ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review - Today we review the basic no-frills ASUS X99-A motherboard and see just what ASUS has sacrificed, if anything, in order to keep the price in the $250 range. While Haswell-E CPU systems are not exactly for the budget conscious, saving cash on the motherboard gets you a lot closer to a budget-minded system build.
 
Sooooo let me get this straight...

Sandy Bridge you could expect 4.6GHz with average luck
Ivy Bridge you could expect 4.4GHz with average luck
Now with Haswell we can expect 4.3GHz?

Four years later and we go down 300MHz?

Moore's law is dead.
 
I like seeing the OP AMPs, the optical pre-amps on my X-meridian had some of the warmest sound I have heard in a long time. It should be interesting to see if they become part of the standard...
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Sooooo let me get this straight...

Sandy Bridge you could expect 4.6GHz with average luck
Ivy Bridge you could expect 4.4GHz with average luck
Now with Haswell we can expect 4.3GHz?

Four years later and we go down 300MHz?

Moore's law is dead.
Click to expand...

Except Sandy and Ivy i7's are 4-core CPUs and Haswell-E has either 6 or 8 cores..
 
And I had no issue getting solid performance out of my Core i7-590X at 4.5/3300.
 
Starrbuck said:
Except Sandy and Ivy i7's are 4-core CPUs and Haswell-E has either 6 or 8 cores..
Click to expand...

sandy and ivy also have 6 cores chips... and those can go easy above 4.7ghz with even crap cooling..
 
Nice review, thanks for the overclocking tips.

My x58/920 is getting long in the tooth. Keeping my eye out for that new beast of a build. Probably will upgrade next spring after the x99 mobo's have had some time to percolate.
 
I get that these boards may be good, however my experience with three ASUS X99 Deluxe and one ASUS X99-E WS has left me with a sour taste (like piss sour). The handling and packaging is extremely poor. There is no seal on the boxes and I got at least one X99 Deluxe that was used before (I found human hair in the box and opened accessories). Then the X99-E WS was a reworked board. One of the 8-PIN power connectors was re-soldered manually. Now, I know how to solder properly and not to brag, but I do it very clean and with allot of care. This was however a hack job and the board was also scratched in places. Refurb?

All of these boards were purchased from NewEgg.com and Amazon.com respectively. One of the ASUS X99 Deluxe and the ASUS X99-E WS were both purchased from NewEgg.com, and two of the ASUS X99 Deluxe were purchased from Amazon.com. Out of 4 boards only one of them posted. Did I also mention that one of the boards from amazon dangled so much inside the ASUS factory box that it ripped right through the static bag? Also ASUS can't seem to want to use any foam on these boards, never mind shrink wrap the motherboard boxes.

Here is a hint if someone from ASUS reads this: take a look at how EVGA, MSI and even ASRock boxes their motherboards. I was impressed mostly by EVGA and ASRock. While ASRock uses plastic zip ties to secure the board to the foam on the bottom, EVGA semi-wraps their boards in foam padding before placing them in a sealed antistatic bag at the bottom of the box, where it is firmly secured.

I am not ranting, however I want to make anyone aware of how ASUS ships these boards before anyone considers buying one.

By the way, any chance you guys might review the EVGA X99 Classified and the Z97 Classified? I find it hilarious how much misinformation about the Z97 Classified floats around the EVGA forums, and even their own staff that comments on their forums doesn't seem to know the proper lane assignment.
 
Thanks for the review. I have an X99-A on the way. It should be here this week.
Looking forward to playing around with it, we've got a 5820k and it will be hooked up to a full loop. I'm glad not jumping to the Deluxe wasn't a bad call.
 
Nice review as usual.
Did you get any impression on the overclocking that it was a bios or heat on the chipset maybe that caused some of the problems

has anyone run this board with a 5820k.
overclocking results?

These 2 in combo sound great.
 
sparks said:
Nice review as usual.
Did you get any impression on the overclocking that it was a bios or heat on the chipset maybe that caused some of the problems

has anyone run this board with a 5820k.
overclocking results?

These 2 in combo sound great.
Click to expand...

I do and here is what I got using Dip5

yU0f8M2.png
 
sparks said:
Nice review as usual.
Did you get any impression on the overclocking that it was a bios or heat on the chipset maybe that caused some of the problems

has anyone run this board with a 5820k.
overclocking results?

These 2 in combo sound great.
Click to expand...

I'm using the next model up, the X99-PRO, but I think it uses the same OC socket as the X99-A. Here are my results with the 5820K. 4.5GHz (1:1 Cache)

313564i.png
a1pcn4.png
ei1qc1.png
 
what voltage are you using for the cache to achieve that 1:1 clock speed?
 
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