Gaming Motherboard Choice

Melkor · 20 Jul 2012

I'm looking for parts to build gaming rig that uses the Nvidia's Scalable Link Interface with the GTX 690 to its maximum potential, supports a huge amount of memory , delivers 8 channel (7.1 surround sound) on-board audio , comes with UEFI, PCI 3.0 ready, superior LAN Networking, the best overclocking capabilities (around 6.9GHz with nitrogen cooling), and (of course!) supports the core i7 3770K on a 64-bit windows 7 and , when available, Windows 8 system. After 2 days of intense research, I've nailed the number of motherboards that can support these features down to three:

ASUS IV Rampage Extreme
MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)
ASRock X79 Extreme9

All of them meet the above specifications. But, like all things, each motherboard met the specifications BETTER than its competitors in at least one way:

ASUS IV Rampage Extreme

-Supports 4-way SLI unlike the other two which support 3-way SLI

MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)

-Has a maximum memory of 128 GB. The others support a maximum of 64 GB

ASRock X79 Extreme9

-Crashless BIOS
-Scout Mode (For more information look in the ASRock link posted below)
-Broadcom Dual LAN (For more information look in the ASRock link posted below)

For a high end gaming rig, which one would be the best of them all? (and , no, tech support/customer service is not important)

Here are the official websites
ASUS IV Rampage Extreme: ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
MSI X79A-GD65 (8D): MSI Global ? Mainboard - X79A-GD65 (8D)
ASRock X79 Extreme9: X79 Motherboard Series Manufacturing - ASRock Inc.

fireberd · 20 Jul 2012

Have you looked at the AS Rock Z77 Professional Fatal1ty gaming board?

BigDaddy0790 · 20 Jul 2012

I'd go with the Asus one simply because I have mobo from them and it's great.

bobkn · 20 Jul 2012

You mention the I7-3770k. It's a Socket 1055 CPU.

The boards that you list are all X79 ones (Socket 2011). Completely incompatible with the above.

With the boards that you list, you have 3 basic CPU choices: the I7-3820 (quad core), the I7-3930k (6 core, unlocked), and the I7-3960X (6 core, unlocked, "extreme" CPU, extremely priced at approx. $1k US.)

There are also Socket 2011 Xeons, with as many as 8 cores, but they're intended for server boards. (The Asus P9X79 WS supports them, though.) I know nothing about unlocked multipliers on Xeons, but it seems unlikely.

As regards SLI, I'm not sure whether nVidia's drivers would support more than two 690 cards, regardless of how many PCI-E X16 slots the motherboard has. (Quad SLI" is two 690s (4 GPUs). 8X SLI (four 690s) would be impressive (and expensive), but AFAIK, it's not permitted.

fireberd · 20 Jul 2012

One correction, its an 1155 CPU socket. I just built a new system with an i7 3770 CPU. I considered the 3770K but I didn't need the extra features (and extra cost). My system was built primarily for my recording studio using Sonar X1 recording software.

I was originally going to go with the ASRock Z77 Professional Fatal1ty board. The board I got had a memory socket problem and I replaced it with a Gigabyte Z77X UD5H. But I would still put the ASRock on your short list.

bobkn · 20 Jul 2012

fireberd said:

One correction, its an 1155 CPU socket.

Typo, but thanks.

fireberd · 21 Jul 2012

I figured that, but wanted to make the correction.