X79 Mobo Suggestions?

EpsilonZer0

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
106
Well the dust has finally settled from the X79 launch with all the players on the field and its time for my X79 upgrade.

So far my favorites are the

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

ASRock X79 Extreme 9

Gigabyte G1 Assasin 2

Each has their own price points and Pros + Cons.

I plan to do 3x Radeon 7970s and at least 16GB of Ram.
Further expansion would be nice but not necessary.

I also would like a decent sound processor having lived with Realtec Codecs for the better part of 4 years. :(

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
Subscribing... I'm really torn between the Asus Rampage IV Extreme and the Gigabyte G1 Assassin 2 myself.

Pros for Gigabyte:

1) Has the creative premium audio chip which seems to be a cut above the Realtek on the Asus according to reviews. I also like the high grade caps and EMI shield around them even if it is a placebo.
2) Has the bigfoot nic. I'm sure many will debate this but the reviews I've seen show it DOES cut down on gaming latency, even if it's only a few nanoseconds it's still an advantage.
3) Cheaper than the Rampage

Cons for the Gigabyte:
1) Well, it's not an Asus...
2) I prefer a more understated design (READ: I don't like the gun heatsinks).
3) In some reviews it has been said that their UEFI BIOS is laggy and lacks in some options.
 
ASUS P9X79 WS - it has enough PCIE Slot to run 3 GPUs and an extra PCIE Creative Soundcard for the BEST AUDIO. The motherboard that has onboard Creative X-fi chips are in fact software emulated, not true hardware creative audio.

What's more the ASUS board has true Intel hardware gigabite ethernet controller that is far superior than anything else out there.
 
I'm taking the plunge next week. Either the WS or Rampage for me. I love gigabyte boards, but I just can't pay $400 for something that looks like a kids toy.
 
ASUS P9X79 WS - it has enough PCIE Slot to run 3 GPUs and an extra PCIE Creative Soundcard for the BEST AUDIO. The motherboard that has onboard Creative X-fi chips are in fact software emulated, not true hardware creative audio.

What's more the ASUS board has true Intel hardware gigabite ethernet controller that is far superior than anything else out there.

The ASRock board does come with an actual Creative sound chip, infact its one of the newer ones if im not mistaken. One of the main reasons I chose it as a favorite.

You are right though that the Asus WS has the superior Intel NICs but the Gigabyte and ASRock boards have great NICs aswell.

BUT the Asus WS will only do Tri SLI/CF in 16x/8x/8x whereas the Asus ROG and ASRock will do 16x/16x/8x, which has shown to make a 3% difference. Not alot but something to think about.
 
The ASRock board does come with an actual Creative sound chip, infact its one of the newer ones if im not mistaken. One of the main reasons I chose it as a favorite.

You are right though that the Asus WS has the superior Intel NICs but the Gigabyte and ASRock boards have great NICs aswell.

BUT the Asus WS will only do Tri SLI/CF in 16x/8x/8x whereas the Asus ROG and ASRock will do 16x/16x/8x, which has shown to make a 3% difference. Not alot but something to think about.

Interesting the ASrock do include a standalone PCIE card that have the latest creative Core3D audio card. The only thing I am wary about the ASRock board is the chipset fan, which could be very noisy and prone to early failure. Another plus on the ASUS WS board is the chipset and VRM cooling, which is all heatpipe connected and actually uses many aluminium fins (lots of surface area), similar to that of the high end video cards and I never see my motherboard temp go above 50C and I only have a very slow spinning 180 mm fan on the top of the case.

I thought the WS board can do x16 x16 and x8 - maybe I need to check the manual again but I don't plan to run 3GPUs anytime soon haha.
 
love my extreme9 so far. and I don't notice the noise of the chipset fan at all. and the new soundblaster is pretty nice. definitely beats realtek
 
Asus rampage iv formula. Comes built in with supreme fx III audio. And it's an asus.
 
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