-end and other boards that get an Egg profile of 50% 5-egg, and inordinate percentage (15 to 20%) 1-egg. People are more inclined to post reviews when they're disgruntled. Of course, you might read these 1-egg posting just to see if there's a pattern in defects, "DOA," etc.

So lab-review articles are essential. So are personal experiences from people with "forum veteran" reputations, long memberships or just an apparent mastery of the technology.

AFTERTHOUGHT: One thing I'd like to be sure of for the moment. I just want to test components when I place my order, install an OS and get familiar with the BIOS. I will wait at least until April to decide about cooling. Meanwhile, I have a Hyper-212 new in the carton. If I don't play much with the voltage and clock settings initially, I would guess that it will be "adequate." But has there ever been a problem with using a heatpipe cooler on these boards if the RAM isn't 2" high?

I have to fill four sockets -- two on each side.

Of course, I already found this here at Anandtech, posted last month, I think:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7612/asus-rivbe/8

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Mmmm. . .. several hours, no responses.

I've read more reviews in interim.

Looks like the best out-of-the-box choice may be the X79 Deluxe . . . Don't want to accommodate an EATX motherboard and the full-tower it will require. Or -- the RIVBE price-tag. The X79 De-lucks looks to have been released after middle this last 2013 year.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would love to comment, but I know pretty-much zip about the socket 2011 platform. (Other than it uses X79 chipset and quad-channel DDR3.)

Edit: I am interested in Haswell-E though. Curious what new platform features are going to be available for the 2011-3 platform (as opposed to straight 2011, they are different).

 

[moonbogg]

I don't know what the best board is or if it even means anything to label a board "best" since any big brand, quality board will suit you well. I use an Asus P9X79 Pro and its been perfect and provides stable overclocks as high as I can get my chip and keep it cool. The extreme board you mentioned would be great and a friend of mine just bought one and he loves it.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I've been thinking about where I'll go when my x58 gives out and x79 is the only logical choice. I've been running evga mb's in my systems for several years now with good results and their support is unmatched. If I move to x79 I'll use their x79 dark mb and slap an ek water block on it. I'll just recycle my hk 3.0 cpu block and go from there.

 

[guskline]

My lga 2011 specs are in rig 1 below. The Asus Sabertooth X79 mb is SOLID and OCs well.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

My lga 2011 specs are in rig 1 below. The Asus Sabertooth X79 mb is SOLID and OCs well.

I'd had my eye on the Sabertooth as well. Moreover -- Moonbogg's report on his P9X79 Pro is welcome information.

Since I started taking more time to weigh these purchasing and selection decisions after 2007, I find it amazing that good motherboards get a shabbier cus-review statistical profile at the Egg than some other types of products -- consistently, over the years. Part of it derives from "people don't know what they're doing." Another part from the bias toward bad reviews from the disgruntled -- who have more of an incentive. It's useful information, but one needs to know how to interpret it.

You can correct me, but the other two boards mentioned by our colleagues (and still under my consideration) were released earlier in the X79-chipset life-cycle. I saw some reporting a need to update BIOS to accommodate Ivy-Bridge-E.

I think the X79 deluxe board I'd mentioned was released this last summer. Probably why it has less than 30 reviews at the Egg. That would mean no extra complications for IB-E.

I'm really determined to take my time on this. But I also realize that I'm making a "new build" from a processor and chipset from "before Haswell." I'm not sure when I'd need to start worrying that parts won't be available if I take too long putting it all together. I'm pretty sure I have many, many months, though . . .

 

[adairusmc]

I have a P9X79 LE waiting for me when I get home this evening. Its a cheaper board, and while I would have loved a sabertooth the LE looks to have everything I need for my 4930k.

I can post some impressions on the LE model once I get to building it, if you want. There are not many reviews other than customer reviews on newegg and amazon on the LE model.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have a P9X79 LE waiting for me when I get home this evening. Its a cheaper board, and while I would have loved a sabertooth the LE looks to have everything I need for my 4930k.

I can post some impressions on the LE model once I get to building it, if you want. There are not many reviews other than customer reviews on newegg and amazon on the LE model.

Well, howsoever I finalize my list and put in the order eventually, I'd really appreciate that.

I was reviewing Maximum PC's take on the IB-E in their December issue. Their comparison list includes SB-E, regular IB and Haswell. I still think this is the way I want to go. At least the overclocking limitations haven't anything to do with the fabrication process and the TIM putty. Even so -- the magazine and other sources don't think the TIM was ever the problem with the OC'ing limits on the regular cores.

Meantime, six cores . . . maybe the last project I'll undertake for a long time.

 

[adairusmc]

I got the P9x79 LE running today at lunch, and so far it is flawless. The BIOS flashback is an awesome feature, I had to flash the bios to get it to recognize the 4930K I put in there (SB-E worked fine with the shipped BIOS, IB-E needed a flash).

After installing windows, I played around with some overclocking and got it to 4.4Ghz, and after about 30 minutes of testing it was prime stable (had to go back to work, but it is still testing).

Pay no mind to the cable tie on the water tubes, I did that temporarily due to one of the tubes wanting to tough the fan blades on the rear-exhaust fan with the side panel off.

I will try to push for more if the 4.4Ghz OC is stable. Running stock voltage for now.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I got the P9x79 LE running today at lunch, and so far it is flawless. The BIOS flashback is an awesome feature, I had to flash the bios to get it to recognize the 4930K I put in there (SB-E worked fine with the shipped BIOS, IB-E needed a flash).

After installing windows, I played around with some overclocking and got it to 4.4Ghz, and after about 30 minutes of testing it was prime stable (had to go back to work, but it is still testing).

Pay no mind to the cable tie on the water tubes, I did that temporarily due to one of the tubes wanting to tough the fan blades on the rear-exhaust fan with the side panel off.

I will try to push for more if the 4.4Ghz OC is stable. Running stock voltage for now.

We had touched base on a similar matter before, I think, back in 07 when you had a board similar to my Striker!

I may "do H2O" this year, but not until after I've built the machine. AigoMorla may throw up his hands and say I'm "getting cold feet," but I want to see what the new "double-U14S" Noctua cooler looks like performance-wise -- hopefully in April. If I spring for the other parts before then, I have a Hyper 212+ new in the carton from a couple years ago just to test those parts. The free socket-2011 bracket upgrade is in the mail from CM, or so they say.

So! At this preliminary 4.4Ghz overclock at merely stock voltage, what was your average among the core temperatures under load? Or the range of those temperatures -- or even the biggest?

Also -- does the board have a socketed BIOS chip, or is it soldered in? I'm only guessing that I wouldn't need an SB-E initially to flash the BIOS if the IB_E is put in there first, but I wouldn't be able to say. I think I'd gotten into a slight pickle a few years back with that dilemma, needing to have a compatible chip to complete the process -- but my memory fades. The little extra expense of ordering a BIOS revision as a PLCC chip from ASUS would make things much easier.

Maybe new BIOS flash features eliminate that problem, but like I say -- I wouldn't know.

Looking at the reviews for the X79-Deluxe, the Rampage and some other boards, I saw tests with the H100 cooler showing overclocks reaching 4.6, sometimes (the Rampage boards) 4.7. But -- despite some published assertions that OC's are processor and RAM limited, some boards like the Rampage IV Extreme or Formula seem to do just a little better. Like I said, though, I don't want a situation where I must accommodate EATX, so getting the very maximum overclock is not a priority.

 

[adairusmc]

I thought I recognized your username.

Yes, that 4.4Ghz overclock is at stock voltage. average temps are about 30C idle, and the highest temp at load with prime95 I have seen so far is 71C on that loop.

I cannot say it is fully prime95 stable, as I left for work with it still running prime95, but after about 12 hours so far it has not had a problem.

As far as the board BIOS, you do not have to worry now with the flashback feature on these Asus boards and getting IB-E to work. I had to update the BIOS on this before I could get it to recognize the CPU, and I did not even have to have the CPU in the socket to flash it. Just put the BIOS .cap file on the root of a USB drive, put it in the designated USB port, and with the board on standby power, hit the bios flashback button for 3 seconds. It took a few minutes, but once the LED light stops flashing, the BIOS update is done. I then proceeded to install the CPU and get it configured. BIOS flashback needs to be a standard feature on all boards now, it works perfectly.

I am just glad I picked a 2011 compatible waterblock, as all I had to do was change out the screws. You won't regret going with a water setup if that is what you decide to do.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I thought I recognized your username.

Yes, that 4.4Ghz overclock is at stock voltage. average temps are about 30C idle, and the highest temp at load with prime95 I have seen so far is 71C on that loop.

I cannot say it is fully prime95 stable, as I left for work with it still running prime95, but after about 12 hours so far it has not had a problem.

As far as the board BIOS, you do not have to worry now with the flashback feature on these Asus boards and getting IB-E to work. I had to update the BIOS on this before I could get it to recognize the CPU, and I did not even have to have the CPU in the socket to flash it. Just put the BIOS .cap file on the root of a USB drive, put it in the designated USB port, and with the board on standby power, hit the bios flashback button for 3 seconds. It took a few minutes, but once the LED light stops flashing, the BIOS update is done. I then proceeded to install the CPU and get it configured. BIOS flashback needs to be a standard feature on all boards now, it works perfectly.

I am just glad I picked a 2011 compatible waterblock, as all I had to do was change out the screws. You won't regret going with a water setup if that is what you decide to do.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to scour some more reviews, but what you say there is quite promising. You might want to look at another recent thread here concerning the X79 Deluxe. Either the BIOS is not yet "mature," or there's a latency problem that arises from the sheer number of PCI-E lanes.

HERE'S AN AFTERTHOUGHT. Traditionally, there was always about a +/- 5C degree error range in the intel core sensors, so if that's the highest and you have six cores, I could only speculate that your average could actually be in the mid-60's. If I'm right, that's even more promising, I think . . .

Also, if the voltage was "stock" or what arises from the "auto" settings, even that could be more than necessary -- but again -- just speculating and I wouldn't know until I order my own parts and put them through some paces.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've looked at the Sabertooth X79, the various (available) P9X79 boards and this recent 2013 entry -- the X79 Extreme.

I'm looking at the phase power design for all these boards, and the one described as "anemic" in regards to its spec is the X79 Extreme.

Now . . all the "better" boards if rated by that criteria -- a "quantity" -- were released in 2011 or 2012. The X79 Extreme -- as far as I know -- was released last year?

You would think the latest entry would have improvements on the earlier models. And the review article met the phase power design question with "quality trumps quantity every time."

Today, I'm leaning toward the Sabertooth board, but I need to do some more reading. And I wonder whether this "anemic quantity" aspect of the Extreme board represents some technical improvement, or some lax production of an end-of-life chipset.

Another thread on the Extreme board -- echoed as a Newegg customer-review (call it a "cuss review" -- hah!) noted higher DPC latency as it materializes in real-time audio applications. But this could be due to infancy-driver bugs.

Any thoughts? I think those of us who are interested in the IB-E and this chipset have our reasons. Maybe we'd had SB-K cores, chose to be a little behind the curve with IB-E and didn't think we needed integrated iGPU. Or maybe we haven't been that impressed with the Ivy and Haswell Z77 and Z87 offerings. Or we don't want to wait for an eight-core Haswell.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I just wanted to chime in, I have had the RIVE board for a couple years. The only part on mine to worry about is keeping the VRM'S cool with a fan. I have had my CPU to 5200 MHz
http://hwbot.org/submission/2369180_philly_cheese_steak_cpu_frequency_core_i7_3930k_5220_mhz

I can run mine very stable at 5Mhz, water on the CPU. So no worrying about temps. I think you'll be very happy with a Asus board, of course I'm partial :$. I do notice a stability issue with the Sata ports under heavy over clocks, IE losing my Raid.

PS though my postings are few I have been a member here sense 07(jaggerwild) my old name

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I just wanted to chime in, I have had the RIVE board for a couple years. The only part on mine to worry about is keeping the VRM'S cool with a fan. I have had my CPU to 5200 MHz
http://hwbot.org/submission/2369180_philly_cheese_steak_cpu_frequency_core_i7_3930k_5220_mhz

I can run mine very stable at 5Mhz, water on the CPU. So no worrying about temps. I think you'll be very happy with a Asus board, of course I'm partial :$. I do notice a stability issue with the Sata ports under heavy over clocks, IE losing my Raid.

PS though my postings are few I have been a member here sense 07(jaggerwild) my old name

Cool! We're going to ask "What's on the menu today?"

I have the same bias. Some of my colleagues here participated in a very constructive thread in '11 on our overclocks and experiences with various boards. We shared our BIOS screenies. I also remember reading reviews with BIOS screenies. Between the ROG boards and the more mainstream offerings, I like the ASUS BIOS features for the more recent boards going back to before 2011.

I had been really lucky with my Z68 "-V Pro" board released around May of '11: I bought it in JUne; still run the BIOS version released later that year. I had read a lot of reviews. It seemed that there was a demarcation between that model and other "P8Z68" models with a phase power design that more closely matched the Maximus boards.

But that's like saying that with Win XP Pro, you'd expect similar features with Win 7 Pro, or that you would get the same thing jumping from Vista Ultimate to Win 7 Ultimate. Even so, the ASUS model-line releases over the past three years follows a pattern.

Now I've looked into this phase power design issue more closely: A Sabertooth X79 review describes its "p_p_d" as beefy, while the X79 Extreme review suggests that it's spec looks "anemic."

They are BOTH "8+2+2+2" specs!

Some reviews noted the X79 Extreme was "not primarily" an overclocking board, instead poised at users who wanted a "gold standard" for their IB-E platform. But ASUS promotes the "overclock-ability" of the board.

So now, I'm leaning back the other way. Interesting though, that the Sabertooth has a 5yr warranty. Next thing I know, before lunch -- I'll find out that many of them have the same warranty extension.

If the X79 Extreme has "buggy drivers" as implied by someone here on the forums and cus-reviews of others at the Egg, I'm likely to find by the time I'm finished with the project that the driver updates have fixed all that.

UPDATE: Correct myself: When I said "X79 Extreme" I meant "X79 Deluxe." The major difference I find between X79 Deluxe and Sabertooth: the extra Marvel SATA-III ports. Probably a couple other features. As far as I can see, the Sabertooth is the only board with a 5-yr warranty. You'd think -- this late in the game -- the Deluxe would've implemented some unspoken improvements here and there over the Sabertooth -- can't rightly say. I'd take AdairUSMC's demonstration of his LE board as a cost-saving possibility, but the LE has less in the way of phase power design. The Deluxe has ample fan ports.

If I don't place my order right away . . . I could change my mind again . . .