Intel BOXDX79SR or ASUS Sabertooth X79

[Aesin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121621
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131801

Im building a new x79 system and I am trying to decide between these two boards. Which one would be a better pick?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

In theory the ASUS board should overclock better.

However the Intel board has a passive chipset heat sink, that makes me happy vs the ASUS mobo that has a fan.

I'd go with the Intel board because of price and the passive heatsink unless I was planning on some serious overclocking.

 

[Aesin]

can you explain about the passive chipset heat sink?

 

[dawp]

simply put, a passive heatsink has no fan on it. it get its cooling from air movement in the case alone.

 

[Vectronic]

Likewise, I'd go for the Intel... like mentioned "in theory" the ASUS would overclock better, but not because the quality of the board and components, but more so because of the BIOS/UEFI.

The Intel is actually built a bit better than the ASUS, but the ASUS will allow for a bit more fine-tuning regarding voltages and settings in general. However, most of those fine-tuning settings you never touch anyways... but, it should have better fan control, which can be a pretty significant feature.

 

[BrightCandle]

Bare in mind the Asus has q-fan. Basically you can set the fan to whatever you want (off or 100% or dependent on temperature etc). You don't need to avoid it because of the fan noise.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Intel motherboards have excellent fan control with all headers supporting both dc and pwm control. The bios control options are very good too.

On Asus boards the cpu fanheader supports only pwm fans. The casefanheaders have artificial limits in bios (can't set lower than 60%). FanXpert 2 offers a bit more control but litters the system with services and is also pretty buggy, often spewing nonsense warnings. Don't even think about uninstalling, you'll have to manually go through the registry to really get rid of it.

So no, fancontrol isn't better on Asus boards. They probably will overclock a little better, especially ram and it's easier to find similar systems for comparing. The Intel board will still oc quite good though.

 

[x2ezx]

Just for the bios/uefi, Asus.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Just for the bios/uefi, Asus.

Have you seen the Intel Visual Bios? Or are you talking about actual features? If so, please elaborate.

 

[UNhooked]

Dunno anything about the intel board but my Asus has been a joy to work with. The fan noise doesn't bother me since I have 9 other fans in my system.

 

[tweakboy]

Dunno anything about the intel board but my Asus has been a joy to work with. The fan noise doesn't bother me since I have 9 other fans in my system.

Wooah 9 fans jet sound
woooah

Tell me couple reasons why you want a close to 400 dollar motherboard ?

Do you do video editing or audio production, how much ram you need. Do you even know what Sabertooth is and why someone should get it ?

Go with a intel I smell noob.

 

[ronss]

i would go with the asus board, builds some of the higher performing boards in the x79 line...the asus has 5 yr warranty, intel 3yrs. intel is getting out of the enthusiast market soon too....the asus board has thermal armour which kicks cooling up a notch...also, some of the hardware on the asus board is military style tough compents...
i would have to say this is one of the better intel boards built in awhile, and if you got it,,,its probably a nice board to have. but i am going with asus

 

[tweakboy]

ASUS IMO and their tech support works its just not the best in the industry. pownz!